Working to Make Leon Day Reappear

Picture credit score: Nationwide Baseball Corridor of Fame and Museum

They wheeled Leon Day into the hallway. The previous Negro Leagues ace was 78 years outdated and being handled for coronary heart and kidney points. A quiet and reserved man, he was top-of-the-line pitchers of his time—the Satchel Paige of silence; a soft-spoken Bob Feller—however they nonetheless hadn’t let him within the Corridor of Fame.

The marketing campaign to get him into Cooperstown had been taxing and countless. Cellphone calls, arguments, forms, interviews on Larry King. The backing of Ted Williams, Monte Irvin, Bob Feller, numerous different baseball figures, and even Al Gore hadn’t been sufficient to get Day in.

His supporters had begun to lose hope. However after they wheeled him into the hallway, not lengthy after one other HOF vote to find out his destiny, Day was a bit of optimistic. He assumed they’d let him in; they have been ready for him to die.

“The place’s Dr. Hieronimus?” he requested from his wheelchair.

Dr. Bob Hieronimus, an internationally identified historian, visible artist, and radio host, was a detailed private good friend of Day’s and a number one advocate for his Corridor of Fame candidacy. Day by no means referred to as him “Dr. Hieronimus,” solely “Dr. Bob. ” So when he referred to as for him, Dr. Bob knew that Day didn’t wish to be pitied, coddled, or soothed. He needed to know if he would die a Corridor of Famer.

“He was not solely about one of the best pitcher within the Negro Leagues—top-of-the-line, you could possibly undoubtedly say that—however he as an individual was so variety,” Dr. Bob says. “He was not one among your ‘take-over’ form of individuals. And that bought him in huge bother as a result of it meant that most individuals didn’t understand how good he was.”

Dr. Bob had been on the cellphone with representatives, directors, and influencers for years, rattling off Day’s statistics and citing his place in historical past to whoever was on the opposite finish.

“Most of them didn’t imagine that Negro League gamers belonged within the Corridor of Fame. And that was a wake-up name for me. I believed, ‘how within the hell may they nonetheless assume this?’ However they did. There have been lots of people who have been simply not eager about Negro League baseball at the moment. There have been others that didn’t know their Negro League historical past. We bought ourselves in loads of bother.”

There was no bother on this corridor. It was solely pleasure in Dr. Bob’s coronary heart when he approached his good friend, bent down, and informed him the bullshit was over.

He was in.

Day seemed up at him.

“No shit?”

It’s a second that defines the work of the now 79-year-old Dr. Bob, an advocate and lifelong fan of the Negro Leagues. As a child, his stepfather took him to a recreation up in Pennsylvania between a Negro Leagues group and a white group from a metal mill.

“I heard, after they performed baseball, there have been all the time fights and all the time threats and issues of that nature,” Dr. Bob says. “And my stepfather stated, ‘no Bob, that’s not true.’”

His stepfather was proper. There wasn’t going to be a battle on the recreation that evening; not until someone felt embarrassed.

However by the point the metal mill boys have been down one thing like 18-3, everyone may really feel the humiliation within the air. Together with the Negro Leagues group.

There could be no miraculous comeback. The sport ended and the Negro Leaugers hopped on their bus and headed down the street earlier than any bother may end brewing. It was the mistaken time and place to have a good time a win, though they deserved to. It was simply simpler—and safer—to vanish.

“They may see what may occur. They didn’t wish to mash them up,” Dr. Bob says. “And that was a unique aspect of baseball than I ever noticed.”

Disappearing is what loads of the Negro Leagues did. With out their wins recorded, names identified, or tales informed, loads of the gamers and groups missed historical past and went straight into obscurity. It took Main League Baseball nearly 90 years to formally acknowledge that the Negro Leagues have been as a lot part of their previous as Joe DiMaggio and the spitball.

“I feel the world of the Negro League gamers, as a result of now, sadly, all those I knew–dozens and dozens–they’re all lifeless. They’re all lifeless,” Dr. Bob laments. “It’s a really unusual feeling, as a result of now I do know what it means once you say you actually miss someone. I’ll by no means be capable of discuss to Monte Irvin once more.”

