Paducah’s Unexpected Connection to the World Series

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Early Paducah Resident Barney Dreyfuss Got His First Real Taste Of Baseball Right Here In Our Hometown. He Later Took That Passion And Used It To Create Baseball’s World Series.

by RICHARD PARKER

PADUCAH’S HISTORY IS PACKED FULL of people, places, and stories that have impacted the fabric of America. From Alben Barkley to Isaac Wolfe Bernheim to Irvin Cobb, and John Scopes, the city has seen its share of people who have gone on to make a dent in America’s story. Baseball typically does not come to mind when you think of the city’s history. Believe it or not, the man responsible for baseball’s modern-day success called

Paducah home for eight years. That man, Barney Dreyfuss, would leave our small community and go on to create the

World Series, turning baseball into the sport we know and love today. Impacted from his time here in Paducah,

Dreyfuss returned with his team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, in 1928 to showcase a once-in-a-lifetime game for residents at James Hook field. Dubbed “the greatest baseball day in its history,” Paducah residents watched the Pittsburg Pirates take on the Fort Wayne Chiefs in front of a crowd of around 4,000 residents.

Barney Dreyfuss moved to Paducah in 1882 to take a clerk job with his cousins, Isaac and

Bernard Bernheim, at their wholesale liquor business on North Second Street. Bernheim

Brothers and Uri were successful rectifiers during their time in Paducah. It was here they created their famed I.W. Harper bourbon and won a Gold Medal at the 1885

World’s Fair in New Orleans.

Dreyfuss enjoyed working for his cousins but quickly gravitated to the game of baseball. Union

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troops brought the game with them during the Civil War, often playing games at Fort Anderson (now the location of the Paducah-McCracken County Convention and Expo Center). Later, during the 1880s, several semi-professional teams called Paducah home. It took little time for Dreyfuss to catch baseball fever; lucky for him, plenty of people were playing the game.

At first, Dreyfuss played the game recreationally and preferred second base as his position of choice. Around 1884, he began organizing his teams, including many men who worked with him at Bernheim Brothers and Uri. He successfully organized a team in 1885 by issuing stock certificates for a “Paducah Base Ball Association,” which cost $50 a share. One of these certificates still survives and is archived by the Baseball Hall of Fame, creating a small Paducah connection to the world-famous museum in Cooperstown, New York. When the Bernheim Brothers and Uri made the hard decision to leave Paducah and move their whiskey operation to Louisville, Dreyfuss saw his chance to turn his attention to the business of baseball.

Once in Louisville, Dreyfuss quickly immersed himself into the local baseball scene, realizing he was a better manager than a player. Eventually, with the help of his cousins (Isaac and Bernard), he purchased a share in the Louisville Colonels in 1890. The Colonels were a National League team that, during Dreyfuss’ years as a part owner, boasted players like Fred Clarke, Tommy Leach, Deacon Phillippe, and Honus Wagner. Around 1899, the National League cut their 12 teams down to eight, which moved Louisville to the minor leagues. Dreyfuss saw an opportunity to expand his love of baseball and, with money loaned from Isaac and Bernard, purchased a share in the Pittsburgh Pirates, eventually gaining complete control of the club. Under Dreyfuss, the Pirates won National League championships in 1901, 1902, and 1903. In 1903, he wrote to Henry Killilea, the Boston Pilgrims (now the Red Socks) owner, and they worked out the first World Series as a best-of-nine series. Unfortunately, the Pirates lost 5 to 3 games to Boston, giving the American League the bragging rights as the first World Series winner.

Despite not winning the first World Series, the Pirates were the premier National League team. They won the World Series in 1909 and 1925 along with several National League championships. The team’s success made Dreyfuss a wealthy man. Despite this wealth, he never lost connection with his family back in Paducah. He stayed in touch with his three cousins, Ben, Charles, and James Weille. For years, Barney’s cousins tried to convince him to bring his Pittsburg Pirates to Paducah to show the residents how well he had done for himself. Dreyfuss finally gave in and told his cousins he would bring his team—who had just won the 1927

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National League championship—in April of 1928.

Dreyfuss arrived in Paducah on April 9, 1928, to stay with his cousin Ben Weille at his home in the Rhodes apartments in Lowertown. He was honored at the Hotel Palmer the next day, where the local Lions Club held a luncheon. In addition to Dreyfuss, his son Samuel, Pirates manager Donie Bush, and Fort Wayne Chiefs manager Charles (Punch) Knoll of the opposing team were in attendance. The Pirates arrived from Jackson, Tennessee at 11:30, making their way to James Hook Field, where the game between the Pirates and the Chiefs occurred.

The next day’s headline read, “Pittsburg Pirates Bombard Fort Wayne to Win, 11-1.” The article said that over 4,000 fans witnessed the first big league baseball game in more than eight years since the Cincinnati Reds played the Toledo Mudhens at Hook Field. The Pirates were in control of the entire game, scoring three runs in the second inning alone. After the game, the Pirates traveled to St. Louis to play the Cardinals. The article says the Pirates “entered the National League race as favorites to retain their crown, and from their exhibition here they will succeed.”

The Pirates did not fare that well in 1928, ending the season in fourth place. The Pirates never again won a National League championship or another World Series under the ownership of Barney Dreyfuss. Among the many accolades of his baseball career, Dreyfuss served as the vice-president of the National League, a position he served in until his death at the age of 66. During his funeral, two of baseball’s most famous players, Honus Wagner and Deacon Phillippe—two former Louisville Colonels—served as pallbearers.

This fall when you tune in to the most exciting time in baseball, bear in mind that because of Barney Dreyfuss’s experiences in Paducah, you’re experiencing a world series that just might have been born of Barney’s passion for the game and his impressionable days here in the river city.

The First World Series in 1903 between the Boston Americans and Pittsburgh Pirates.

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