Jamestown Jimkotans
The Jamestown Jimkotans, based in Jamestown, North Dakota, brought minor league baseball to the city in 1922 and carried the name through two Class D seasons. The nickname came out of a contest run by the Jamestown Alert, where Jimkotans beat Fort Sewards by roughly five votes. The winning entry was drawn at random from the submissions and took a five dollar credit toward admission, which ran fifty cents a game plus a ten cent surcharge on nonessential activities that went toward paying off World War I bonds.
Getting ready took some work. The old ballpark was relocated several hundred feet west, the grandstand moved with it, and seating expanded from 450 to roughly 1,400. The club took the field in dark gray uniforms with narrow green stripes, green caps and socks, and a large dark green J. The first game came May 18, 1922 against the Valley City Hi-Liners, drawing an estimated 2,000 people in a city of about 6,000. Telegraph stations at league ballparks fed scores back home, where Jamestown businesses posted running updates for fans who could not travel.
H.E. Ross founded the club and hired former St. Louis Browns player Wib Smith to manage. Jamestown finished 46-51 in 1922. One of the players at third base that season was Mark Koenig, who turned 18 in Jamestown and went on to the New York Yankees, batting in the 1927 Murderers' Row lineup. Koenig was standing on third when Babe Ruth hit his 60th home run.
The club spelled its name Jimkotas for 1923 and joined the four-team North Dakota League, finishing 32-35 and second, 15 games behind the Minot Magicians. The season's third game set the tone: at New Rockford on May 26, Jamestown pitcher Cantin tripled in the ninth, then stole home with two out and two strikes on the batter to tie the game, which ended 4-4 after ten innings. Ed Whiting managed at the start, at age 63 and 42 years into a career that had begun in 1881, before handing off to Henry Wingfield, who hit .402 to lead the league. The league folded when the 1923 season ended early in August, and Jamestown played its home games both years at McElroy Park.
A later Jamestown club, the Jimmies, played in 1936 and 1937 as a St. Louis Cardinals affiliate and won the 1936 pennant. Integrated semiprofessional baseball also flourished around Jamestown in the 1930s, with Satchel Paige appearing for teams in the area.
