This bound volume, entitled Aces: 1976-1981, is one of two written by Topekan Lee Dodson documenting the activities of youth and semi-pro baseball teams that he managed from the late 1960s through 1981. Each of the teams included one or more of his three sons (Jim, Dick and Steve) as participants, whether as player, field manager, coach, or batboy. In this volume are Dodson's annual reports about the Topeka Aces (1976-79), the Topeka Pepsi-Cola Braves (1980), and the Topeka 7Uppers (1981). The 1976 and 1977 Topeka Aces teams competed in the Eastern Kansas Mickey Mantle League, and were composed of players aged 15 and 16. The 1978 and 1979 Aces played in the senior Babe Ruth division for players 16-18. Both the Topeka Pepsi-Cola Braves and the Topeka 7Uppers were semi-pro teams that were members of the Kaw Valley Semi-Pro Baseball League. Reports on the six teams include not only individual player statistics, but detailed narrative accounts of every game played by each team. The companion volume covers the period 1966-1973 (see Kansas Memory ID 309526). Throughout his adult life, Lee Dodson was a leader in Topeka's baseball community who became known as Topeka's ?Mr. Baseball.' A former minor league pitcher, Dodson founded and managed several leagues in Topeka, and managed and/or coached countless teams. Digital reproduction of the volume was accomplished through a joint project sponsored by the Kansas Historical Society and the Shawnee County Baseball Hall of Fame.
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