In 1910, the sheriff of Rawlins, Wyoming, helped death row inmates start a prison baseball team that led to rumors they would have their executions delayed or stayed as long as they continued to win.
It started when Sheriff Felix Alston took over from his predecessor, allowing inmates to leave their cells and get some fresh air outside on the prison grounds – the first time they had been outside since the Wyoming State Penitentiary opened 10 years earlier. Outside, the group played baseball, and Alston noticed that some of the prisoners were extremely talented.
So, he asked his friend, then-Wyoming Governor Joseph Carey, if he could form a baseball team using the prisoners. Carey, a known gambler, let Alston form The Wyoming State Penitentiary All Stars in the hopes that he would be able to make a profit off the team.
The inmates received team uniforms and were set to play a local company team called the Wyoming Supply Company Juniors, with the All Stars winning 11 to 1.
Some of the inmates helped fill seats by garnering sympathy from sports fans and journalists, including Joseph Seng. Seng was the star player on the team, and had been convicted of killing his girlfriend’s husband, hoping she would run away with him. People were so enamored with Seng they wrote letters to Governor Carey asking to reduce Seng’s sentence.
It was around this time, in 1911, when Alston reportedly made it clear to the players that if they kept winning, he could stay their executions, The Independent reported.
George Saban was another sympathetic player and the captain of the team, according to the History Collection. He was reportedly a rancher who had killed other farmers encroaching on his land, something some people could still respect in Wyoming at the time. Alston, who personally arrested Saban, reportedly sympathized with Saban and even allowed him to leave the prison in civilian clothes during the day, though he had an armed police officer with him. Saban was required to return to the prison to sleep, but was otherwise treated like a free man.
With the team succeeding, the baseball players began receiving special treatment in prison, including more food. When other prisoners heard a rumor that star player Seng might have the death penalty removed from his sentence, they became incensed – and someone even tried to kill him on the day he was supposed to be executed.
Seng survived, and Alston blamed the delay of the execution on bureaucracy. Still, the rumor persisted, with team captain Saban furthering it to motivate players to continue to play well.
The rumors surrounding the team spread far and wide about the death row inmates playing baseball to have their lives spared, with some suggesting the governor was involved.
In response, Governor Carey started a new campaign aimed at gambling in an attempt to seem like he was not involved. Under the heavy pressure, Alston ended the baseball team and moved the funding toward an education program, which gained him respect in the local community.
Seng was put to death one year after his original execution date.
Other players, including Leroy Cooke, Horace Donavan, and William Boyer, were put to death soon after Seng. Ten more players were also executed. Saban, the team captain, managed to escape prison and was never recaptured, the only player who managed to escape the death penalty, The Independent reported.