Nearly 80 years ago, the call of an umpire rang through the slightly damp air, left earthy after the night’s rain, and into the ears of 500 expectant spectators. It was a call that would cause unprecedented calamity in local summer sports–the call that sparked a baseball brawl.
Sunday, September 21, 1947, marked the culmination of the Kettle Moraine League men’s baseball season: a grand championship between the winners of its northern and southern divisions. After clinching the top spot in the south with a one-game lead over the Campbellsport Belles, the Kewaskum Utensils faced off against the northern division’s dominating Plymouth Cheesemakers in a three-game series for the league title.
According to the September 19 edition of the Kewaskum Statesman, “Many bets were on the Cheesemakers to take two straight, but Kewaskum surprised the dopesters.”
The Utensils upset the Cheesemakers in the first game of the championship at the Plymouth diamond, winning with a score of 10–5 and striking out ten Plymouth batters in the process.
The Utensils’ pitcher, Harold “Mix” or “Mixie” Marx, continued this momentum into the next game at home, amassing 11 Cheesemaker strikeouts. Unfortunately for the Utensils, the Cheesemakers’ pitcher, Hal Koopman, also upped his game, creating a pitchers’ duel that left the game scoreless until the sixth inning.
“Marx led off with a single and [Paul] Kral bunted him to second. [Wayland] Tessar came through with a base hit at the right time that sent ‘Mix’ Marx home.”
With a score of 1–0, tensions among players and spectators ran high, continuing to grow until the final inning when, with two Cheesemaker outs, a “close play at first set off the powder,” and a brawl began.
The Kewaskum Statesman recorded, “On the very last play of the game, first base umpire Schramm called [Arno] Pick of Plymouth out at first on a close play that might have been called either way. The Plymouth team rushed out of their dugout and jumped the umpire. Kewaskum players ran to Schramm’s assistance, and a skirmish ensued. In a matter of seconds, the fans of both teams rushed onto the field and a general melee followed. For almost 15 minutes, the near riot continued with everyone arguing and pushing, and some wrestling and swinging fists. Probably more than a hundred people took part in the melee.”
With the help of “cool-headed fans,” umpire Joe Badura broke up the battle, and the Kewaskum Utensils were crowned the 1947 Kettle Moraine League grand champions. This was the team’s first championship title in the Kettle Moraine League, and it wasn’t the only award they won that year. At the league’s annual banquet on October 18, the Utensils were presented with trophies for the division title, the grand championship title, and the Traveling Trophy Award, which was given by the Sheboygan Press. Along with the trophies, the team received prize money and three baseball bats.
The Utensils’ infielder, Tessar, was also honored at the banquet for having the second-highest batting average in the southern division with an average of .463, trailing the Campbellsport Belles’ Stan Hodge, whose average was .472.
Though it was a season that ended in flying fists instead of home runs, when the dust finally settled on that damp September field, one thing was clear: the Kewaskum Utensils had risen above the rumble, overcome the Cheesemakers, and emerged from the melee as the champions of the Kettle Moraine League. Nearly eighty years later, the echoes of Umpire Schramm’s controversial call still ring out across the pages of area history as the spark that ignited the biggest brawl local baseball has ever seen.
BOX SCORE
Kewaskum, 1 vs, Plymouth
Sunday, September 21, 1947
KEW 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 x 1r
PLY 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0r
KEWASKUM
PLAYER AB R H E
BATTING
Bath (CF) 4 0 1 0
Held (LF) 4 0 0 0
H. Marx (P) 4 1 1 0
Kral (C) 3 0 0 0
Tessar (1B) 4 0 2 1
J.Stautz (3B) 2 0 0 1
Prost (SS) 3 0 1 0
Honeck (2B) 3 0 1 0
C.Stautz (RF) 3 0 2 0
PLYMOUTH
PLAYER AB R H E
BATTING
Lindsay (CF) 2 0 0 0
Verhulst (3B) 4 0 0 0
Finke (LF/RF) 4 0 1 0
A.Meerstein (SS) 3 0 0 0
Richards (2B) 4 0 0 0
Koopman (P) 4 0 0 0
Pick (C) 4 0 1 1
Schultz (1B) 3 0 1 0
LeMahieu (RF) 3 0 0 0
A.Meerstein (LF) 1 0 0 0
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