Saturday, March 01

On Feb. 20, 1547, Edward VI was crowned King of England, although his reign was doomed by his woeful immaturity. On Feb. 20, 2025, Josh Jackson -- that's me! -- takes over Benjamin Hill's newsletter, and the forecast for my reign is the same. Lil' Edward was 9 years old, so what's my excuse? Don't worry; Ben will be back next week.

Welcome to The Baseball Traveler. Let’s talk about Minor League Baseball.

In case you've skipped the italicized text above: This is Josh Jackson, whom you know not only as the character who often breaks Ben's flow in this newsletter with a "Josh Jackson Interrupts" section, but also as host of "Ghosts of the Minors," the segment on The Show Before The Show podcast that challenges you to spot the real historical Minor League team or player hiding amidst a couple of phonies. Let's do some ghosting right now!

In the last episode, I asked you which of the following Minor League Baseball teams did, at one time, exist:

1. The Billerica Dairy Boys
2. The Sadieville Piglets
3. The Morristown Roosters

You can go ahead and strut if you picked C, the Morristown Roosters, who were birds of a feather with the other Appalachian League teams of 1923 to 1925. Representing the seat of Tennessee’s Hamblen County, the Roosters picked up the Minor League mantel dropped by the Morristown Jobbers of the 1910s.

The inaugural Roosters team laid an egg. Even though Walt Mittwede led the league with a .344 batting average, Morristown fowled it up like a chicken without its head, going 45-60 to come in sixth of the Appy League’s six teams in 1923. Frank Moffett’s Knoxville Pioneers took the pennant, with Morristown 21.5 games back.

But those Roosters were cock of the walk in 1924. Well into June, Morristown was in first place with a 16-4 record and led the league with a team batting average of .296 AND a collective fielding percentage of .971.

Through the following months, though, the Roosters clucked around and found out. Helmed by player-manager Roy Clunk, they clunked on down to second place in both halves of the season, falling short of a shot at the finals despite Elbert ‘Scotty’ Slayback’s circuit-best 13 homers and Hoyt Williams’ league-leading 1.64 ERA.

The next year, though, there was a fox in the Appy League’s hen house, and its name was bankruptcy. The Roosters had maybe the most trouble taking off at the box office. In late June, Morristown’s revenue stream was a mere fifty-dollar average per home opening, and those Roosters were operating on a wing and a prayer. In fact, they were poised to crow out altogether until the league presented the club’s board of directors with a $2,500 check -- proceeds from the offseason sale of the Knoxville franchise to the South Atlantic League.

But even chicken-scratching a signature onto the back of that fat check couldn’t put the Roosters sunny-side up. On July 15, the circuit disbanded, with the Kingsport Times reporting two days later: “The Appalachian Baseball League became a chapter in the book of things past Wednesday … The immediate cause of the breaking up of the league was the withdrawal of Morristown, which appeared to be positively unable to raise funds with which to continue… However, it is understood that Bristol too was on the verge of sliding out.”

And that’s how the Morristown Roosters met the axe. Now, onto the question for next time. Which of these players really hopped to it in the Minors of yesteryear?

1. Rabbit O’Hare
2. Roo-Roo Stultz
3. Bunny Mick

Want to know the answer? Take a flying leap. Or tune into the next Ghosts of the Minors.

This year, the Arkansas Travelers (Double-A affiliate of the Mariners) are paying tribute to The Little Rock Nine, the Black students who made history right in the Travelers' town by integrating Little Rock Central High in 1957, showing incredible bravery in the face of powerful and ferocious opposition. 

Our own Ben Hill has the story on the Travelers' initiative. READ HERE.

Ever hadda honey dripper?

The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Triple-A affiliate of the Marlins) want you to come learn all about the sweet treat as they suit up as the Jacksonville Honey Drippers during two different home weekends this season -- on May 24-25 and on Aug. 30-31.

Per the team, the honey dripper is "a delicious frozen treat served in a variety of flavors while often including fresh fruit" known by a variety of names across the South. But the name "honey dripper," the Jumbo Shrimp assert, "can be traced to Jacksonville and is one of Northeast Florida’s many illustrious symbols of home, including in the city’s OutEast neighborhood."

Of course, if you can't get to Florida for a taste of the frosty goodness, the Jumbo Shrimp will hook you up with Honey Drippers drip.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to let Ben know how much you've missed him. For now, I fondly bid you adieu with the assurance that I'll be interrupting again before you know it.

Contact Benjamin Hill

View Online

© 2025 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

Please review our Privacy Policy.

You (josh.jackson@mlb.com) received this message because you registered to receive commercial email messages or purchased a ticket from MLB. 

Please add info@marketing.mlbemail.com to your address book to ensure our messages reach your inbox. If you no longer wish to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com, please unsubscribe or log in and manage your email subscriptions.

Postal Address: MLB.com, c/o MLB Advanced Media, L.P., 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.