Guthrie Senators was the primary name of the minor league

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

teams based in

Guthrie, Oklahoma Guthrie is a city and county seat in Logan County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City Metroplex. The population was 10,191 at the 2010 census, a 2.7 percent increase from the figure of 9,925 in the 2000 census. First kno ...

, United States.

History

The Guthrie Senators played in the

Western Association The Western Association was the name of five different leagues formed in American minor league baseball during the 19th and 20th centuries. The oldest league, originally established as the Northwestern League in 1883, was refounded as the Western ...

(1905, 1909–1910) and

South Central League The South Central League was a minor league baseball league that played in the 1906 and 1912 seasons, with franchises located in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. The McAlester Miners (1906) and Longview Cannibals (1912) won league championships. H ...

(1906). Later, Guthrie teams played in the Oklahoma State League (1912, 1922–1924) as the Guthrie Spas in 1912. and the Guthrie Linters in 1922 and 1923. Guthrie also was represented in the Western Association for a brief time during 1914, under the name Guthrie Orphans.

The ballparks

Although the Guthrie ballpark had different names over the years, it was consistently located in what is now known as Mineral Wells Park. The field used by the 1904 Guthrie Blues was known as the Island Park diamond. Island Park was renamed Mineral Wells Park in 1910. The Island Park athletic field, which later in 1904 hosted the first

Bedlam Series The Bedlam Series is the name given to the Oklahoma–Oklahoma State rivalry. It refers to the athletics rivalry between Oklahoma State University Cowboys and Cowgirls and the University of Oklahoma Sooners of the Big 12 Conference. Both school ...

football game between Oklahoma A&M University (now

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

and the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

, was located just across Cottonwood Creek from the current park gazebo. Beginning in 1905, Guthrie's ballpark was known as Electric Park. Electric Park was also located immediately across Cottonwood Creek from the “island” portion of Island/Mineral Wells Park. The Guthrie Senators used Electric Park as their home field through 1910. In 1911, the City of Guthrie purchased Electric Park from the streetcar owners who developed it and consolidated the land, including the ballpark, into Mineral Wells Park. Further amenities were added, including a race track and fairgrounds, around the existing ballpark. Guthrie teams continued to play at the fairgrounds ballpark through the final days of minor league baseball there in 1924.

Notable alumni

Notable players include

Red Downs Jerome Willis "Red" Downs (August 23, 1883 – October 19, 1939), was a Major League Baseball player, who gained notoriety later in life as an armed robber during the Great Depression. Early life and MLB career Downs was born and raised in Neo ...

Eddie Hickey Edgar S. Hickey (December 20, 1902 – December 5, 1980) was an American basketball and football coach. He coached basketball at his alma mater of Creighton University (1935–1943, 1946–1947), St. Louis University (1947–1958) and Marquette ...

Tex Jones William Roderick "Tex" Jones (August 4, 1885 – February 26, 1938) was a Major League Baseball player for the Chicago White Sox in the 1911 season. In nine games, he had six hits in 31 at-bats, with four RBIs. He batted and threw right-handed. H ...

Bill McGill Bill "The Hill" McGill (September 16, 1939 – July 11, 2014) was an American basketball player best known for inventing the jump hook. McGill was the No. 1 overall pick of the 1962 NBA draft out of the University of Utah, with whom he led the N ...

and Clare Patterson. They were managed for part of the 1906 season by

Charlie Bennett Charles Wesley Bennett (November 21, 1854 – February 24, 1927) was an American professional baseball player from 1875 or 1876 through the 1893 season. He played 15 years in Major League Baseball, principally as a catcher, with the Milwaukee Gr ...

References

Defunct minor league baseball teams Baseball teams established in 1904 Professional baseball teams in Oklahoma 1904 establishments in Oklahoma Territory 1924 disestablishments in Oklahoma Baseball teams disestablished in 1924 Guthrie, Oklahoma Defunct baseball teams in Oklahoma Defunct Western Association teams Defunct South Central League teams {{Oklahoma-baseball-team-stub