John Philip Sousa considered baseball America’s greatest sport and Washington, DC the birthplace of professional baseball.  His world-renowned Sousa Band also served as his baseball team whenever they were given opportunities to play other communities’ baseball teams while on many of their concert tours.  This photograph of the Sousa Band baseball team includes in the back row (left to right) John Philip Sousa, Jr. [wearing the Nassau jersey], Emil Preiss (clarinet), unidentified, unidentified, Abe Levy (clarinet), and unidentified, and in the front row (left to right) A. W. Bauer (trombonist), Ted Levy (cornet), John Philip Sousa, Henry Higgins (cornet), and unidentified.  The gentleman standing in the suit in the back row is probably the writer of a 1902 newspaper article that featured the Sousa Band’s baseball team.  John Philip Sousa, Jr. played first base for Princeton University in 1902, and often played on the Sousa Band’s team whenever possible.

Scott Schwartz talks about the early years of American baseball and Sousa’s love of the game in the special episode, “The Games We Play,” which was recorded last month for the University of Illinois Bands monthly Podcasts about America’s and the University’s unique band heritage and its influences on today’s music students.  To learn more about Sousa’s baseball team listen to the full November 21st broadcast by visiting https://www.bands.illinois.edu/episodes/.