![\"colin08\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/colin08.jpg\")
<\/a>Across galaxies of magic summers, members of the Penobscot tribe paddled open-ocean from Indian Island to The Indian Canoe Landing in Kennebunkport, their summer hunting grounds. The old landing still exists across the street from Mabel\u2019s Lobster Claw, between the Kennebunk River Club and Government Wharf.<\/p>\nWhat drew the Penobscots this far south? By the late 1800s, they were hunting tourists, to whom they sold souvenirs such as fragrant sweet-grass baskets in the shape of porcupines. In the long summer evenings, they also liked to play a little baseball.<\/p>\n
According to writer\/researcher Sharon Cummins of Some Old News, the Penobscots took to the mound against affluent summer visitors like \u201csummer resident George Herbert Walker, Jr. [ancestor to presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush]\u201d who hand-picked \u201ca team he called the Blue Stockings.\u201d The perfect name for a team designed to humiliate the locals.<\/p>\n
Time has obscured what the Native Americans were called.<\/p>\n
Things got serious when Henry Parsons donated a diamond near where the Colony Hotel stands today. According to Cummins, \u201cThe Yale groundskeeper was engaged for the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the \u201cbest players at Williams were recruited as were the cr\u00e8me de la creme from Dartmouth and Princeton\u2026none were happier than the young ladies at Cape Arundel, who reportedly scrambled for their dance cards. The [semi-pro] team was referred to as the Collegians by the press, and the name stuck.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s where it gets cinemagic<\/em>. Imagine the summer people\u2019s surprise when Louis Francis Sockalexis floats in from the souvenir stands. He\u2019s more natural than The Natural<\/em>. Quiet guy. Shock of black hair. He hits like a witch and runs like rain. \u201cHe was listed as third baseman on Kennebunkport\u2019s 1902 roster after his brief career as the original Cleveland Indian. Some said he could have been the greatest player of all time…\u201d<\/p>\n Look, Muffy, who\u2019s that fellow out there playing against us?<\/p>\n Sure as Gluskap lives atop Mt. Katahdin, Louis wins the day.<\/p>\n July\/August 2014 Across galaxies of magic summers, members of the Penobscot tribe paddled open-ocean from Indian Island to The Indian Canoe Landing in Kennebunkport, their summer hunting grounds. The old landing still exists across the street from Mabel\u2019s Lobster Claw, between the Kennebunk River Club and Government Wharf. What drew the Penobscots this far south? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":247,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-9895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editor","tag-julyaugust-2014"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9895"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14447,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9895\/revisions\/14447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"