The HoF and Walter Corson

[topcat61]

Corson might be correct about the dates in which he played, and I'm saying that only because of the details he gives in his writings sound too clear to be made up. Just to be sure, I went over some newspapers from the Arizona Republic as far back as 1924 that state that there was an Arizona State League. Of course Corson could have played under another name, but why? I don't think we have all the information on him or the league at this point...but that's what net54 is for!

It appears that there was a much older Arizona Copper League around the same time of the Arizona State League where the Black Sox players, Jimmy O'Connell and Hal Chase played and Beans Reardon played in both. The Copper League had teams in Prescott, Bisbee, Jerome, Pheonix, Oakland and Tombstone. I'm wondering if Corson actually played in this one? The first instance I'm seeing of the Arizona-Texas League is 1931. We'll find out about this and perhaps add another chapter to our Baseball history.

I'm exited, are you?

[trdcrdkid]

Originally Posted by topcat61

Corson might be correct about the dates in which he played, and I'm saying that only because of the details he gives in his writings sound too clear to be made up. Just to be sure, I went over some newspapers from the Arizona Republic as far back as 1924 that state that there was an Arizona State League. Of course Corson could have played under another name, but why? I don't think we have all the information on him or the league at this point...but that's what net54 is for!

It appears that there was a much older Arizona Copper League around the same time of the Arizona State League where the Black Sox players, Jimmy O'Connell and Hal Chase played and Beans Reardon played in both. The Copper League had teams in Prescott, Bisbee, Jerome, Pheonix, Oakland and Tombstone. I'm wondering if Corson actually played in this one? The first instance I'm seeing of the Arizona-Texas League is 1931. We'll find out about this and perhaps add another chapter to our Baseball history.

I'm exited, are you?

Oh, I love this kind of stuff. Maybe there was another Arizona State League that was a separate entity from the later league of that name. There's still a lot of research to be done on low minor leagues (and semi-pro leagues) of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

[Brian Van Horn]

Here's an offbeat suggestion: try contacting George Vrechek to see if he can shed any light on the matter.

[Troy Kirk]

This is a question that has interested me in the past, so I looked into this myself a number of years ago. Since there is no mention of Corson in the major or minor league baseball records, that seemed funny since he said he was an ex-player. He also said he was a scout for a couple of different major league teams in the 1950s. A few years ago I contacted the SABR leader of the scout research and gave him the scouting info that Corson had mentioned in articles in the 1950s. The SABR guy told me there was no record of Corson being a scout either. The SABR guy mentioned that he has come across others who have said they were involved in MLB when they had in fact, not been.

I concluded that Corson had probably fabricated all his player/scout history. I wouldn't mind being wrong about this, but as far as I know there is no evidence to back up his stories in this regard.