Fat Men's Baseball Club Waterloo, Iowa (1910)

 

The Fat Men's Amusement Company
(From The Des Moines Register. June 19, 1910)

Frank C. Kee of Waterloo, Iowa, traveled the United States in 1909 and 1910 putting together the fat men’s baseball club. When he finished, the team had a combined weight of 4,487 pounds (about twice the weight of a Clydesdale horse). 

Although the team members were big, the Des Moines Register told its readers, there was nothing funny about the way they played baseball. “Their lining up at the lunch counter when out on the road,” said the paper, “is the immediate signal for the proprietor to send out for additional supplies.” 

 

“Baby” Bliss, the first baseman, weighed in at 650 pounds and was thought to be the heaviest man in the world. E, Holm, the pitcher, weighed 350 pounds. J. A. Brownwell, the second baseman weighed 400 pounds, outfielder Harry Vorwold weighed 325 pounds, shortstop Ed J. Sheean weighed 390 pounds, and W. B. Hinds, the third baseman, tipped the scale at 400 pounds. And strange as it may seem, Oliver Kimball, the umpire, was a teensy guy who stood 4 foot tall and weighed 138 pounds.