The history of the Knights of Columbus and that of baseball are intimately intertwined, telling a story of sportsmanship, charity, and love of the game.
On May 11, the “Buddy Baseball League” in Bayonne, N.J., will hold its ninth season for developmentally and physically challenged youths and adults, ages four and up. The league’s mission is to “provide children with special needs the opportunity to succeed at playing baseball in a program structured to their abilities,” as well as therapeutic and socialization benefits.
A longtime league supporter—not only financially but as volunteers (or “buddies” who assist players)—has been the Knights of Columbus (K of C) Star of the Sea Council 371.
The New Jersey council’s utilization of baseball to promote charity in local communities is not unique in the K of C’s more than 140 years of existence. In fact, baseball has been a tool for evangelization along with exemplifying the organization’s principles, the first being charity. From the United States to countries overseas, K of C councils have constructed and maintained ballfields; sponsored Little League and special needs teams; hosted baseball clinics for athletes; built playgrounds for Italy’s children at the behest of Pope Pius XI; and provided recreation for American soldiers, especially during the First and Second World Wars.
There are numerous examples of baseball-charity initiatives listed in the Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center’s four-part online exhibit, “K of C Baseball: An American Story,” which chronicles how the Catholic organization and individual Knights contributed to the national pastime. Yet this mighty work stems from the charism of its founder, Father Michael McGivney, a priest on the path to sainthood.
Not many of Father McGivney’s personal effects survived after his death at 38 years old from a flu pandemic on Aug. 14, 1890. Yet baseball followed the Catholic priest throughout his life. The first occurrence in the historical record took place on May 20, 1872, when two seminarian teams—composed of New York and Connecticut natives—played at Our Lady of Angels Seminary at Niagara University. The game lasted five innings, but McGivney, a son of Waterbury, Conn., scored three runs as his team won in a rout, 23-6. He played left field and batted clean-up, but, more significantly, held the role of vice president for the squad.
Perhaps, the seminarian baseball team served as Father McGivney’s first foray into founding and/or leading groups—skills he would implement nearly 10 years later when he established the Knights of Columbus in 1882.
Unfortunately, no other box score exists from his seminarian days. Nevertheless, as a priest in New Haven and pastor in Thomaston, he organized games at annual parish picnics and was possibly the third-base coach for the local K of C council’s baseball club. His actions speak to his love for America’s national pastime, particularly for its fraternity and how it united a community, values he imbued in the K of C.
At first, K of C councils formed teams and leagues to play against each other. One of the largest was in Chicago and consisted of 42 squads. But beyond fraternity, the K of C recognized the game as a charitable opportunity during World War I.
As millions of Americans went overseas to fight in Western Europe, baseball was a creature comfort and reminder of home regularly requested by soldiers. As one K of C chaplain wrote to the international headquarters (dated May 15, 1918), “I should like to get a little baseball material, were it possible—baseball gloves, indoor balls, bats, etc. I don’t know whether you can secure these in Paris or not.” The Knights of Columbus obliged many requests like this one, sending thousands of balls and baseball equipment, and even Major League stars like Hall of Famer Johnny Evers.
In total, the K of C provided thousands of baseballs, bats, uniforms, and other athletic equipment that cost at least $50,000—or more than $1 million today—throughout the war. More impressively, five thousand games of baseball were played daily with outfits furnished to them by the K of C. Even after the war’s conclusion, the Knights sent baseball supplies to soldiers stationed around the world, including in Haiti and Panama.
With a motto of “Everybody Welcome, Everything Free,” the Knights of Columbus extended its charitable activities to benefit African American soldiers, like the baseball team at Camp Zachary Taylor located outside Louisville, Ky. At the time, the Catholic organization “ran the only racially integrated facilities available to the troops—three decades before the U.S. military itself was integrated,” according to a Columbia article from July 2020.
Several decades later in World War II, the United Services Organizations (USO) handled larger-scale recreational efforts for soldiers abroad whom the K of C provided in the previous conflict. Still, Zeke Bonura—a Knight who primarily played for the Chicago White Sox—spearheaded the organizing of baseball leagues for the troops, so much so that soldiers referred to him as the “Judge Landis of North Africa.” His work was widely praised by many, including Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who personally presented Bonura with the Legion of Merit medal for “exceptionally meritorious conduct.”
Yet the most famous baseball player and member of the K of C was none other than the Sultan of Swat, the Great Bambino himself: George Herman “Babe” Ruth. Despite his extravagant off-the-field lifestyle (to put it politely), Ruth was a charitable man, especially to causes concerning children and their religious education. After a fire damaged St. Mary’s Industrial School, the Baltimore reformatory he attended in his youth, Ruth collaborated with the K of C in a fundraising campaign and took the school’s band to major league parks to raise money for the school’s restoration.
But his most consistent work with the K of C came after the end of major league seasons, when he conducted barnstorming tours across the United States and even into Canada. K of C councils would sponsor exhibition games Ruth played in as charitable opportunities. For instance, Knights underwrote a game in Los Angeles on Oct. 27, 1924, raising money for their charitable fund; and on Oct. 22, 1927, an exhibition game in Stockton, Calif., benefited a K of C Christmas charity fund.
However, by the mid-20th century, the K of C’s athletic outreach shifted from showcasing already established talent to fostering the skillset and appreciation for the national pastime in children.
By 1971, the K of C had more than one million young people participating in youth programs organized by councils and assemblies—many of whom played on one of the 1,032 Little League and football teams sponsored by the Knights. Elmer Von Feldt, then the editor of Columbia, recognized in his June 1982 column that “The Knights have an acute awareness that youth is the promise of the future,” while remarking on the Order’s sports programs.
Since then, leagues and teams like the “Buddy Baseball League” have received significant support from local councils, particularly in the United States. To name a few significant undertakings from over the years: by 1990, Topeka (Kan.) Council 534 had been sponsoring a baseball, softball, and T-ball program for 20 years. In that time, more than ten thousand Topeka residents participated in the program, learning “to love the game and also learned the fundamentals of teamwork, sportsmanship and other positive Christian principles through this council program,” according to the Knights in Action submission published in Columbia. Meanwhile, in 2011, Holy Family Council 14520 in Fresh Meadows, N.Y., teamed with the Hollis-Belaire-Queens Village-Bellerose Athletic Association to sponsor a marathon 24-hour youth baseball game for charity. The event raised more than $30,000 for a number of charitable causes, including Fisher House and St. Mary’s Hospital for Children in Queens.
Ultimately, the history of the Knights of Columbus and baseball are significantly intertwined. Today, one can not only find that influence on plaques in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park, but on local ballfields like in Renovo, Pa. and during “Buddy Baseball League” games, giving children a chance to nurture their talents and learn the importance of sportsmanship. Baseball, then, is more than a game; it is also a means to improve one’s life temporally and spiritually.
Throughout the K of C’s existence, charity has been at the heart of its mission; and it’s a heart that reflects that of Father McGivney—one who had a love for the game.