by Charles Norman | May 20, 2026 | Baseball, Wilson Matthews
Here Lies Wilson Matthews – 1 Who Was W.M. Matthews? But he wanted to get in. He wanted to be urbane and careless. He wanted to wear well-cut clothes. He wanted to be a gentleman.– Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel Part 1Who Was W.M. Matthews? Mississippi...
by Charles Norman | May 19, 2026 | Baseball, Wilson Matthews
Here Lies Wilson Matthews – 2 Who Was Blanche Dumont? Here’s what I want. I notice you changed your name. I want you to keep your new name. I guess you made up someplace you came from – well, that’s where you came from… You figure you died and now you’re...
by Charles Norman | May 18, 2026 | Baseball, Wilson Matthews
Here Lies Wilson Matthews – 3 Guy Town He was surrounded by a world that was both beautiful and terrifying, a land of secrets and shadows, where the line between civilization and savagery was thin and easily crossed–Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim Part 3Guy Town...
by Charles Norman | May 17, 2026 | Baseball, Wilson Matthews
Here Lies Wilson Matthews – 4 Spaced Flashes In probing my childhood (which is the next best to probing one’s eternity) I see the awakening of consciousness as a series of spaced flashes, with the intervals between them gradually diminishing until bright blocks...
by Charles Norman | Oct 15, 2025 | Baseball
Requiem for a Minor League Baseball Season On Friday, September 2, the Beaumont Millionaires of the Class C South Texas League closed out their 1904 season with an 8-5 win over the Houston Wanderers, known as the Mud Cats, a team that had gone belly-up nearly a decade...
by Charles Norman | Mar 17, 2024 | Baseball
Trials of a Minor League Umpire in 1909 Are you blind? Where do you think you are? In a cow-pasture?– Thomas Wolfe, A Portrait of Bascom Hawke The cash-poor lower leagues of the South assigned a single umpire to each game. Most worked behind the plate until a...
