Father's History with St. Louis Browns Farm Team

[Carol B]

My father's name was George Ballesty. He died in 1980. He was born in 1907 and he would tell us about playing on a St. Louis Browns farm team. I am guessing it was in the 20's or 30's. It may have been semi-professional, I am not sure. I have two pictures of him with teams he played with but they are too faint to make out any team names. Can anyone help me find out any information about this or where I might research it further?

[Bill_McCurdy]

Carol B -

The answer about the Browns is totally clear: George Ballesty never played for the St. Louis Browns or any other big league baseball club. This much is also established: Accoording the the Professional Players Data Disk, no one named George Ballesty ever played minor league baseball from 1930 forward. However, taking into account that the PPDD only covers minor leage baseball fom 1930 forward, it's conceivable that your dad may have played minor league baseball somewhere between the ages of 17-22. Since George Ballesty was born in 1907, he would have been in that age range between the years 1925-29. It's more probable that he played amateur or semi-pro baseball, given the sketchy, hard to identify photos you apparently have of him in a baseball uniform. Finding out for sure about his minor league time in the 1920's with no further information than what you have given us will be next to impossible. If you had the names of any towns or leagues where he supposedly played, it would be possible for you to check with the local newspaper and library of these places for microfilm records. With no further information that you now have, it's a long shot that you will ever get to the bottom of this mystery.

I'm trying my hardest to spare you my subjective opinion. We get so many people who write here about long ago relatives who claimed to have played for the Browns, or for the Browns minor league clubs, that turn out to be family fibbers.

The only other thing I could suggest is for you to seek out any living contemporaries of your late father to see if he ever said anything to them about where and when he specifically played organized baseball.

Good luck!

[Carol B]

Would downloading the pictures I have of the teams be any help?

[Bill_McCurdy]

Would downloading the pictures I have of the teams be any help?

Carol,

Downloading your photos from that era couldn't hurt. They probably won't tell us anything you could not discern for yourself, but it never hurts to look, when pictures are obviously from an ancient time. Perhaps someone will recognize something that lends a visual clue as to where and when he played ball.

Bill McCurdy