Archie Kelsey is another case of a ballplayer who fell into a life of crime.
Based on an 18-9 record with Waterloo (IA) of the Mississippi Valley League in 1925, Archie earned a spot on the Boston Braves' spring roster in 1926. He didn't make the major league team coming out of spring training, but instead was optioned to the Lynn (MA) team. Baseball-reference hasn't recognized that the Archie Kelsey with Waterloo and with Lynn are the same player, so they have two separate records for Archie:
Archie Kelsey Register Statistics & History | Baseball-Reference.com
Archie Kelsey Register Statistics & History | Baseball-Reference.com
The Altoona (PA) Tribune of February 4, 1927 explained the whole picture nicely, as follows: "Archie Kelsey, a young southpaw, was bought from Waterloo, Ind. (sic). He is an Indian, and was farmed out with the Lynn club of the New England League, where he failed to shine as a pitcher, but showed ability as a batter and gave promise of developing into a good outfielder."
Archie was a Winnebago Indian from Tekamah, Nebraska.
In 1932, the newspapers were reporting that he had been sentenced to a 4-year term in the Nebraska state penitentiary for robbery. If that wasn't bad enough, part of the story was that he had already spent four years in prison for breaking and entering. But he was still pitching on prison teams and Tekamah town teams whenever he was given an opportunity. Despite that short experiment in trying to make him an outfielder, his true calling was as a pitcher when he wasn't getting into criminal trouble.
The attached photo is from the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader of Nov. 17, 1925. It shows him in a Waterloo Hawks uniform.