The Blue Sox and Factors: Open Items

1915 · 1943 – 1954

Why this entry exists:The items below were worked again and remain open; each is re-logged with its state and the settling source named, so the debt survives in the fragment and not only in notes.

The "Blue Sox" name: Still undocumented. This pass searched the Players Association's own team page and league history and the published team history as its reviewers render it; none states an origin. The one documented observation remains the reviewers': that "Blue Sox" was an exception to the league's usual practice of gendered names — Belles, Daisies, Peaches and the like. A name-origin story found in merchandise copy concerns the 1878 Green Stockings and their green uniforms, not the Blue Sox, and is a trap, not evidence. Settling source, named: the South Bend Tribune of April–May 1943, the club's founding weeks, not digitized in the record reached; the full text of Sargent and Gorman's team history is the second named pull.

The 1943 opener's venue: Still unconfirmed. The team-history leg carries Bendix Field as the club's first home across its first three seasons and Playland Park after the war, but no source reached by either pass states where the May 30, 1943 inaugural game against Rockford was played, and none either. Settling source, named: the South Bend Tribune of May 30–31, 1943.

Two single-source and unexplained items, standing as printed: The erased second game of the 1952 final — its 3–2 score — rests on Sargent's account alone in the team file, and stands there at that strength.

The Baker sister: Bonnie Baker's sister Genevieve is claimed in single sources for a brief South Bend stint, dated 1947 in one and 1948 in another; she appears on the register's rosters for neither year. Unconfirmed, and she stands out of the fragment, as the team leg left her.

The Factors' name and line: The reason for the 1915 champions' name — Factors — is stated in no source, as it was not in the Sports pass; settling source, named: the South Bend press of the spring of 1915. Sports printed no margin for the 1915 title — "well clear of second-place Battle Creek" — and that caution stands vindicated; assembly prints one register line with the variance named.

Sources:

1. AAGPBL Players Association — the South Bend team page and the league history article, searched for the name's origin; none stated.
2. Reviews of Sargent & Gorman, The South Bend Blue Sox (McFarland, 2012) — the naming-practice observation as the reviewers give it.
3. Baseball-Reference Bullpen, Southern Michigan Association, and the Baseball-Reference Register's South Bend city table — the 1915 Factors lines as rendered (44–24 and 46–23 respectively).
4. The banked EXPAND-TEAM-BLUE-SOX-NOTE and EXPAND-SPORTS-NOTE — the items as logged, with their settling sources.