Indoor Baseball

12 men in baseball uniforms with the letters RRCA on the front of their jerseys. One man in the back is dressed in a suit, presumably the coach. In front of the group are two, large softball-sized balls and two very small bats.
Brian Scheller: This photo was posted on another Racine page but I am looking for more info on it. It may be from the Root River Campers Association team, curious if anyone has any type of information regarding that team or if anyone recognizes the photo.
William Wishau: Indoor baseball was a big thing in town for over 30 years. The Camper’s Association had a team as far back as 1922, but I would lean towards this photo being either 1928 or 1929, as was mentioned in that other post of this pic.
The Journal Times, Friday, March 6, 1931, page 25. Collins Colts -- Lefty Peterson, Otto Otteson, Einer Christensen, George Mogenson, Fred Echardt, Harold Richow, Walter Boettcher, Peter Bonody, Tommy Sunde, Del Repa, Vic Smith, Earl Ray, Edward Gilday, Harold Buchman.
William Wishau: Going with the flow that the original post really is the Root River Campers Association Indoor team, Uncle Del probably played with/against most of the guys in the photo. He’s on a 1931 roster of many of the same guys as the 1928 Campers squad. Just bounce any of these names through the news and a new story is written.
William Wishau: The 1930 Collins Colts. Note many of the same names as the 1928 Campers Association roster. The newspaper photo is fuzzy, but there are definitely some matches between the two photos.
William Wishau: After spending a few more hours down the rabbit hole searching for information on indoor baseball, the guys listed on the 1928 Campers Association roster, and finding a few of the same names on the 1926 Racine All Star team, the evidence strongly suggests the original photo would be the 1928-1929 Camper’s Association team, who was a runner up to Case South Works. The following year, they became the Collins Colts, retaining the majority of the players, and were a dominant force for the next few years.
Here is a graph of search results for “indoor baseball” for Racine, Wisconsin on Newspapers.com. The graph shows that indoor baseball was popular from the 1890s to the late 1940s, with peaks in 1908 and in 1932.