Colorado Experience: United by Baseball

DENVER — A crack of the bat, dirt swirling a field, the cheers of the onlooking crowd… These sights and sounds of baseball have echoed throughout Colorado’s history and among nearly every group of people.

 “One of the reasons that I love baseball as a historian is because baseball is just present throughout the last century and a half, almost two centuries of American history in a way that helps you see Americans and see this nation come into its conception of itself as a nation,” said Jason Hanson, the chief creative officer at History Colorado. 

Baseball’s prolific spread across the country following the Civil War, included nearly every small farming or mining town in Colorado’s early days having a team. The sport became the main source of fun and entertainment in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

“It's the national pastime, it's America's game, and as so many new Americans are coming to the country, immigrating from Europe and from Latin America and Mexico and from Asia, this is a way that you can join American society,” said Hanson. 

In the 1920s, when Hispanic workers labored in sugar beet fields every day of the week, the game of baseball became incredibly important. The main employer, Great Western Sugar, gave them one day off a week for baseball where the entire community would gather at games and share food and stories. 

“You see the photos and you can see how proud they were to play. Their chest was out, and they knew they were entertainers. They knew that they were making the community, the colony, just enjoy something in their lifetime,” said Gabriel Lopez, author and historian. 

Japanese Americans found a similar tie to the game before and after, but especially during the internment of Japanese Americans who lived along the West Coast during WWII. Baseball became the social life of camp and teams were even allowed to leave camp to play other baseball teams.

Colorado’s love for baseball also culminated in a big tournament every August that essentially broke the color barrier before Jackie Robinson in 1947. The Denver Post Tournament in 1934 marked the first official games between Black and white teams. 

Watch Colorado Experience: United by Baseball below.