Klein Chocolate Company

The Klein Chocolate Company was a chocolate company in Elizabethtown, PA that sponsored a potent baseball team in 1919. Elizabethtown was located on a railroad stop where many major league teams stopped and the chocolate company's owner thought fielding a competitive team against major leaguers would be great publicity. They went 7-4 against such teams that year, though (as with Negro League-major league exhibitions of the period), the MLB teams didn't play all their regulars, starting some and resting others in a low-stakes contest. They also faced the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants as well as other top amateur teams, finishing 69-14-2 overall; only the Bacharach Giants and New York Giants won the season series against them.

The chocolate company gave out candy bars for home runs as an added PR boost. The feat is still impressive and the company had several future or former major leaguers. They were managed by former major leaguer John Brackenridge, who also recruited for the team. Among the players to fill the roster that year were Russ Wrightstone (.338), Glenn Killinger, Hank Ritter, Tony Walsh, Irvin Trout, George Hunter, Earl Potteiger, Walter Harned, Hinkey Haines, Babe Brown, Dick Kauffman, Frank Brannon (.325), Bill Kay (.358), Bill Cranston and Norman Plitt. The company fielded teams from 1920-1932 but could not match their 1919 success and the company was sold to M&M Mars in 1970.

Further Reading

• Russ Walsh: "The Klein Chocolate Company Baseball Team's Remarkable 1919 Season", Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Volume 51, Number 2 (Fall 2022), pp. 31-38.