Given his more than 30 years of service at the Library of Hattiesburg Petal & Forrest County – including the last six years as the system’s director – Sean Farrell’s vocation was certainly librarian, but his advocation has been baseball and history.
Those two subjects seem to be the perfect opportunity for the retired Farrell to re-visit the library with his upcoming presentation “Hattiesburg Baseball in the Roaring ‘20s,” which will be held at 6 p.m. April 18 at that facility, 329 Hardy Street in downtown Hattiesburg. The program will take a look back at baseball teams from the “Golden Age of Sports” in America, in particular the Hubmen, the professional minor league team that played at Kamper Park from 1923 to 1929 as part of the Cotton States League.
“For years, Ken McCarty – who was a longtime history professor at Southern Miss, who was also a big baseball fan – and I thought that someone really needs to do a book on professional baseball in Mississippi, because it’s never been done,” said Farrell, who retired as library system director in late 2022. “I was a regular visitor to the (National Baseball) Hall of Fame (in Cooperstown, New York); my mom only lives about 25 miles away, so I thought more and more about how I’d like to do that.
“So I started reading a lot about the history of baseball in Mississippi, and then it evolved more specifically into organized baseball … like the major leagues, the minor leagues and the Negro leagues. So I decided to start with Hattiesburg, and I found out that at the turn of the century, there was a minor league team in 1905 and then again in 1911, but the first real stretch of organized, professional baseball (around here) was Hattiesburg in the 1920s.”
Farrell’s presentation will look at most of the 1920s baseball in Hattiesburg, but he will focus mostly on the 1923 and 1924 clubs. Farrell will discuss topics such as how players performed and the reaction community members had to minor league baseball.
“We’re going to take a real close look at ’23, which is the first year (the team) comes back as a minor league team, and then ’24, which was a hundred years ago,” Farrell said. “That gives a real flavor, I think, for minor league baseball in Hattiesburg in the 1920s, by looking at those two years.
“Hopefully, people are going to see some stuff that they recognize as baseball history, but they’re also going to see some things that are going to be (new to them). I don’t want to do too much in terms of spoilers, but there’s a few zingers in there regarding the history of baseball that I found out, and I found out some about the history of Hattiesburg as well.”
“Hattiesburg Baseball in the Roaring ‘20s” also will feature a hot dog and Cracker Jack bar. Anyone interested in attending the presentation is asked to RSVP online at programatthelibrary@gmail.com to be added to the guest list.
Farrell received a master’s degree in history, along with a master’s degree in library science, from the University of Southern Mississippi. After his retirement from the library system, he joined the Society for American Baseball Research.
“I’m sure all the (library) patrons that know (Farrell) will be interested to come and see him do this,” said Adam Singletary, who took over as directory in January 2023 after Farrell’s retirement. “It’ll be nice, him being back here and seeing all the people who work here and who he’s known as patrons.”
