Family lore is not always reliable, so Norma Taaffe had good reason to doubt her father’s claim that their family once owned a Negro Leagues baseball field.
“Me and my sisters would hear that story every time we rode around that area in the car,†Taaffe said. “And we’d look at each other and just say, ‘Sure, Dad.’â€
But lo and behold, Charles Kuebler was telling the truth.
Conrad and Henry Kuebler, Taaffe’s great-uncle and grandfather, respectively, owned Kuebler Park.
The ball diamond was near O’Fallon Park and Bellefontaine Cemetery, officially 6100 North Broadway. But old maps show it to have been two short blocks east, with home plate and the grandstand at Pope and Prescott avenues.
The park was home to the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Giants, a Negro Leagues team that played there from either 1908 or 1909 through 1915.
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“Conrad was the real force behind it,†said Taaffe, 84, who lives in the Central West End of ºüÀêÊÓƵ. “I think he just liked including my grandfather in on things.â€
And according to Taaffe, Conrad Kuebler, a farrier by trade, “was into everything, a real wheeler-dealer.â€
“His official job was horse-shoer. But he also was the Republican committeeman for his ward, he owned real estate, operated the ballfield and once Prohibition hit, he was a bootlegger,†Taaffe said.
Born in 1879, Kuebler made his mark in the neighborhood around the ballpark, where he and other Kueblers lived.
Along with Pope and Prescott avenues, the neighborhood is crossed by Carrie, Clarence and Ouida avenues. The land is now covered by trucking lots and Love’s Travel Stop.
Taaffe said family lore claims that “Uncle Con,†who died in 1955, bought many parcels in the area and envisioned turning it into a business district.
“Problem was, it’s in a flood plain. And back in those days it would be underwater every so often,†Taaffe said.
Taaffe said the park had been built before the Giants arrived and was used for amateur and semipro games.
But the field was not involved with the Negro Leagues until 1909, according to that chronicles the history of Negro and Latin American leagues.
An article states that after bouncing around various fields for a few years, Giants owner Charles A. Mills approached Kuebler about using the field.
The two men struck a deal: Kuebler got an ownership stake and the Giants got a home.
“I think Uncle Con thought he was going to make a million dollars or something,†Taaffe said. “They even talked about starting a team for Black women, but that never came about.â€
What did evolve was a respectable ballpark featuring a solid ballclub that took on all challengers and drew good crowds.
The website noted that the “Giants won the ºüÀêÊÓƵ City League in 1912 and ’13.â€
The article also quotes David Wyatt, a former Negro Leagues player who became a sportswriter for several newspapers.
In a 1911 article for the Indianapolis Freeman, Wyatt called the crowd at one game “an assemblage of about five thousand fans.â€
Wyatt said the Giants were as good as any “athletes as ever trod American soil†and singled out the best as being team captain Dick Wallace, Bill Gatewood and three brothers — Ben, “Candy†Jim and “Steel Arm†Johnny Taylor.
Neither Taaffe family lore nor historical articles could answer why the Giants left Kuebler Park after the 1915 season.
, a Negro Leagues database, indicates the team bounced around again from field to field for five seasons, including a 1917 campaign played in East ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
It also reports that the Giants joined the new Negro National League in 1920 and changed their name to the Stars in 1922.
With the new name, the club moved to a new park in midtown ºüÀêÊÓƵ. The site now is a baseball field at Harris-Stowe State University.
The squad became one of the elite teams in the league, winning three championships between 1925 and 1931, and finishing second three other times.
The Giants/Stars ultimately fielded five players who would be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame: outfielder Oscar Charleston; shortstop Willie “Devil†Wells; first baseman George “Mule†Suttles; catcher Biz Mackey; and, most of all, legendary center fielder James “Cool Papa†Bell.
For Taaffe, a lifelong Cardinals fan, Kuebler Park serves as a cherished connection between her family and a sport she loves.
“When I was young,†she said, “we lived so close to old Sportsman’s Park that we could tell how the Cardinals were doing by listening for the cheers from the crowd.â€