Crziness...Death Row Baseball

I never knew this. Just craziness.

Deathrow baseball

Bizarre story, certainly had never heard of deathrow inmates playing baseball. Seems like penitentiary teams were pretty popular semi-professionally well into the 30's (probably still is somewhere). Claxton played in the Northern California-Western Nevada League that included Folsom Prison.

In a story about Powell Barnett in Sunday Afternoon at Garfield Park author Lyle Wilson mentions the Seattle Royal Giants once played at Walla Walla State Penitentiary. Barnett was on the mound, his first pitch was right down the middle, "Ball One" the umpire called. The second pitch again right down the middle, "Ball Two". The catcher turned to complain about the postage stamp strikezone, only to have the umpire pull a gun from his waste-band. The ump was a prison guard. Play Ball!