About Craig Lammers Expertise I can answer questions concerning minor league baseball history, with a solid working knowledge of current minor league baseball. My specialties are leagues of the midwest covering the 19th and first half of the 20th century. As a result of my research and a long standing love of the game, I can also answer questions concerning major league history.
Experience Webmaster, contributer and researcher for a pair of minor league history websites. This involves detailed research at libraries and then applying and analyzing the information into web pages.
Question I am trying to find some information out about my grandfather (William Parma) who was a career minor leaguer in the 1920s / early 1930s. All the information I know is that he was in the minor leagues between 5-10 years, NOT a pitcher, and I believe was in the Cardinals farm system at the time. I also believe that the minor league team he was on was based in Texas - around the Temple area. I am looking for ANY information on him or recommended sources where I could get some information. Thanks!
Answer Kelly, I have no specific information on your grandfather, but can provide some general information and some tips to do a search yourself. You mention that he may have played in the Temple Texas area. If so, that would have likely been the short lived Texas Association a Class D league that operated from 1924-26. Class D was the lowest rung on the minor league ladder, so if he indeed played in the league, it probably would have at the beginning of his career. Generally a player appearing in this league would have been more likely to continue his career in leagues based in that general area of the country. Some of these were the Class C Western Association, the Class A Western League and the Class A Texas League. Cardinal farms in these higher leagues included Ft. Smith Arkansas and Houston Texas. All in all he probably played for teams in several different cities if he had a career of the length you mention. To find more specific information, a good place to start would be the newspaper for your grandfather's home town. If you live near that community, the library should have that paper on microfilm. There will likely be small items about his leaving to join a minor league team and returning home from the season. Also highlights of his seasons may have appeared. If there are older relatives or friends of your grandfather still living, they could also provide hints and if you're lucky maybe a scrapbook on his career. The Baseball guides published during that era included final statistics of most if not all minor leagues. The national baseball paper of that era; "The Sporting News" is also a good source. They often published those same averages during the winter, and during the season had columns of news and notes for the lower minor leagues and more extensive coverage of the higher minors (including box scores of the games). Those resources are available at the Sporting News offices in St. Louis (open to the public by appointment) and at the Notre Dame University Library in South Bend, Indiana. For details of the Sporting News archives, you can visit www.sportingnews.com (if that address doesn't work conduct a quick search). Through that you can also ask questions, that they're sometimes able to answer via e-mail or U.S. mail. When you find out where he played in a given season, the paper in the city he played with should also be a good detailed source of the day to day aspect of his career. Again those newspapers would be available on microfilm in the library of the given city.
