Carl Vandagrift, the only Cantrall native to play major-league baseball, played for or managed at least 10 minor-league teams before he died at age 37.
Vandagrift’s big-league career amounted to only 43 games in the short-lived Federal League, which challenged the National and American leagues during the 1914 and 1915 seasons. It folded for financial reasons, although Wikipedia gives the league credit for, for the first time, demonstrating the bargaining potential of free agency. Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs, was built for the Federal League’s Chicago Whales.
Carl Vandagrift, about 1908 (Courtesy State Journal-Register)
Vandagrift (1893-1920), known as “Van” or “Vandy,” batted .250 for the Indianapolis Hoosiers during the Federal League’s 1914 season. Both before and after his Indianapolis stint, Vandagrift bounced around minor leagues across most of the country. He apparently hit with little power, but he seems to have been a slick infielder.
Vandagrift also was valued for his baseball savvy. In a dozen years in the minor leagues, he served several times as a player-manager.
It’s not clear where Vandagrift played high school baseball. At the University of Illinois, it took two unsuccessful tryouts for him to make the baseball team. When he did, though, Vandagrift was named team captain.
E.W. Dickerson of the Rocky Mountain News gave a capsule of Vandagrift’s career in an obituary column in 1920.
In 1905 and 1906, Vandagrift captained and played second base for the University of Illinois team, one of the greatest college baseball teams ever developed in the middle West. He broke into league baseball at Pueblo and played with both the Denver and Pueblo teams of the Western league. At various times he played with the Springfield and Peoria teams of the Three-I league, the Lowell (Mass.) team of the New England and Adrian of the Southern Michigan association. He managed an independent team at Centralia, Ill., one season and operated a business there that was disposed of when he decided to remove to Fort Wayne (Ind.) where he died.
Vandagrift also was a coach at the U of I for a time and was player-manager in Helena, Ark. for a season. As player-manager in Adrian, Mich., he was given credit for turning that team around. A newspaper reportedly said:
Now it was “Van” who made the Adrian team. … About the middle of the season of 1910 Vandagrift came to Adrian and found several good players and some poor ones. He took charge of the team and had it running well when the season closed. …
He filled in the holes in the team with players whom he himself brought to Adrian and the result was that Adrian had the best ball team that the city had ever seen.
Working with local investors, Vandagrift helped re-establish professional baseball in Fort Wayne in 1917. As the team’s president and field manager, he also played a prominent role in trying to reorganize two perennially struggling Midwestern leagues, the Central (with teams from Ohio and Indiana) and the Three-I, whose teams were primarily based in Illinois.
The Fort Wayne team folded again before the 1919 season, and Vandagrift retired from baseball to operate a bowling alley and billiards parlor in Fort Wayne. Vandagrift died after surgery for appendicitis in October 1920. He is buried in Fort Wayne.
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Hi, I’m looking for the full obituary mentioned in this article. Do you have a copy you could email me?
Charlie: There’s an email coming to you shortly. Thanks for reading.
Carl Vandagrift played during what’s called The Dead Ball Era. Power, as we know it today, was scant and low-scoring games were the norm. The spitball was still legal, games used one baseball and parks were where fly balls went to die. It was 560 feet to center at West Side Grounds, the last home of the Cubs prior to Wrigley Field. This era lasted from 1900 to 1919, when a man by the name of George Herman Ruth belted 29 homers. Probably the most famous home run hitter of that era was John “Home Run” Baker, who hit 80 home runs between 1908 and 1919, with his career high of 12 coming in 1913.
Also of note, the Federal League was a very short-lived third “major league” that only existed in 1914 and 1915. Their plan was to compete with both the NL and AL by recruiting such stars of the days as Walter Johnson, which didn’t happen. The Federal League folded after the 1915 season when the owners of the NL and AL bought out half of Federal League owners. One good thing did come out of the Federal League folding: Charles Weeghman, owner of the Federal League’s Chicago Whales, was allowed to buy the struggling Chicago Cubs. Weeghman moved the Cubs in to Weeghman Park for the 1916 season. Weeghman Park first became Cubs Park in 1926, then became Wrigley Field in 1930.
Thanks for all the context, Liz. Hope you’re having a great Thanksgiving.