I know this is really early but here is the history of the Indianapolis Black Jacks, hosts of the 2008 All Star Game....

On a cold October night in 1968 the city of Milwaukee was granted the final team in the new EWB league about to be formed. The Miller Brewing Company was celebrating with their champagne of all beers about the decision of the board of directors and owners being negotiated as the final team to make up EWB and Miller had the guarantee of the Milwaukee City Council that a stadium bill would be passed and the City of Milwaukee would finally have one of the teams in the newly created EWB league.

Well that all sounded good but the citizens of Milwaukee had to vote on the measure in the elections the next month before the city would get the team. Polls were showing that the measure had a 50/50 chance because the people of Milwaukee would have their taxes raised to pay for the new stadium. One of the ideas was that the team would play at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, but Lambeau Field had to be retro fitted to allow a baseball field to be made out of a football stadium and that costs alot of money too so that is why the people of Milwaukee had to vote on a new stadium.

Election night came and the stadium bill did NOT pass. The measure was defeated by 1 percent of the vote. The Miller Brewing Company was astonished that after all the work they did for the city they call home and the jobs they have created for the people of Milwaukee that this would happen. EWB and the Miller Brewing Company had egg all over it's face and now it was time for EWB to find another team to make up it's league which would kick off in just 17 months.

EWB looked at Hartford, Connecticut they looked at Phoenix, Arizona, they looked at Orlando, Florida, they looked at Tampa, Florida. They got the same answer from the politicians, NO. It just wasn't enough time to pass a bill to build a new stadium and no one had the budgets for it and the country was in alot of turmoil at the time. It was the first time a sitting President had not run for re election of his party for the office of President, the country was at war in Vietnam, Bobby Kennedy was killed, Martin Luther King Jr, was killed and the country as a whole was just strapped for cash.

One industry that wasn't strapped for cash was auto racing and especially Roger Penske. Roger was a pioneer in formula one racing and built a company of moving van companies along with his winning teams in racing. Roger was a baseball fan and was living in Indianapolis at the time and he knew the Mayor of Indianapolis, Richard Luger (R). Indianapolis was dying for professional sports and they,as a city, didn't have the same budget problems that alot of other cities had at the time. EWB had little time to make a decision about a team because of the short time frame and they certainly never considered Indianapolis as a destination for an EWB team. Indianapolis has little to no market value, they really don't have the population that EWB was looking for and to be honest Indianapolis really isn't that exciting as far as a EWB team to be.

Roger approached the heads of EWB about the problem they had and pitched them on his ideas. EWB was getting desperate and had no other options so EWB told Roger that if he can get Richard Luger in here and GUARANTEE us that there would be no issues as far as a stadium deal, and that it would have to be in writing because they didn't want another Milwaukee situation. Roger agreed and the meeting was set. At this time it was February 1969, 14 months until opening day. EWB was kinda of disgusted at the idea of a team in Indianapolis and they felt kind of shook down but it was all their own doing. Basically the future of the league was in the hands of Richard Luger and Roger Penske because EWB couldn't have started April of 1970 with only 29 teams and with all of the money the other teams have committed it would have started as a complete failure and the league would have never gotten off the ground.

March 1969, EWB, Roger Penske and Richard Luger meet at unknown location and hash out a deal on paper and EWB was guaranteed it's 30th and final team. Indianapolis did it's own poll and 80 percent of the people were for it so Mayor Luger put everything in writing. That writing stated that if the funding was not passed then contractually the city of Indianapolis was responsible for the funding anyway, so I guess it really didn't matter if the citizens passed it or not but with all the excitement in Indianapolis it was a given that it would pass and Luger knew this was his lasting legacy in Indianapolis as he had a higher office in mind, that being a Senator in DC for the state of Indiana.

EWB was finally on track to begin in 13 months but there were a few things that had to be settled, 1) where would the Indy team play until the stadium was built and 2) a team nickname. Well it was decided that the Indy team would play at Butler University until the new stadium was built and since Roger owned the team he came up with lots of racing names but nothing really stuck with him, so one day he thought since this whole scenario was such a gamble by EWB and himself he thought it would be fitting to be called.....Black Jacks.

The people of Indianapolis overwhelmingly voted for the stadium and at an unavailing of the new team name people were crowded in downtown, so the enthusiasm was there from the fans now it was time for the team to begin next season.

The team ended it's first season with a 83-79 record, they didn't make the playoffs but that's not bad for a team that had no home field and played in front of crowds that maxed 21,000 people and an organization that started so late. That inaugural team was led by 1B Vicente Valseca .319/16/118 and C Roberto Cantu .291/14/97 and on the mound led by Burt Smith 14-15 3.70 ERA and John Merriam 13-9 4.69 ERA.

For the next three years it would be rough as they went over .500 once, but in 1971 season they opened up Indy Park. In 1975 the Black Jacks went an a great run where they went to the playoffs 6 out of the next 7 years. Winning the division in 75,77,79, and 81 but little did fans know that would be the glory days of Black Jack baseball. Some of the team leaders and fan favorites during that time span were Mr.Black Jack SS Ronald Ramsey, 2B Ben Dickerson, 1B Victor Carlisle, LF Victor Ramos, and CF Ken Cole and pitchers during that run of greatness were SP Daniel Pena, SP Mike Stanley, SP Ricardo Morales, SP Ed Rottschaefer, and long time closer Katsuhiko Nakamura. These players are looked at as the pioneers of Black Jack baseball.

Sadly Roger Penske refocused his attention to his racing ventures after the 1981 season and let his baseball people handle the day to day operations and that turned out to be a major failure as these "baseball" people were not qualified to run a baseball organization and it showed. Penske just looked at this as a money making venture and didn't really care anymore. After 27 years after 1981 there are only 3 players of mention, 1) Marv Cartwright- a potential Hall of Famer wasn't even drafted by the Black Jacks, Marv was drafted in the 1st round, 8th pick overall by the Boston Irish, Boston the traded Cartwritght to Indy in 1988 for two no namers. Cartwright is the only player in Indy after 27 years since Penske gave up control that was noteworthy. The others are Wilfred Christian, and CL Cris Rosario.

Edgardo Martinez has the all time wins total at 158 and the career loss total of 195. Sad.

EWB has warned the Indianapolis Organization numerous times about just taking the money and running, but like the very first days of inception where EWB had to allow Indy's acceptance now they can't get rid of them.

So that's the story of Indianapolis Black Jacks, bet you never knew there wouldn't be an EWB without them.