As part of the ongoing research for this site, letters were sent to several former big league players with ties to the old Three Eye. Carl Erskine was kind enough to reply. His letter is reproduced below.

Before the letter, a brief overview is in order. Erskine and Don Newcombe played an instrumental role during the Brooklyn Dodgers glory years of the 1950s. From 1950 to 1957, the organization won an average of 94 games a season en route to 4 first-place and 3 second-place finishes. During that stretch, the two righthanders won a combined 210 games. Erskine spent his entire career with Brooklyn-Los Angeles (1948-1959), going 122-78. In 1952, his 20-6 record topped the N.L. in winning percentage (.769). Erskine threw two no-hitters during his big league career: June 19, 1952 against the Cubs and May 12, 1956 against the Giants. He pitched 42 innings of World Series ball, winning 2 and losing 2. After his retirement, he returned to his hometown of Anderson, Indiana, where he still makes his home today.

Erskine arrived in the Three-I at the end of the 1946 season. In 1947, he led the Class B loop in innings pitched (233) while winning 19 regular season games. Surprisingly, he did not lead the Danville Dodgers in wins. Erskine's roommate Kenny Olsen won 22, though in subsequent seasons he never made it past AA ball. In the opening playoff round, Danville defeated Springfield 3 games to 2. In the championship round Danville lost to Waterloo in five games. 

"I was discharged from the U.S. Navy in July 1946. Mr. Branch Rickey had just signed me in Boston at the Kenmore Hotel (I was stationed at Boston Navy Yard) during the 1946 All Star Game. I left Boston went home to Anderson, IN, grabbed a few clothes [and] my glove and spikes and my Dad drove me to Decatur, IL to join the Danville Dodgers on the road. 

"I pitched my first inning in pro baseball that night in relief. Then I got a start a few days later and did not do well and lost. In fact I lost three in a row. My roommate at the Plaza Hotel in Danville was our third baseman Earl Conklin. I was so discouraged I was ready to go home. Earl gave me several reasons why I should not-including the fact that I wasn't in shape to face a good league which had been playing all season. So I went to the ballpark, just knowing I wouldn't be pitching but I didn't quit. 

"Earl Wilshire a lefthander started for us and was wild-Paul Chervinko our manager called for me to go to the bullpen. In a big hurry and with much surprise I ran down and began to throw, was called into the game, struck out the side and went in to win. That turned my career around and by mid 1948 I was called to the Brooklyn Dodgers.

"The 1946 season was almost over when I joined them so I stayed in Danville through the 1947 season winning 19 and 2 in the playoffs. Then Cuba and Ft. Worth in the spring of 1948. I was making $225 per month (for five-and-a-half months). Bill Ebberly was our business manager. After I had won 11 I asked for a $25 raise. He said I might be able to do that if you'll drive the bus. I said no to that. In late August Bill came to me and said I finally got you that $25 raise-however it's not retroactive, There was just one pay day left so I got $12.50 since pay days were the 1st and 15th.

"The Three I league was a strong Class B league and several players reached the majors from there. I pitched to a few players like Willie "Puddin' Head" Jones in that league and later the majors with the Phillies. Also [Preston] Ward, Toby Atwell, Paul Burris, to name a few, made it to the majors

"I ate most of the meals I paid for at an original Steak and Shake-but the free ones came from Art Ashwell who owned the Manhattan Bar and Restaurant. He always kept a meatloaf on hand and never failed to give me a big sandwich and milk or soft drink. Later I stayed at the Harwall Hotel with Kenny Olsen a fine pitcher and very good hitter-Kenny went as high as AA. 

"Danville was a great start for me and the good fans there super. I still hear occasionally from some and have attended some reunions there. The old ball park has been rehabbed and looks much the same."

During the late 1930s and early 1940s, George M. Frasher cheered on his hometown Raiders as they earned three league pennants in a four-year span. Below is Frasher's thoughtful musings on the Cedar Rapids ball club fifty seasons past.

