Baseball in the Mahoning Valley: From Pioneers to the Scrappers

The history of baseball in Ohio’s Mahoning Valley has been, to say the least, eventful. Murder, the Civil War, the hot dog, a presidential assassination and one of the deadliest known volcanic eruptions all shaped America’s pastime in the Valley. African American baseball pioneer and Hall of Fame inductee Bud Fowler began his professional baseball career in the area, and the first ceremonial celebrity first pitch came from the arm of a prominent local....