In the 1940’s and 1950’s baseball was King in the United States. The NFL had yet to reach the fan base it has today and professional basketball was a curiosity that was dominated by a few eastern cities. Baseball was the attention-getter for those interested in sports and it wasn’t just professional baseball because amateur baseball was played in most every city and country town. It was especially true in central and western Kansas.

During that era there was a league in our area called the Ban Johnson League. It still exists in the Kansas City area today but in the 1940’s and ‘50’s it was big-time baseball in the summer months. Teams were known as the Great Bend BJ’s and Larned BJ’s. It was the closest thing to professional baseball in our part of the world.

Players were brought into our communities and housed with fans who were willing to put them up. The team got them summer jobs working with various businesses, city recreation departments and city and county governments always with the understanding that these players’ ball games took precedence over work. Most, but not all, were from various college baseball teams around the country so the level of baseball was outstanding and fans flocked to Larned’s Moffet Stadium and Great Bend’s diamond in the park to root for their summertime heroes.

One of the most dominant leagues in the country was right here in the Golden Belt.  Teams from Pratt, Dodge City,  Great Bend, Larned, Lyons, McPherson, Hutchinson, Salina, Garden City and Liberal regularly made up the league. For a few years LaCrosse also fielded a team. As one can imagine, it took a lot of thought , preparation and work to field a team. Local businesses helped to sponsor these teams and donated time and money for uniforms and equipment.

A number of future major-leaguers displayed their talents in this Kansas Ban Johnson League and many a warm summer evening provided entertainment for these communities. It was a time in this country when baseball was a part of the very fabric of the people and it was before that big enemy,  TELEVISION,  kept people from getting out in their communities and visiting and participating in community events.

Larned and Great Bend always had a spirited rivalry in those ball games and the fans followed their teams back and forth as they played home and away games. Many an umpire “robbed” the visiting team of a victory with a “bad” call!

Local stadiums had the lights on most every evening as in addition to Ban Johnson games, most of these communities also had Babe Ruth age level teams, American Legion teams and a local Town Team that was usually made up of outstanding players that had just gotten a little older but couldn’t quite bring themselves to put the ball, bat and glove down.

BJ baseball though, was the ultimate, the pinnacle. Best players, best athletes, some headed for the pros and some headed to...well, to some Town Team someday but oh gosh, what heady stuff for all of the youngsters in these towns as we hung around the dugouts, hoping to get to be the “bat boy” or to get to chase foul balls while our “heroes” turned away those dastardly fellows from Dodge City, or Garden City or Liberal, Salina, Hutchinson or Lyons.

Baseball our national pastime?  Well, it certainly was during those magical times. Especially Ban Johnson baseball.