In 1995, Frasher retired as editor and manger of the Leesville (Louisiana) Daily Leader, the flagship of the News-Leader Inc. newspaper chain. He still pens two editorial page columns for several papers in west and southwest Louisiana. "Raised in a baseball family," Frasher reports, "the old man hacked around in semi-pro, was always a baseball fan dating back to the first night game played in Iowa. Even had a cup of coffee in the low bushes (very brief and very low)." Frasher is the author of several whodunits, including Intrigue in Pine Forest, published in 2000.

"Memories are strange when one approaches seventy-three years of age but in my case some of the fondest are of baseball, particularly the pre-war Cedar Rapids Raiders. My first and most vivid memories of the Cedar Rapids baseball club in the Three-Eye League date back to 1938. I think the Raiders finished in sixth place that year. And I believe it was Clarence 'Cap' Crossley's last year as manager. Crossley was also a player, and he broke his leg sliding into second base during the season.

"Ollie Marquardt became the manager in 1939 and led the team to three pennants from 1939 to 1942, the last season before the Three-Eye suspended play for World War II. The team won the playoffs in 1941 after finishing second in the regular season. In the final year, 1942, the league was down to six teams.

"The Raiders were locally owned and had a working agreement with the Cleveland Indians. Harry Johnson, a municipal judge, was the president of the team. When the Three-Eye suspended play in 1936 due to the Depression, Cedar Rapids had a year or two in the Class A Western League with Des Moines, Sioux City, Davenport, Rock Island, and Omaha. In 1938, Cedar Rapids returned to the reorganized Three-Eye. The league consisted of Bloomington (IL), Clinton, Decatur, Evansville, Moline, Springfield, and Waterloo, in addition to C.R.
 

"Hill Park had a wooden covered grandstand extending from about a third of the way around from first base to third base. There were boxes with two rows of chairs in front. There were bleachers from about third base out toward left field, and some temporary bleachers along the first baseline. The dugouts were field level. The Raiders had a clubhouse just beyond the outfield fence in left center. The visiting team had to dress at the hotel and bus to the park, though Evansville traveled in three station wagons. 

"The scoreboard just in front of the home team clubhouse was tall. In addition to the running score, and lights for balls, strikes, and outs, the scoreboard featured the batting order for both teams. The press box was the box right behind home plate and one man sat there with a telephone to the boy who sat in front of the scoreboard and kept the lineups up to date as player changes were made. 

"The light poles (My dad took me to the first night game back around 1935 or so, but about the only thing I recall was the ice cream bar he bought me.) were inside the outfield fence so any batted ball hitting a light pole was in play. The Cedar Rapids Gazette had a long sign in left field and any Raider hitting a home run over that sign got five bucks. The Chevrolet Garage had a small sign in right field and gave any Raider player hitting a homer over it twenty-five bucks. But there was a light pole right in front of it. 

"You had to buy a ticket to enter the park in a self-standing booth out near the street. But you had to get another ticket if you wanted to sit in the grandstand. And in the grandstand a man sold box seat tickets. I don't remember the exact price for adults but kids got in for a dime to sit in the bleachers. My memory seems to think that the normal gate was in the hundreds. There were some big nights and occasionally the crowd would spill out into the field with fans standing in front of the outfield fence. 

"Saturday night games were often made booster nights when everybody got in to any seat in the park except the boxes for twenty-five cents. Scorecards were free. Behind the grandstand and bleachers-between the school and the park--was a big hill. Lots of folks sat on that hill to watch the games free. If you returned a foul ball hit over the grandstand, two folks got into the park free. There was also a big hill out past centerfield and cars would park up there and watch. Oh, and there was no modern facilities in the park. There were two privies behind the third base bleachers that sort of made one lose his appetite for the ten-cent hotdogs. Players would often go back near the privies and smoke in an inning when they were not likely to bat. 