***

Earlier than his dying, Leon Day knew how straightforward it was to be forgotten. However Dr. Bob and his associates have labored for years to guarantee that Negro Leagues gamers like Day get their due, even after they’re gone. A part of that’s the work they put into their advocacy campaigns, and a part of it’s the mountain of Negro League artifacts Dr. Bob has in his dwelling: Bats, balls, and posters he had gamers signal each time they have been collectively.

There’s a Satchel Paige bobblehead and a Buck Leonard figurine. A ball signed by 11 Negro League gamers and a bat signed by 4 Corridor of Famers from the All-American Women Skilled Baseball League. He’s crafted his personal souvenirs and commemorative objects simply to have one other floor for his or her signatures. Fragments of the previous, snatched out of time and positioned on a shelf, in order that even when nobody is left who remembers, will nonetheless comprise the moments which have light from minds. It’s what makes them completely irreplaceable.

And now, it’s all gotta go.

You may sift by means of Dr. Bob’s baseball treasures, discover one thing you want, and know each greenback you purchase it with will go towards Dr. Bob’s subsequent challenge:  the Leon Day Statue Undertaking, the last word purpose of which is to construct a statue of Leon Day outdoors Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Day isn’t invisible in Baltimore. He’s bought a road named after him by Camden Yards, a park named after him in Gwynns Falls, a mural bearing his likeness on Greenmount Avenue, a basis named after him made up of historians who arrange baseball packages for metropolis youth. In 2022, he was posthumously inducted into the Maryland State Athletic Corridor of Fame. Day’s doing what he all the time did: Hanging within the background, quiet, ready to be seen.

If you happen to’re a Baltimore baseball legend, there’s an opportunity you’ve bought a statue inside the metropolis limits. 9 of them stand in Oriole Park at Camden Yards alone. Brooks Robinson’s is 9 ft tall and after they unveiled it in 2011, everyone got here.

“When you might have a statue devoted to you, that’s an exquisite tribute,” stated Jeff Idelson, the president of the Nationwide Baseball Corridor of Fame on the time. “The truth that it’s 9 ft tall is acceptable as a result of his accomplishments and his humanity towers above others.”

That’s the form of expression solely a statue can convey; the scale of an individual is set by their impression, not their top. And no baseball followers in Baltimore will argue with the concept that Brooks Robinson was an enormous.

“He’s the kind of ballplayer who must be your kids’s idol,” one stated on the time.

“It’s what he means: his loyalty to town, his integrity,” added one other. “He’s the whole lot you need in an individual.”

Dr. Bob desires Day to be greater than a reputation on a road signal or a plaque in Cooperstown. He desires him to be as well-known in Baltimore, town he performed in and town he died in, as anybody else who already has a statue there. A statue outdoors Camden Yards would be sure that followers go by him on their approach to see Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson, that his identify is learn by individuals caught in foot site visitors, {that a} child may ask his dad and mom who he was.

“We’ve been speaking to many various individuals round our nation and round our world,” says Dr. Bob. “The Negro Leaguers have extra assist than they know. In time, I feel they’re going to seek out that they’re changing into increasingly widespread. And I feel that is going to assist.”

Leon Day and plenty of of his Negro League contemporaries had the pace, the arm, the heater, and the curve to be legends. All they have been lacking was the popularity.

And after they bought it, “It was the world,” Dr. Bob says. “That sounds corny. Nevertheless it was the world.”

***

Day’s profession spanned over a decade, taking part in for the Baltimore Black Sox, Newark Eagles, Homestead Grays, and Philadelphia Stars, in addition to in Mexico. In April 1949, the Elite Giants signed 32-year-old Day to pitch, not lengthy after clearing a spot for him by releasing pitcher Ernest Burke.

Burke was a right-handed curveballer and, in keeping with him, the one black child rising up in Nineteen Thirties Perryville, Maryland. For a very long time, the one sport he performed was rolling a rim or a tire with a stick. When his dad and mom handed away, Burke was taken in by some pleasant French Canadiens who moved him from Maryland to Quebec.

When he turned 18 in 1942, Burke’s authorities knowledgeable him that it was his flip to take a run on the Fuhrer. He grew to become one of many first black Marines and a medal-winning sharpshooter, and nonetheless had time to assist his ball group win the Pacific Championship whereas stationed in Hawaii. Fellow Marine Johnny Wrigley informed him to stay with this baseball factor–he appeared good at it.

