|
|||||||||||||
Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
Negro League champs visit Purcellville
Living baseball history visited Purcellville Sept. 20, when four former Negro Leaguers signed autographs and reminisced about their days with the Harrisburg (Pa.) Giants.
Outfielder Jim Weedon, pitcher Ed Nork, shortstop Bruno DiMartile and pitcher/author Willie Fordham were part of the Emancipation Day celebration at the Carver Center. Their appearance was sponsored by Greater Loudoun Babe Ruth.
"We want people to know who we are," Weedon said. The foursome helped the 1954 Giants to the Negro Eastern League championship, compiling a 16-6 record to edge the Pittsburgh Crawfords by a game.
"That's a memory we'll never forget," Fordham said of the title.
Nork jokingly remembered that Harrisburg's Dauphin County was dry then, so Sunday's clinching victory was a nonalcoholic celebration.
DiMartile and Weedon were All-Stars with the Giants, while Nork and the lefty Fordham were renowned pitchers. Nork once struck out 19 batters in a complete-game win and Fordham pitched a no-hitter.
The four, who played together in 1954 and '55, recalled Satchel Paige bringing his barnstorming squad to Harrisburg. In the late 1940s, Willie Mays roamed center field in Harrisburg as a member of the Trenton team.
In the 1920s, Winchester native Spottswood Poles, known as "The Black Ty [Cobb]," was a legendary hitter and base runner for several Negro League teams, including the Giants.
Fordham, author of "I Gave It My Best Shot," which seeks to motivate young people to follow their dreams, received a tryout with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1952.
With the integration of Major League Baseball in 1947, by the mid-1950s the loose collection of clubs and circuits that had comprised the Negro Leagues for decades was dissolving. The Giants were the first Negro League club to integrate, with three white players on the roster.
"Color was not involved at all. We were just baseball players," said Nork, one of three white Giants along with DiMartile and catcher John Peters.
Weedon echoed the notion.
"We were just ballplayers," said the 85-year-old, who still plays softball. "We played baseball because we loved to play baseball."
The Giants played before crowds exceeding 2,000 spectators on City Island Park, the same grounds used by the modern-day Harrisburg Senators, the Washington Nationals' Double-A affiliate.
Playing mostly on weekend nights, the players earned about $200 per month and "all you can eat" from local restaurants, according to Fordham. Each player had a day job and played sandlot ball on weeknights to stay sharp.
Bob Smedile, president of the ex-Giants' sponsor, Greater Loudoun Babe Ruth, will propose using Negro League nicknames and uniforms beginning in spring 2009 to the GLBR board.
The former Negro Leaguers anticipate returning to Purcellville. "We've been received great," Nork said. "Hope to be back next year."
You must be logged in to post a comment.