A baseball journey that began in Lindsborg, Kansas took Del Lundgren from Little Sweden to the Big Leagues in the 1920s.
Del played his first professional games for the Salina Millers before being signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates. On April 27, 1924, Del strode to the mound at Chicago’s Wrigley Field for his first start in the Major Leagues against the Cubs. He gave up six hits and four runs in 5 1/3 inning of work and took the loss in the 4-2 final. Through the month of May, Del was used seven times in a relief roll before the Pirates sent him to Alabama to sharpen his skills in Class A ball with the Birmingham Barons.
Del Lundgren was born and raised in Lindsborg and pitched in 56 games in the big leagues for Pittsburgh and Boston between 1924 - 1927.
Del battled against some of the greatest names in the game: Lou Gerhig, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker and even Babe Ruth (who went 4 for 4 against Del including two doubles and a home run).
Lundgren was a workhorse on the mound, pitching in 202 minor league games with four different teams, including the Salina Millers, Birmingham Barons, Nashville Volunteers, and Minneapolis Millers. Altogether, Lundgren's professional baseball career spanned the period 1922-1930.
According to the Society for American Baseball Research, he was a relatively slight pitcher, weighing 160 pounds and standing 5’ 8”; a right-hander named Ebin Delmer Lundgren. His father, Carl, was a native of Sweden and a boarding room keeper in Lindsborg around the time Ebin was born there on September 21, 1899. Carl’s wife Ella, an Iowan born to two Swedish parents, gave birth to seven children, of which Del (as he became known) was the third. Carl farmed for a while, eventually becoming a teamster with his own heavy load wagon or dray wagon by 1920.
Del married Ann Lee Enoch in September 1928 in Franklin, Tennessee. The Lundgrens lived in Lindsborg and Topeka, and had a son and three daughters. When he died at home after a short illness at the age of 85 on October 19, 1984, he was survived by his wife, the four children, and 14 grandchildren. He is buried in Lindsborg at the Elmwood Cemetery.
Photo by Isaac Garretson
On the cover: Boston Red Sox team photo from 1927. Del is kneeling, front row on the far left. Photos courtesy Kansas Historical Society.