As soon as Hitler was lifeless, Burke was in a position to focus extra on baseball than sharpshooting and returned to Maryland. In 1947, he walked on with the Baltimore Elite Giants of the Negro Leagues. After his taking part in profession, Burke resettled in Maryland and located building work in Baltimore whereas caring for his diabetic grandson. Talking at baseball historical past occasions, he did his finest to unfold phrase of the Negro Leagues and the contributions of its gamers, telling gatherings of individuals about taking part in in entrance of a packed Comiskey Park for the Negro League All-Star Sport, getting slurs screamed at him by fuel station attendants, and consuming his favourite street meal, a hunk of bread with a can of beans poured within the center.[1]

“There are such a lot of younger individuals who have by no means heard of the Negro Leagues,” he stated at Orioles FanFest in 1999. “I actually shock them once I say the place I performed and who I performed for.”[2]

Burke died in 2004, however 17 years later, he reappeared in Havre de Grace’s Tydings Park, because of the small however tireless Ernest Burke Memorial Sculpture Committee. On the unveiling of his statue in June 2021, his former teammates suited up of their outdated uniforms. The city council declared his birthday, June 26, “Ernest Burke Day.” The lieutenant governor despatched a number of phrases to be learn by a surrogate. In a speech, Burke’s daughter, additionally a Marine, referred to as him “twisted metal and intercourse attraction.” Then everybody sang “Take Me Out to the Ball Sport.”

The occasion, like Burke’s life, was well-attended. Amongst these in Tydings Park that day have been Dr. Bob and Negro Leagues ambassador Ray Banks. Because the singing transitioned from “Take Me Out to the Ball Sport” to “Pleased Birthday,” Banks had an thought. He leaned over to Dr. Bob and muttered, “You recognize… we may do that for Leon Day in Baltimore.”

As efforts proceed to memorialize Day outdoors Camden Yards (There are back-up areas being thought-about as effectively), there could also be no higher activist to talk to than Camay Calloway Murphy, who spearheaded the Ernest Burke marketing campaign in Havre de Grace. At 96 years outdated, she is aware of learn how to get a statue up.

“You actually need to have the assist of your native authorities. They might not give very a lot, however their assist is vital. And one of many greatest issues is getting the appropriate sculptor—it’s a must to have someone who’s vaguely acquainted with how the stance must be, how the arm must be, what the foot place is, in the event that they’re batting or operating. After all, the Negro League shouldn’t be acquainted to everyone. So fundraising shouldn’t be quite simple. You’ve bought to analysis and discover individuals who love baseball, who’ve cash.”

Murphy and her committee have been lucky in Havre de Grace—the 2 mayors they labored with and a county government all totally supported their efforts, in addition to the Neighborhood Tasks of Havre de Grace and the organizations inside. Former mayor Invoice Martin would inform Murphy each time he noticed her: We’re gonna do that. It’s gonna occur. Don’t hand over. We’re gonna get this statue going.

Like Dr. Bob, Murphy was motivated by a private reference to the determine she was attempting to honor. Her husband had been to Havre de Grace many occasions as a baby, and after they stopped by means of for a go to as adults, a thought entered her head.

“I simply questioned the place the black individuals have been,” Murphy says. “Somebody talked about one thing about Ernest Burke, in regards to the Chat & Chew, an area bar. We went there and so they have been speaking about a few of the highlights of people that’d come from Havre de Grace and so they talked about Ernest Burke.”

By means of a number of connections, Murphy and her husband bought to fulfill Burke and discovered all about him: That he’d been one of many first black Marines, that he’d lived in Canada, that his favourite higher physique exercise was lumberjacking and that he was simply an all-around good fellow. Having heard his story, Murphy grew to become pushed to honor the person, and years later, they unveiled Burke’s statue in Tydings Park.

“That,” she says, “was a second.”

The second has expanded into many others. Ernest Burke’s legacy has been unfold throughout Havre de Grace like a blanket, with numerous packages and initiatives bearing his identify or impressed by his reminiscence.

