Schoonmaker Goto Baseball Reference for Schoonmaker cf Majors: No
	Minneapolis Position: cf First game: August 15, 1888 Last game: August 15, 1888 # of games: 1	Manager Goodling released all players on August 15, 1888 as he was unable to pay them. The amatuer Lyndales club was brought in for the game that day against Kansas City. Schoonmaker played center field in that game. With the Lyndales players who went up to Kamloops, BC in 1889. Name confirmed as Schoonmaker

In August 1888, the Minneapolis Millers of the Western Association were in financial trouble. Early in the month, they were almost unable to pay the player salaries, but a benefit kept them going for a little longer. On August 15, 1888, Manager William Gooding released the entire club and brought in an amateur club, the Lyndales, to play the game that day against the Kansas City Blues. Nine players took the field that day with the Lyndales. Two of them - Frank March (rf) and Fred Rehse (p) - had played previously with Minneapolis that season. A third player, Allen (ss), may have been James Allen, an amateur from Minneapolis who pitched one game with Sioux City in July. The other six players - Hurn (2b), Nash (1b), Herkimer (3b), Watson (c), McCrum (lf) and Schoonmaker (cf) - were nothing more than last names in the box score for the game. The Lyndales lost 11-1 to the club that came within a few percentage points of winning the Association Championship that season. They had their one day as a professional and went back to their lives.

The following summer, the Lyndales club went to Kamloops, British Columbia to represent that city in a tournament in Vancouver. They stayed to become the champions of the British Columbia that summer. An article about Joseph McCrum in the Vancouver Province (July 13, 1905) lists the team members, including Schoonmaker. The Kamloops Inland Sentinel identifies several members of the club - J. Scoonemaker, along with C. Watson (Charles), H. Hearn (Hank), and J. Herkimer (Joseph) - as they checked into the Grand Palace Hotel in Kamloops on July 13, 1889. The 1890 "Henderson's British Columbia Gazetter and Directory" for Kamloops lists an "A. Schomaker" as a brakeman for the Canadian Pacific Railroad, the same position as Hank Hearn (another Lyndale tranplanted to Kamloops for the summer). No first name has been determined.

A player named Schoonmaker appeared in a few games for Townsend (WA) in 1890. There was also a Schoenmaker who played for Portland in the Pacific Northwest League that same year. It is not clear if this is the same player.

Looking through the 1888 Minneapolis Street Guide, three names pop out - Abram, Albert and Edward Schoonmaker, living at 3108 Garfield. In 1887, the same three are listed as living at 2517 13th av South. In 1886, only Albert and Edward are listed, and in 1885 only Albert shows up. Abram Schoonmaker married Mary Louisa Webster in 1864 in Wisconsin. They had four children - Eddie, Albert, Etta and Ellen. Mary died in May 1889 in Minneapolis, and Abram remarried shortly after (in Livingston Montana, in September 1889). Abram divorced his second wife in Spokane in 1892, and both Abram and Albert show up in the Spokane street guide in 1893.

Albert (Bert) Schonmaker is a reasonable option for the mystery ball player. He became a professional bike racer in Spokane in the 1890s before starting a career as a dentist. He married Matilda Moline in 1898; they had two children. He died in 1960. The one sticking point is his age. Census records from the 1900s (and his WWI draft registration form, and his death certficiate) say he was born in Iowa in 1875. That puts him at age 13 in 1888. However, he wouldn't have shown up a in street guide in 1887 at the age of only 12, suggesting he was older than his records suggest. One source a history of the family of colonial governor John Webster, from whom Mary was descended, indicates Albert was born in 1870. (Page 1232 has a section on Mary Webster and lists her family members.) The book was written in 1915, and the author did not know what became of Mary but knew Abram was living in Spokane in 1895. If Albert was born in 1870, then he would have been 18 in 1888, just old enough to be playing with a club like the Lyndales.

Schoonmaker is likely pictured in a photo of the Kamloops team from 1889, which was published in the Kamloops News on June 10, 1983.

Date	Pos	AB	R	BH	2B	3B	HR	SB	PO	A	E	BB	HPB	K
8-15-1888	cf	3	0	0					3	0	0
1 Games		3	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0