Published by The Evansville Courier

In 1913, Punch Knoll, former player-manager of the Evas, returned to Evansville as player-manager and Roush was back in center field. The team, the River Rats, was again in the Central League, which enjoyed an excellent year financially. Knoll was voted the club's most valuable player.

In 1915, Evansville won the Central League pennant while moving into a new home, Bosse Field, on June 17. Bosse was mayor by this time and instrumental in its construction. He called it the "biggest minor league park in the world." It was valued at $65,000 and seated 7,180.

Evansville won its first game there, attracting 8,082 fans. With portable lighting over a ring that night, another 1,500 witnessed a wrestling exhibition.

Attendance was poor in 1916-17, and The Evansville Courier declared, "Baseball is dead in this city."

But with World War I over, the game bounced back in 1919, returning with a team in the Three-I League.

In the 1920s, with Babe Ruth dominating the game with his long home runs and the New York Yankees building a dynasty, baseball interest flourished. It succeeded despite the 1920 Black Sox scandal in which seven Chicago White Sox players were accused of throwing the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. By that time, Roush was a well-established member of the Reds, on his way to the Hall of Fame.

In 1925, numbers were assigned to team members, helping fans more easily identify their favorites.

Bob Coleman, acting as agent for the Detroit Tigers, purchased Evansville's team in 1928. A year later, major league ownership was hailed as the salvation of minor leagues, but the local Hubs lost more than $12,000.

The city's Board of Education spent $50,000 to improve Bosse Field in 1930, covering the original concrete structure with brick. The team maintained its affiliation with Detroit and such future stars as Hank Greenberg, Chuck Klein, the Walker brothers - Hub and Gerald - Evansville's own Pete Fox and pitchers Tommy Bridges and Whitlow Wyatt honed their skills here.

After a six-year absence, baseball returned to Bosse Field in 1938, again in the Three-I League with Coleman as manager, and won the pennant as a farm club of the Boston Bees. The team repeated in 1941 but the talent was thinning everywhere as America entered World War II. Pitcher Warren Spahn was among those who played here in the pre-war years.

(Much of the information included in this story was furnished by Jack Wettmarshausen as an independent study project while pursuing his degree at the University of Evansville).