The Peculiar Truth about the Killer Ballclub

• July 18, 1911: The Wyoming State Penitentiary All-Stars played their first baseball game. They were pitted against the Wyoming Supply Company Juniors. The All-Stars routed their opponents 11-1.

• The All-Stars’ right fielder, Joseph Seng, had a great game, going 4 for 4 at the plate.

• Earlier that day, Seng had received a stay of execution from the state’s Supreme Court. He was in prison for first degree murder.

• Their coach was a convicted killer. The shortstop was serving time for manslaughter. The first baseman and pitcher were in prison for sex crimes. The third baseman was in for burglary. The centerfielder was a forger.

• The ten-man Wyoming State Penitentiary All-Stars were all inmates, some on death row. Their coach, a killer named Saban, told the team that fielding errors could add time to their sentences and victories could result in stays of execution.

• The men were playing for their lives.

• They wore uniforms with the letters WSP on them. They had baseball gloves and caps and bats and shoes with cleats. They were an integrated team with two black players, unheard of in that era.

• They received attention in newspapers across the country.

• Baseball in the early years of the 20th Century developed into America’s national pastime. Players like Ty Cobb were household names. People loved the sport. Even in distant, rural Wyoming.

• The Lincoln Highway had not yet been built in 1911, so the city of Rawlins in Southern Wyoming was an extremely isolated place. It was home to the state penitentiary, which had only been in existence for 10 years.

• The prison’s private owner had a broom manufacturing business. Inmates made his brooms as a kind of slave labor. That ended, though, with a new governor in 1911. A new warden, Felix Alston, was hired.

• Alston was a baseball fan. He wanted to boost prisoner morale after so many years of indentured servitude, so he formed a team comprised of inmates.

• Despite having little experience, the Wyoming State Penitentiary All-Stars were pretty good players. Especially Joseph Seng who stood just 5’ 5”.

• Alston got them equipment and uniforms. He even allowed his son, a blonde-haired 4-year-old boy, to be their mascot.

• Newspapers as far away as Washington DC wrote about the team. Seng got more attention than the others because of his play in the field but also because of his stay of execution.

• The men played a second game against the Juniors, and the final score was identical to the first: 11 to 1.

• The penitentiary saw troubles the next month. Attempts were made on Warden Alston’s life. A guard was shot to death during a failed escape. The baseball team seemed too risky under the circumstances.

• Alston ignored that. The All-Stars third game against the Juniors had a similar outcome: 11 to 4 for the convicts. Again, Joseph Seng was the standout.

• In the fourth and final contest, the All-Stars won again by a closer margin of 15 to 10.

• The Wyoming governor contacted Warden Alston with concerns about the team, including allegations of gambling on the outcomes. He also thought it injudicious to suggest the players’ sentences or lives depended on game outcomes.

• Seeing the writing on the wall, Alston then disbanded the All-Stars.

• Joseph Seng prayed for the governor to overturn his death sentence. Despite pressure, he did not. Seng was executed May 24, 1912.

• The undefeated Wyoming State Penitentiary All-Stars never played on a baseball diamond again.