Umpires Weren’t Safe in Old KC

Calling balls and strikes continues to represent challenging work for baseball umpires, but conditions have improved in Kansas City, where fans attending games in the late 19th century sometimes brought their guns with them, making umpires – as well as league investors – nervous. As the Kansas City Royals open their 2021 season, the E-Journal presents the following article by Pat O’Neill and Tom Coffman, local authors of the forthcoming book, “Ted Sullivan, Barnacle of Baseball: The Life of the Prolific League Founder, Scout, Manager and Unrivaled Huckster.”

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Recalling ‘Cactus’ Jack Call, the Man Patsy Cline Came to KC to Honor

While the story of singer Patsy Cline is largely centered in Nashville, the country music capital, Jackson County – specifically, Independence – played a melancholy role in Cline’s 1963 death in an airplane crash in Tennessee. The January death of an Independence country music disc jockey from injuries sustained in two-vehicle collision near U.S. 40 and Sterling Avenue brought Cline to Kansas City several weeks later. What happened then – as well as during the decades since – continues to resonate with the late disc jockey’s two sons.

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Jackson County celebrates Missouri Bicentennial

Younger, perhaps Lee’s Summit’s most familiar historical figure, is scheduled to be front-and-center during the community’s observance of the Missouri bicentennial on August 10.

A main event on that day, in both Lee’s Summit and across the state, will be ice cream socials. In Lee’s Summit, those lined up for ice cream in the 200 block of SW Main St. also will have the option of free admission to the nearby Lee’s Summit History Museum.

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From Jitneys to Lyft: Kansas City’s Transportation Hang-Ups

On the evening of January 18, 1915, the Kansas City Star reported that the city’s first jitney bus had started operating in the city. Jitneys were privately owned early automobiles whose owners accepted set fares to transport people along an established route. The name was taken from a slang term for a nickel, the usual fare charged by the drivers for a ride.

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