Agate Type: Adventures in Baseball Archeology

rogan sighting

Written by

Gary Ashwill

Just ran across this brief note in the June 5, 1920, Chicago Defender on the anticipated debut of a certain Army ballplayer with the Kansas City Monarchs:

The Monarchs are expecting a fellow soon, Rogan by name, and big leaguers who have seen him work pronounce him the best ever.  He is with the 24th regiment and will report the middle of June.

A couple of interesting points: 1) this accords with Dave Wyatt’s statement, discussed here, that Wilkinson had signed Rogan “early last spring,” and more generally with the notion that Rogan’s arrival was planned well in advance, rather than occurring on the spur of the moment in St. Louis in late June or early July; and 2) he’s here said to be with the 24th rather than the 25th.  Both units were stationed in Arizona in early 1920; it’s still not clear what the story is behind Rogan’s presence in St. Louis in January.

3 responses

  1. Patrick Rock Avatar
    Patrick Rock

    As best as can be told from fragmentary evidence, Rogan and others were scouted by Wilkinson on advice from fellow Kansas Citian Casey Stengel, but securing their honorable discharges from the Army may have taken some time. Rogan shows up in (IIRC) early June in the 1920 census in an Army barracks in St. Louis. I believe Dobie Moore (and possibly Bob Fagan) joined the club at the same time Rogan did, though it was definitely after the season had already commenced.
    Oscar (“Heavy”) Johnson, who was also a member of the Wreckers, did not join the Monarchs until (again IIRC) 1922, as it may have taken that long to fulfill his military obligation and be discharged.

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  2. Kevin Avatar
    Kevin

    My limited understanding is that Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis was, for most of it’s history, often a ‘staging’ area for the military, where soldiers would be assigned for awhile either at the very beginning and/or very end of their enlistment periods.

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  3. Gary Ashwill Avatar
    Gary Ashwill

    It would make sense that Rogan would be assigned briefly to Jefferson Barracks just before leaving the military–what’s interesting is that he was counted by the census there on January 6, 1920. Then later Dave Wyatt writes of Rogan travelling from the west to join the Monarchs in early July.
    I wondered at first whether Rogan’s presence at Jefferson Barracks was some sort of administrative fiction–maybe he was “officially” assigned while changing units or something, while he was physically still in Arizona? But I think the census would count him where he actually lived…
    Anybody who hasn’t seen it should check out the detailed investigation of Rogan and the other Army ballplayers in the other posts in this category (“From the Army to the Negro Leagues”).

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