Although there were few towns in Dakota Territory in the 1880's, baseball was already a favorite sport and every town had a few players and a number of fans. There was no "league" baseball in Dakota Territory so a town that had poor players or an insufficient number to fill out a team would hire the good players from whatever town they could entice them from. As soon as a team won a few games, it would advertise themselves as the Dakota Champions. The team would be liberally supported by the home town until it lost a few games and then the support would vanish. Then the "good" players were forced to locate in some other town which would support a baseball team.
Willis and Chester Wylie were considered "good" players and found jobs for varying periods of time with other towns in the area. Valley City fielded teams of varying ability over the years but never had the temerity during the period 1879 through 1885 to call themselves "Dakota Champions." Perhaps their most intense rivalry was between Fargo and Sanborn. Games played with these two teams were often bitter with challenges of the legality of various players when it had been agreed that only bona fide home town players would be used. This was especially true in the case of Fargo, who prided themselves on being bigger and better than Valley City in every aspect. Undoubtedly the epithet "Imperial Cass'' began during the hey-day of the baseball rivalry between Valley City and Fargo.
In 1884 Grand Forks issued a call for a baseball tournament to be held in that city. The best talent in the northwest flocked there, either with a job with one of the teams entered or in hopes of getting a job. Walter Wilmot, the son of the proprietor of the Kindred Hotel and a catcher named Prescott went to Grand Forks hoping to get a job with the Grand Forks team. Wilmot, who was a pitcher, was refused a place as well as his friend Prescott.
Winnipeg, in need of a pitcher, hired Wilmot. The tournament ended up with Winnipeg playing Grand Forks for the championship. Wilmot pitched and struck out twenty-two batters. His team mates pleaded with him to "let up a bit" so that they could have some of the fun. Wilmot claimed he could have made it twenty-seven strike-outs if he had not heeded the pleas of his teammates. After playing with several other Canadian teams, Wilmot, in 1885, became a regular with the St. Paul team of the Association.
The manager of the St. Louis, MO team then bought Wilmot from the St. Paul club and within four years was the highest paid player in professional baseball at that time, making $4,200 a year - more than the manager himself.
Members of an early Valley City Baseball team. Standing: Willis Wylie and Ing Moe. Seated: D. W. Clark and Charlie Noltimier.
School District No. 40. Front: Ray Stillings, George Hansen, Hans Hansen, Emil Vondrachek. Back: Arthur Hansen, AI. (Lefty) Nelson, Harry Davidson, Henry Hansen, Harlow Stillings, Bill Simon.
After his pitching days were over, Wilmot returned to Minneapolis to manage the 1896 pennant winning team. Wilmot played center field himself and the team won thirty-two of the final thirty-three games to win the championship. Willis Wylie spent a week in Minneapolis as a guest of Wilmot "to see how baseball is played these days" and says it was one of the best weeks of his life.
In the summer of 1882 the Valley City team went to Sanborn to play the Sanborn team. After winning the game, with time to spare before the next train, they took in the town and found one Percy Trubshaw, then a kid working for the Sanborn Enterprize, who had been a rabid Sanborn fan. The team kidded him unmercifully. Percy Trubshaw later became the much respected owner and publisher of the Valley City TimesRecord.
As train time neared, the team went to the depot, to be told that their train would not run and had been canceled. The team had to wearily walk the ties twelve long miles to Valley City.
There was not too much interest in baseball in the 1890's but the town did field a team that played "once in a while." The team consisted of: Ing Moe, pitcher; Willis Wylie, catcher; A. H. Gray, first base; W. O. Helm, Second Base; Frank Henry, Third Base; Harvey Lock, Left'Field; Center field varied; Chet Wylie, Right Field. Others that played were, Nielsen, James Stull, John Weiser, Herb and Charles Getchell, Jim Daily, Ed Mason, David Ritchie, William Craswell, Nels Johnson and Harry DeVeaux.
A. H. Gray was hit on the head with a pitched ball and retired. Frank Henry then played first base.
Sometimes there were as many as three local team and they played against one another. Among those who played on these teams were: Olaf Lauritson, Fred Jocobson, Worth Chapman, Jacob Aase, Gustaf Hokanson, Bernard Lee, Waldemar Johnson, Boob Carlson, Bill Pomeroy, Charley Gorman, Charley Rasmussen, Mike Jaten, Alfred Glesta, Bob Batchelor, Albert Mason, Arnold Winger and Carl Somdahl, Paul Fridd, Roy Cross, Harold Hitzman, Marvin Chamberlain, Howard Clark, James Secor, Adolph Halvorson, Barney Gray, A. J. Henry, Ray Basset, Parcy Persons, Middy Mason and many others.
One game was played against a Frog Town gang. (Frog Town was the area adjacent to the Mercy Hospital) and the local team took a "shellacking!"
Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 312