Local baseball history was shared this past weekend at the Geary County Historical Society Museum.

Phil Dixon, Baseball Historian, is on a 90 city tour presenting the history of the Negro Leagues and the games played by the Kansas City Monarchs in the 1920’s through the 1940’s.

During Dixon’s program in Junction City he explained that the Monarchs played a number of games in Junction City, and one of the players was a Junction City native.

“George Giles played for the Kansas City Monarchs. He came up in 1927 as a rookie. He originally came to the team in 1925 and actually didn’t make the cut. They sent him to another team called the Kansas City Royals, not the Kansas City Royals of the American League, but an all black Kansas City Royals,” Dixon said.

Giles remained in the league with the Monarchs up until 1939.

Dixon explained that from his research earlier games that were played in Junction City were played at the “New” Park, which he now believes may have been the Union Pacific Railroad Park. Games were then moved to Rathert Field following it’s completion in the 1930’s.