Willie Ramsdell

“Willie the Knuck” Ramsdell was born in tiny Williamsburg but schooled in Chanute.  His full name was Jess Willard Ramsdell after the state’s legendary boxing champion.

Out of high school, Ramsdell pitched for the state’s Ban Johnson champion before starting his professional career in 1938.  He then would spend four seasons in Class D in the West Texas-New Mexico League where the air was so thin, he would recall, that his curve wouldn’t break.  When his manager suggested he take up the knuckleball, his career took off.  

After six years in the minors, Ramsdell was still in Class C when World War II shut down most of minor league baseball.  He then came to Wichita and pitched three summers for Cessna and Coleman while working defense jobs.  After the War he returned to organized baseball and was an All-Star in the Texas League.

At age 31, Ramsdell finally made the majors, with Brooklyn.  Over the next five years he would pitch for the Dodgers, Cincinnati and the Chicago Cubs, compiling a record of 24-39 but with an earned run average of 3.83.  

In 1951 he lost a league-leading 17 games with Cincinnati, but in five of those the powerless Reds were shut out.  He ended his career back in high minors including Hollywood, where he appeared in the movie “Kill the Umpire” with William Bendix.  

Ramsdell returned to Kansas as player-manager for the Iola Owls but quit after three weeks when his team had compiled a 2-17 record.  He died at age 53 in Wichita and is buried in Kiowa.  A charter member of the Sandlot Baseball Hall of Fame, he spent his post-baseball career raising cattle.