During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Darrtown had a connection to the Hamilton (Ohio) "Dayton Thorobreds."

Four Darrtown men played for this team - which was sponsored and managed by Art Reiff.

This was when the Darrtown baseball team represented the community in games played against teams from other area villages - and cities, including Hamilton, Middletown, and Cincinnati. Records indicate that John Kyger organized and managed the team.

This era includes the famous 1920 ball game at Darrtown, which featured pitchers "Hod" Eller of the Cincinnati Reds for Darrtown and Charlie Root, of Middletown, who later signed with the Chicago Cubs, for the Hamilton Hoovens.

BELOW: This is a 1981 newspaper ad for the Dayton Tire Company's "Thorobred" line of automobile tires.

Adrian Reiff donated the Thorobred baseball team photo to the Darrtown website, in March of 2022. Adrian, a Hamilton native, now lives in Bradenton, FL. His father was  Art Reiff, the man who sponsored the Dayton Thorobred baseball team.  

Art Reiff appears in the above photo at the far right in the front row. Art operated an automobile tire store in Hamilton that sold Thorobred tires, which were manufactured by the Dayton Tire Company; hence, the name "Dayton Thorobreds."

Four of the players, in the back row of the above photo, were "Darrtown boys." Starting with the second man from the left, we have Stanley "Doc" Alston. The third man from the left is Tom Popst, who was a pretty fair baseball pitcher for Darrtown High School. Fourth from the left, stands Walter "Smokey" Alston, who appears to be rather youthful compared to others in this photo. The man at the far right is Paul Neanover, who was related to Walter Alston, as Walter's mother was a Neanover. And, speaking of family, Stanley Alston was a brother to Emmons Alston, the father of Walter. So, "Doc" was Smokey's uncle.

BELOW: Adrian Reiff also provided this image of a 1930 Thorobred team. The caption refers to the "Bargain Tire  Shop," which was owned and operated by Art Reiff.

Click the link below to see a larger view of this image.

No individual sponsor for the village team has been indentified. Perhaps expenses were covered by paid admissions, as records indidate that admission was charged at the games. Records also show that, in 1923, Darrtown ceased playing in the KOI (Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana) League. Info about this era is detailed in the "Record of games played..." section of the previous page.

Click the following link to see an enlarged view.

Thanks to the memory of Darrtown native Bob Young and his desire to preserve local history, we have another story about a connection between Darrtown and the support of amateur baseball.

RIGHT: In this photo, (L-R), Walter "Andy" Anderson stands next to the building, with Walter "Smokey" Alston on his opposite side.

Bob Young contributed the two following images of local amateur baseball teams that were sponsored by Mr. Walter Anderson's employer, the Pepsi-Cola Company of Hamilton, Ohio. Several of the players' names represent families from Oxford, Ohio and surrounding area.

ABOVE:

FRONT ROW: Harry Schwegman, Jim Rose, Harold Wilhelm, John Sheard, Tom Cappilo, Ronnie Wilhelm, and Dee Folker.

BACK ROW: Bob Kramer, Bob Lunsford, Alfred Schwegman, Sam Sneed, Wayne Hendricks, Bob Fryman, and W. G. "Andy" Anderson.

ABOVE:

Unfortunately, no names were provided for those who appear in the this photo.

If you can identify anyone in the photo, please inform the Darrtown webmaster (see link in footer).

Bob provided the following artifacts that reflect a friendship between two Walters; one being Walter Alston of Darrtown and the other being Walter Anderson of Hamilton. The friendship between these two men centered on a common interest ... amateur baseball

RIGHT:

This image is dated "May - 9th / 18."  (see lower right corner of image).

Presumably, this means the photo was taken on May 9, 1918.

This may have been a team on which Andy Anderson played, as the name "W. Anderson" appears among the players listed on the photo and, since Andy was born in 1907, he would have been 17 years old in 1918.

The names printed on the photo appear to be organized in this manner: First, the players (those in uniform) and second, the support personnel (those in street clothes).

Therefore, it seems that the players are:

TOP ROW: Carl Felix (1st), W. Ott (C), Bob Mayer (SS), H. Beson (LF) E. Osborn (3rd), W. Anderson (P).

BOTTOM ROW:  C. Dillon (?), W. Jones (?), Art Geiger (P), G. Miller (RF), Phil Rohem (2nd), J. Acher (CF).

Presumable, the other three persons are:

> Paul Duttenhoffer - probably the younger man in the back row,

> Mgr. __(?)__ Miller - probably the boy in the front with the baseball bats across his legs,

> Mr. Duttenhoffer - probably man in the middle, with the boutonnière in the lapel of his suit coat. He may have sponsored the team - since the name Duttenhofer appears on the players' uniforms. The person who wrote the names on the photo spelled this man's name with two "f's," which does not match the names on the team uniforms.

The Duttenhofer team

For more information about Art Reiff, his sponsorship of amateur baseball, some of his business ventures in Hamilton, Ohio, and his life in general, see: The Art Reiff profile.