From Hope to Heartbreak: Michigan City’s One Shot at Pro Baseball

Images from Bob Wilke and the YouTube Page/Matt Werner

Michigan City, Indiana, sits on the coast of Lake Michigan, 54 miles east of Chicago. It is known for its miles of coastline, access to the Indiana Dunes National Park, lighthouses, and growing art scene. However, 70 years ago, the wheels were in motion to make it a professional baseball town.

The city might have never had a franchise in the league if it weren’t for a 21-year-old player-manager, Al Shinn.  In 1955, he was playing in Hannibal in the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League, which was on the verge of folding. Shinn had just married a girl whose family lived in Long Beach, Indiana. He had met her at a train stop the previous year while traveling to games in Kokomo and Lafayette.

Long Beach borders Michigan City, and Shinn thought the town would make a good baseball town and convinced the New York Giants to relocate the financially struggling Hanibal club to Indiana following the season. At the time, Michigan City had a population of 30,000.

On November 28, 1955, the league changed its name to the Midwest League and voted the city in as a member. Shinn and his brother-in-law Bob Hood became part-owners, and Shinn continued as player-manager for what was now the White Caps franchise.

“Can Michigan City support professional baseball?” asked South Bend Tribune columnist Dick Micell. “The city’s proximity to Chicago and the high death rate of lower classification clubs are popular arguments used by the skeptics.”

Michigan City Mayor-elect Francis Fedder was not keen on the announcement, as the ballpark was being used all summer long by various boys’ programs. Ames Field had been in use since 1922, but received a major uplift of $33,462 in 1939 due to WPA funds. The stadium was used for high school football and baseball programs, as well as various youth programs in the area.

The home jerseys resemble those worn by the White Sox in 1987.

There was also the concern about the shores of Lake Michigan. The popular summertime destination for many in the Midwest would impact attendance at the ballpark. It was estimated that operating the club for the season would cost $50,000, with a minimum of 800 fans per game.

The name White Caps was chosen from the foamy, white crests that form on waves when strong winds blow over the water from Lake Michigan. It was not the first time the name was used; a newspaper article from The South Bend Tribune from January 28, 1913, reported on a St. Floryan indoor baseball (softball) victory over the Michigan City White Caps by the score of 16-8.

Ames Field was spruced up before the arrival of the White Caps. It received a fresh coat of paint, a new press box, a 35-foot screen behind the backstop, covered dugouts, a large scoreboard displaying league standings, and an updated electronic scoreboard atop the left field wall. Ticket prices were set at 75 cents, and management aimed to attract 800 fans per game to break even. 

However, Ames was a traditional football field at the time. The press box was on the left field line, close to third base. The grandstand seats were not covered, and the left field fence appeared to be much further from home plate than in right.

“Michigan City is fast becoming a baseball-minded town again, with large signs placed throughout the city and countryside, advertising 'Happy Days are here again' and to support the White Caps.”

Team President Ralph Waterhouse announced that $14,000 worth of tickets had been purchased and that the goal of $20,000 sold would be reached by the opening night of April 29. A crowd of 6,000 was expected to attend the White Caps first game, a doubleheader where the team would play the afternoon in Kokomo and the nightcap at Michigan City. However, Mother Nature washed out both games, leading to only 1,000 customers for the game the next night.

A bird's eye view of Ames Field and action shots from Michigan City Red Devils high school games.

During the inaugural season, Waterhouse passed away from a heart attack at the age of 50. Then, controlling stock in the club was sold by Shinn to a syndicate headed by B.M. Bergerson, the owner of the B&K Root Beer stands mentioned earlier at Stadium Journey. The move was made to ensure that the ball club remained in business until the end of the year.

The Caps held special nights honoring local towns like LaPorte and South Bend. They also announced they would give away 1,000 silver coins if 4,000 customers showed up to a Wednesday afternoon game in May. A crowd of 3,300 showed up for a doubleheader against the Kokomo Dodgers in August.

Future Major League Hall of Fame pitcher Juan Marichal began his minor league career as a 20-year-old, recording a 21-8 record with 246 strikeouts and a 1.84 ERA for the Caps in 1956.  He would be joined by 10 other men who made it to the big leagues, including Matt Alou and Manny Mota.

The White Caps averaged 774 per game and lost $10,000 during the inaugural campaign. The attendance figures were impressive, but the losses were staggering. The ball club even threatened before the second season to drop out of the league in a dispute with the city park board over revenue.

The next season, the club had a full working agreement with the Giants and hoped to improve on attendance figures. Cold weather resulted in crowds of 450 and 200 for the first two games of the 1957 season.

Attendance dipped over the next three years to 28,775 (an average of around 456) in 1959. After the season, the Giants moved their affiliation to Quincy, Illinois, in 1960. There was sentiment for civic groups to back the club, but it failed to find a major league affiliation by a February 12th deadline. It also did not have an agreement with the Parks Department to use Ames Field, which had just installed new floodlights.

The franchise continued playing in Quincy until 1973, when it relocated to Dubuque, Iowa, before folding after the 1976 season. Ames Field would continue hosting high school baseball for close to 50 years, but like the White Caps, it too would disappear.

The old ballpark began being torn down in June 1994. The press box was the first to be knocked down, followed by the rest of the grandstand and walls. It was rebuilt as a football-only structure for the high school team and opened in 1995. It is impressive, but it's not a place to put a baseball diamond. 

High School baseball continued playing at Ames Field well into the pullover days of the 1980s.

Shinn stuck around in the area promoting amateur baseball and sat down with The (Hammond) Times in 1993 to reminisce about his former team. He described that after World War II, the babies boomed, people made money, gas was cheap, and the new mass transportation system made travel the new American pastime. The White Caps were left choking on the fumes of that economic expansion.

“It was a time in history that was not right for success in minor league baseball. People could easily drive to Chicago to see the game to the highest degree.” 

Shinn’s words remain true well over 30 years later and almost a decade after his death in 2016. Michigan City still attracts tourists throughout the summer months and is a short hop to the resort town of New Buffalo, Michigan, and about an hour's drive to Chicago.

The White Caps were a strange anomaly in the history of the Midwest League, part of the failed Indiana expansion era that included other Hoosier towns like Lafayette and Kokomo. Those cities saw the return of summer collegiate baseball through the Prospect League, and it is unlikely that a baseball club will return to Michigan City. 

However, who knows when someone will eye the coastal town as a potential team there in the future.

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Follow all of Marc’s stadium journeys on Twitter @ballparkhunter and his YouTube channel. Email at Marc.Viquez@stadiumjourney.com