Summer of Palms

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Summer of Palms takes the reader back to a time when communities placed a high priority on having a professional baseball club for the publicity and entertainment it brought to a city. This comprehensive research work frames the story of the 1926 Fort Myers Palms minor league baseball team within the story of John Wall Hendry, a young, energetic, Fort Myers real estate dealer who was intensely passionate about baseball. Leveraging the wealth he accumulated during the Florida land boom, Hendry secured a professional baseball franchise for the City of Fort Myers. In 1926, the Palms won more games than any team in the Florida State League! When poor attendance at their home games at Terry Park led to financial difficulties the team tried everything from merchant day promotions to hosting boxing matches to make ends meet. Faced with the real possibility of losing the franchise, the Lions club intervened, raising money to keep the team in Fort Myers.

Citing primary sources of the day, Summer of Palms includes comprehensive player and team statistics compiled from the box scores of each game and includes information about members of the Fort Myers Palms baseball club before and after the 1926 season.