By Kevin McCann

“Why, you couldn’t get away with that, even in the Kitty League!”

Despite the quip of vaudeville comedians to the contrary, it seemed like the players, managers, and even the fans of the Kitty League could indeed get away with practically anything.

Like the feline it was named after, the Kitty League had many lives. It started as the Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League in 1903, a Class D league with teams in Paducah, Hopkinsville, Henderson, and Owensboro, Kentucky; Cairo, Illinois; and Clarksville and Jackson, Tennessee. It didn’t take long for sportswriters to shorten its name to the “Kitty” League and with a nickname like that, it was hard for fans not to expect quirky plays and equally quirky ballplayers and managers. (more…)