The Decatur Commodores were a professional minor league baseball team based in Decatur, Illinois that played for 64 seasons. The Commodores are the primary ancestor of today's Kane County Cougars. They played, with sporadic interruptions, from 1900 to 1974 in a variety of minor leagues, but spent the majority of their existence in the Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League (the "Three-I" League), later joining the Mississippi–Ohio Valley League (1952–1955) and the Midwest League (1956–1974). While they spent most of their years as an independent without formal major league baseball team affiliation, their primary affiliations were with the St. Louis Cardinals and later the San Francisco Giants, with isolated affiliations with the Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies.

The ballparks The Commodores played home games at Fans Field (1924–1974). Fans Field had a 5,200-seat grandstand which was demolished when the team moved to Wausau, Wisconsin in 1974 and became the Wausau Timbers. The field is still being used as a softball field.

Before the 1927 construction of Fans Field, the Commodores played at Racetrack Ballpark (1911-1915) and Staley Field (1922–1926). They shared Staley Field with the football team for which it was built, the Decatur Staleys. The Staleys were the early NFL franchise started by A.E. Staley and headed by George Halas that relocated from Decatur in 1922 and became the Chicago Bears.

The Commodores began play at Downing Racetrack (now called Hess Park) in 1901. The ball club played at the racetrack until 1915, but a tornado destroyed the grandstand on July 15. The structure was razed, but the Commies continued to play until ceasing operations on August 10.

Commodores nickname The nickname Commodores refers to Stephen Decatur, for whom the city is named. The team was often called the "Commies" for short, from a time before that became a slang term for "Communist". In their final years, they wore hand-me-down Giants uniforms, although still called the "Commodores", leading some fans to call them the "Commodore Giants".

League Championships 1928 – Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League Champions 1952 – Mississippi-Ohio Valley League Champions 1953 – Mississippi-Ohio Valley League Champions 1957 – Midwest League Champions

No-hitters The following no-hitters were pitched by Decatur pitchers in Midwest League play. +DatePitcherOpponentScoreNotesRef May 31, 1952 Ed Garrett Mt. Vernon 5–1 July 28, 1954 John Bumgarner Clinton 1–0 August 3, 1958 Jerry Fields Clinton 5–0 August 18, 1960 Bob Sprout Waterloo 3–0 22 strikeouts June 20, 1961 Vern Orndorff Clinton 3–0 7 Innings, Perfect Game August 13, 1963 Ollie Brown Wisconsin Rapids 8–0 June 7, 1966 Jesse Huggins Wisconsin Rapids 1–0 7 Innings August 15, 1969 Gary Lavelle Clinton 4–0 7 Innings May 31, 1972 Doug Capilla Appleton 1–0 7 Innings June 12, 1974 Jeff Little Dubuque 1–0 7 Innings

Notable alumni

Baseball Hall of Fame alumni

Carl Hubbell (1927) Inducted, 1947

Other notable alumni

Morrie Arnovich (1949–1950 MGR) MLB AS Ray Benge (1926) Buddy Blattner (1939) Inducted Missouri Sports Hall of Fame (1980) Ollie Brown (1962–63) Don Bryant (1961) Ron Bryant (1966) 1973 NL Wins Leader Bud Byerly (1941) Charlie Case (1908) Bob Clear – 1947 John D'Acquisto (1971) 1974 NL Rookie Pitcher of the Year Rube Dessau (1928–1931 MGR) Murry Dickson (1936–38) MLB All-Star Ben Dyer (1912–13) Ed Figueroa (1970) Jim Freeman (1952–54) First Black Decatur player Tito Fuentes (1963) Heinie Groh (1911) Johnny Groth (1961, MGR) Odell Hale (1930) Ed Halicki (1972) Jack Hamilton (1957) Grover Hartley (1910) Bob Hartsfield (1974, MGR) Beany Jacobson (1903, 1908–09) Oscar Judd (1939) MLB All-Star Eddie Lake (1938) Gary Lavelle (1969) 2 x MLB All-Star Johnnie LeMaster (1974) Dutch Leonard (1932) 4 x MLB All-Star Grover Lowdermilk (1909–10) Bob Knepper (1973) 2 x MLB All-Star Gary Matthews (1969) MLB All-Star; 1973 NL Rookie of the Year Frank McCormick (1935) 8 x MLB All-Star; 1939 NL Runs Batted In Leader; 1940 NL Most Valuable Player Hal McKain (1928) Butch Metzger (1972) 1976 NL Rookie of the Year John Montefusco (1973) MLB All-Star; 1975 NL Rookie of the Year Skeeter Newsome (1932) Jim Northrup (1961) Tom Oliver (1925) Jimmy Outlaw (1935) Claude Passeau (1932) 3 x MLB All-Star; 1939 AL Strikeouts Leader Jim Rooker (1960) Bob Scheffing (1938) Dick Sisler (1941) MLB All-Star Elías Sosa (1969) Denny Sothern (1925) Mickey Stanley (1961) 4 x Gold Glove Max Surkont (1940) Emil Verban (1939) 2 x MLB All-Star Pinky Whitney (1925–26) MLB All-Star

Memorable games May 30, 1909 – The Commodores win a 26-inning, 5-hour marathon over the Bloomington Bloomers 2–1. The 26 innings stays the record for the most innings in a completed professional game in the United States for 57 years.. August 18, 1960 – 18-year-old, left-handed pitcher Bob Sprout of the Commodores pitched a no hitter against the Waterloo Hawks. In that game, Sprout struck out 22 hitters, which stands as the MWL single-game strikeout record. The Commies won by a 3–0 score.

In fiction The Commodores appear in Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series, an alternate history in which aliens invade Earth in 1942 and the Second World War turns into an interplanetary war. Members of the team are on a train which the aliens attack at the beginning of the invasion. One ball player is kidnapped by the invaders and is eventually taken by them to China, while another player and the team's manager escape and join the forces fighting the invasion. A considerable part of the series is described from these three characters' points of view, in which their baseball background plays a significant role in a number of ways.

See also Fans Field - Home of the Commodores

References

External links The Decatur Commodores in the Midwest League One Glorious Season: How Baseball Helped to Integrate Decatur, Illinois