Commentary: Baseball is a Maysville Staple

It's no secret the bluegrass is a basketball state.

Whether your favorite group of college students wear blue or red jerseys when they hit the court, more than likely at some point during your life having grown up in Kentucky, you found yourself rooting for a college basketball team. This wasn't always the case, however. The group now that calls Rupp Arena home wasn't founded until 1903, one year after Lexington's first women's team, and those that play in the YUM! Center came eight years later.

Basketball didn't arrive in Maysville until nearly a decade later, with the earliest reports of high school teams appearing around the mid-1920s.

Before the Sweet Sixteen, before Big Blue Nation, before the rivalries, before it all, was baseball.

The first organized baseball team in Kentucky formed in Louisville in 1876, with the Louisville Grays playing two seasons. Baseball in Maysville predates that, however, with amateur teams playing as early as 1860. In an article written by Tandy Nash for The Age of the Ocean Liner, it's recorded that in the 1890s, the then Maysville Town Ball Club defeated the Cincinnati Redstockings twice. By 1910, the Shelbyville Grays were bought and relocated to Maysville, renaming themselves the Maysville Rivermen.

One member of the 1910 Maysville Rivermen was Baseball Hall of Famer Casey Stengel. Stengel, most known for his time as manager for the New York Yankees and the New York Mets, was a strong hitter for Maysville during his time with the team. The Rivermen continued in Maysville through 1912, ending following the disbanding of the Bluegrass League.

From 1913 to 1923, several other baseball teams made their way through Mason County, with Maysville teams winning a league championship in 1923 as the Maysville Cardinals in the reformed six-team Bluegrass League.

These early Maysville teams played at the Maysville Base Ball Park, reportedly located between East Second Street and Third Street at Houston Avenue.

Since that time in the late 1800s and early 1900s, baseball has continued to grow, eventually evolving into what it is today, with numerous Major League teams throughout the country competing each year for their shot at a World Series championship win.

Though basketball may reign today, baseball still holds a special place in Kentucky's heart, especially in Maysville.

"Semi-Pro" baseball ended in Mason County over a century ago, but high school baseball quickly took its place. In 1941, the Maysville Bulldogs saw their first state baseball tournament appearance in school history, returning 17 years later to bring home their first, and only state championship trophy. Nearly 40 years later, the Mason County Royals won their first region championship in 1994, falling in the first round of state to Lexington Catholic.

Thirty years later, the 2024 Royals entered the 10th region tournament the same way they did three decades prior, as district runners-up. Falling to Bracken County in the 39th district championship game, Mason County drew the top ranked-team in the region, and longtime 10th region champions, the Harrison County Thoroughbreds.

A 4-3 victory in eight innings later, Mason County advanced to the semis. That round, they faced the second-toughest team in the region, the George Rogers Clark Cardinals, routing them 6-3 to advance to the championship, where they then took on the third-ranked team in the region, the Bourbon County Colonels.

Mason County and the Colonels had already seen each other once in the regular season, with the game going to Bourbon in a 9-0 shutout

Seven innings later, the Royals stood tall with an 8-0 win, and were headed to the state tournament to face the same team they had played 30 years ago. The Royals fell 6-0 to Lexington Catholic, but the mark they left on Mason County baseball will last for decades.

Following that win, Mason County head coach Jason Butler said, "I'm so excited and it's like, when you step into this and you give everything that you got for these kids all season long it's a grind. To be able to give these kids the opportunity to win a 10th region championship, I feel great. You can't script it any better and you know, it's like the pieces fell together and the stars aligned and it was just our week. Take nothing away, our kids earned this. I'm just super proud of them."

Deep in the heart of Reds Country, Mason County still feels the heartbeat of baseball each year in late spring and through the early fall. From Great American Ballpark, to the high school field, Maysville citizens haven't forgotten their roots.