Long shot request - any baseball historians here from Maine who know Maine baseball??
 

I know I've posted this once or twice in the several years I have been a member here but i know we add new members all the time so I thought i'd ask again...

My father (who passed away 15 years ago) told me that he played baseball for the East Side Rinky Dinks in Maine when he was a teen - he grew up in Belfast Maine so I assume "east side" must be somewhere near Belfast, Searsport, Buxton, etc.

I would be incredibly grateful if anyone here has any leads or ideas how I might find out ANYTHING about my dad's old baseball team.

I know this is a longshot - but my DREAM would be to get some background on this team and (OMG!) if I ever found anything related to the team it would instantly become THE best item in my collection!

Thanks for any ideas -

Jeff

Quick google at Newspapers.com brings up 3 articles from Pennsylvania in 1931 or 1951....

Have you tried searching Digital Maine Repository?

Has lots of Maine newspapers....

https://digitalmaine.com/

In addition to the other suggestions, have you considered contacting the Maine Sports Hall of Fame. Some state hall of fames have some librarian and research resources.

Similarly, Senator Collins or King’s State Offices have staff to help constituents. This may be something they could open as a case to look into and report back to you on. Worth a call to their office.

Wonderful suggestions, I will try them all - thx! (If I find anything out, I will post here.. just in case we have any other Maine focused members!)

Every thread deserves a card:

Here are a couple of Mainers in T206: Harry Lord and Bill Carrigan. Set against a backdrop of a Fenway Park photo.

Have you tried the Maine State Archives in Augusta? I made an appointment with them a few years back to research Sockalexis, and it was fantastic.

If I get a minute, I will see if I can find a reference to them somewhere in my archives.

Sean

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Jeff,

I have a HUGE sports library and saw your post awhile back and knew I had a Maine baseball book somewhere.

I finally found it!

If you send me postage I'll give you this book for free!

I quickly looked up Belfast in the back and there are 4 pages refernced. I'm sure some of the other cities represented but dont have the time to read it sorry.

180 pages with some nice pics. Goes back to early 1900s to 1992.

Let me know!

Thanks! Mike

Attachment 610326

Looks like a great book. Hopefully we can find out soon whether baseball was really born in Maine.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

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It surely was. I even have the original egg to prove it. It's considered a "Game Used" egg I believe. It was right there in between the seashells!

:eek::cool:

Here’s my lone contribution to Maine and baseball.

Love it. For anyone interested - ESPN did a 30 for 30 short on Sockalexis called "Deerfoot of the Diamond". It was excellent.

Here's a scorecard from Maine in 1906, with Harry Lord and Eddie Grant in the lineup ...

Wow, what a great offer, Mike... thanks so very much. I'll send you my address via PM now.

You have to love the Net54 community for generosity like this - now you have me thinking how I can pay this forward too

Jeff

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You are very welcome! Please pay it forward by letting us know if you find any "nuggets" in this book. Crossing my fingers for you.

Worst case you can add it to your Maine related baseball items! Take care and book is all wrapped up and ships on Saturday to you!

Thanks!

That's amazing! I research Maine semi-pro ball (as I research semi-pro ball in general) and I really appreciate that.

I would note, however, that it's a 1905 program, not 1906. August 5 was on a Saturday in 1905 and a Sunday in 1906, and Harry Lord didn't play for Portland in 1906; he played for Biddesford and Worcester.

Maine
 

I don't get on here much anymore, but still have some things from early Mains bats and Carrigan stuff.

Jeff i did a super quick search for Rinky Dinks and i chose the year 1947 for MAINE and none of the references to Rinky Dinks was for baseball. Again, super quick search. Heres on article with a lot of names for the football team in case it helps...

Cool, thx Peter!