"Games started at 8:15 p.m. and almost always were over by 10:15 or 10:30 p.m. The local radio station broadcast local games, picking up the action at 9:15 p.m. The announcer was Bert Pucket, who later changed his name to Wilson and became the announcer for the Chicago Cubs (His trademark pronouncements were 'It's a beee-utiful day at Wrigley Field' and 'We don't care who wins as long as it's the Cubs.'). However, in Cedar Rapids the team did not let him broadcast from the park so he would sit on a roof of a house across the street behind right center. We used to joke at his calling, such as: 'There's a long drive . . . the shortstop takes it.' For away games he would also start at 9:15 but would broadcast the entire game by telegraphic report. 

"The Raider players would conduct sessions with the kids. I remember Charlie Workman telling me how to play centerfield. In another session Marquardt gave instructions in playing second base. He was all business, which maybe meant something because later I was a second baseman-except as a manager when I moved to first. Isn't it first where you always put a guy when the legs get a little heavier? 

"The Raider players were real good with us kids. They would sign our scorecards and even invite us into the dugout before the games and into the clubhouse after the game. I do recall some of the visiting teams, too. Decatur wore dark blue uniforms on the road. They were managed by Tony Kauffman who was a Leo Durocher type. He got thrown out of games regularly much to the delight of the C.R. fans. Sometimes the umpire would have to call a police officer to escort him off the field. 

"Bob Coleman managed the Evansville Bees, who always seem to be the Raiders' biggest rival in those days. While Warren Spahn was their ace, he seemed easier for the Raiders to beat than an Evansville lefty named Bob Hazel, who also had a temper. Hazel was a pretty good hitter too, except when tall, lanky Mike Naymick was pitching for C.R. In a double header one night, Hazel lost the seven-inning opener. Evansville got a lead in the nightcap but in the late innings the Raiders rallied and closed the gap. Hazel was brought back to pitch the ninth and never got a man out as C.R. went on to win, Hazel getting charged with both losses. When the winning run scored, Hazel grabbed the ball and heaved it clear out of the park. 

"One player who was especially popular with us kids was first baseman Bob Hershey. He was a good player with prospects, and was happy go lucky. There was a sign in the clubhouse which read, 'Bob Hershey, The Danceland Kid.' Danceland was a popular dancehall in downtown Cedar Rapids. While Cleveland had hopes for Hershey, he entered the service prior to the 1942 season and got terribly shot up. I don't recall whether he was killed or just crippled for life. 

"When the league suspended play after the 1942 season, the local school board rebuilt Hill Park as strictly a football stadium. I played three years there, and we never lost a game to a city league opponent. When the Three-Eye resumed play in 1946, the city had no ball park. By 1949, though, the city had built a state-of-the-art minor league stadium, but there were no vacancies in the Three-Eye that year. So the city got a franchise in the Class C Central Association for the one year. There was an opening in the Three-Eye for the 1950 season so they got a franchise and remained in the Three-Eye until it folded in 1961. They've been in the Midwest League since. 

"However, by then I was trying to play and don't remember much about the post war years in Cedar Rapids baseball. I do recall, as the Three-Eye teams were having trouble, Hal Totten came down to Muscatine one night to watch the Red Sox when I was playing. He apparently was looking for Three-Eye franchises but even with two pennants in a row when I managed the Sox, our crowds were such that the P.A. man could just as well as said 'dear sir' instead of 'ladies and gentlemen' when giving starting lineups. While the Interstate League is also history, I understand that Muscatine still has a team in a league of college players playing through the summer. 

"The Cedar Rapids stadium that was so great in 1949 was torn down after the final game last year (2001) and a new even fancier one was up for the opener this past April. I drove past it when visiting in C.R. earlier this summer, and it was something. But it would never replace the memories of one soon to be seventy-three of the great days in old Hill Park. 

"While attendance at the minor league games was never anything to get real excited about, Cedar Rapids does have quite a baseball history. John McGraw started his career there and that's the origin of the old bromide, 'One more goof and you're on the way to Cedar Rapids.' I don't think the city was without a minor league team more than ten years of the twentieth century and six of those years were the war years and immediately after, before the stadium was built. 

"Had I had the chance to check the old Cedar Rapids Gazette files, it would have refreshed those memories to include much more about the old but not forgotten Cedar Rapids Raiders and the great Three-Eye league."