2026 Conference Presentation Guide
Willie Wilson, Keynote Speaker
Willie James Wilson (born July 9, 1955) is an American former professional baseball player. He played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Kansas City Royals, Oakland Athletics, and Chicago Cubs. He was an outfielder known for his speed and ability as an effective leadoff hitter. Wilson's career total of 668 stolen bases currently ranks him in 12th place all-time among major leaguers.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Wilson_(baseball)
Drew "Wilkes Booth" Frady
Drew "Wilkes Booth" Frady began his Vintage Base Ball journey as a first base tender and hurled for the Denver Blue Stockings in 1992. He was a founding member of the CVBBA in 1993 then moved to the Big Apple where he played ball with the Old Bethpage Village Restoration Baseball League, before deciding the regular weekend commute from Manhattan to Long Island was too... long! In 1997 he created the New York Gotham Base Ball Club- based on one of NYC's earliest teams and then returned to Colorado in 2004. Finally, he started the Canon City Interocean Base Ball Club in Canon City, Colorado in 2016 before retiring from the Grand Old Game in 2020. Drew spends his time now raising 2 children with his wife, Susan, fronting a classic rock cover band called Frady Catz and, on the side, sells real estate.
Andrew J. Schiff
Andrew J. Schiff’s biography of Henry Chadwick (1824 – 1908) is a welcome addition to the bumper crop of books on the fertile subject of baseball. Generally regarded as baseball’s father, Chadwick has gradually slipped into near obscurity. Schiff’s major contribution has been to rescue his subject from that dark hole that is our throwaway culture. In a cogently argued thesis, Schiff persuades this reader that Chadwick matters. Among his many contributions to our national game, the most important is the invention of the scorecard and the application of statistics. In addition, Chadwick served as rule-maker, historian, publicist, promoter, and moralist. Baseball historian David Q. Voigt regarded him as a modern Moses (7).
Paul “The Magician” Cunningham
The Story of the founding and evolution of PK Custom Cards and Collectibles
Eric “Squarehead” Berg
VBBA Historian
Educator, Minnesota Twins, former Philosophy Professor, Bemidji State University
I earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy in 2005 from the University of Kansas, with this comes many years of research experience. I have taught as a college professor since 2005 and this has sharpened my communication skills. I have given many public and academic talks on the early game of baseball over the years.
I presented my work on Prince Honeycutt at the national conference in Detroit in 2022. Prince Honeycutt was an African American ballplayer that started a team in Fergus Falls, Minnesota in 1873.