“It has to go on,” Murphy says. “We have a good time his birthday with the little league gamers, after which we’re growing a scholarship. We’re attempting to maintain one thing going since you’re very quickly forgotten in case you don’t.”

In Baltimore, fundraising for a Leon Day statue is underway, and Dr. Bob and his supporters are on the lookout for a Black, Maryland-based sculptor to do the job, however have additionally spoken to the Detroit-based sculptor who did the Ernest Burke statue. They’ve been in contact with town of Baltimore and the Orioles in regards to the statue, however not since October of final 12 months.

“The final we heard from them was that they have been planning some renovations alongside one aspect, though I feel there was a misunderstanding about which aspect Leon Day Manner was on,” says Laura Cortner, government producer for Hieronimus & Co. “It didn’t sound like we have been speaking about the identical aspect. And that’s the place it dropped. They stated, ‘we’re in the midst of re-signing contracts,’ and we haven’t heard from them since.”

Orioles chairman and CEO John Angelos is a bit of busy proper now, making ready to supply unprecedented entry of his group’s monetary information to reporters and hoping to recapture the superior luck he and his low-cost group skilled throughout the onset of the COVID pandemic.

However Dr. Bob is inspired by one group in Baltimore to which he feels he and his advocates are getting by means of.

Tons of of college children come yearly to the Babe Ruth Museum and the Bert Simmons Museum in Owings Mills. There are instructional shows by Mrs. Leon Day and others like Ray Banks and the Leon Day Basis, and the children, Dr. Bob, have soaked it up.

“I feel that younger individuals in Baltimore in all probability know extra about Leon Day than most adults,” Dr. Bob says. “They’ve grandfathers and fathers that would discuss to them about it and now are opening their mouths. As a result of it was not widespread some years in the past for them to return out and focus on the significance of the Negro Leagues. Different individuals have come to comprehend that I used to be not exaggerating in regards to the capability of the Negro League gamers or the skills of Leon Day.”

Murphy was watching Tremendous Bowl LVII when Patrick Mahomes referenced Jackie Robinson and alluded to the Negro Leagues in an interview.

“I believed that was extraordinarily attention-grabbing,” she says. “You actually don’t know who is aware of what. What I’m attempting to do now could be to get some concentrate on the Elite Giants, or the Black Sox as they have been referred to as earlier, and see if that story can get on the market as a result of I feel it’s an necessary story, and it’s a Baltimore story, and it’s one thing that they need to not let escape and there’s a lot recognition of that group and the individuals who performed on it.”

***

Leon Day bought dwelling from preventing in World Struggle II and hopped in a cab. The driving force instantly gave him shit as a result of he was black. Most days, Day wouldn’t say a phrase, wouldn’t offend a soul, wouldn’t wish to become involved. However on at the present time, again on American soil, Day discovered the phrases.

He went off on the motive force: I simply bought again from abroad, preventing to save lots of your ass. And when Day stepped out of that cab a couple of minutes later, he was dwelling. Later, in his first peacetime begin in three years, he threw a no-hitter.

There’s loads of unrecognized greatness in baseball; loads of unexplored corners and forgotten innings. Plenty of books retell the identical tales and loads of legends are ignored or buried. Monuments can stake a small however impactful little bit of historical past to the current, slowing the erosion of time. Historical past is greater than what’s written down—it’s what’s forgotten.

Final 12 months on thirty third Avenue in Waverly, a mural was put in over a mattress retailer, a barber, a nail salon, and a test cashing place. It portrays a thread connecting a nest of ornithologically right orioles on high of Memorial Stadium to the seams of a baseball touring by means of time. A younger ball participant is ready for it in mid-swing, eye on the ball, like they’re about to ship it over the opposite salon throughout the road and into someone’s beer at Peabody Heights, the place Babe Ruth used to play.

Irrespective of how lengthy a rebuild lasts or how low-cost an proprietor desires to be, baseball will all the time be greater than a reminiscence right here, with pictures and names from its previous throughout city; painted on its partitions, buried in its diamonds, standing in its gardens, 9 ft tall. However you may identify a road after someone with out ever actually realizing the street they walked. And with Baltimore’s baseball historical past, there’s all the time extra to be remembered.

[1] “Negro Leagues Baseball,” Roger Bruns, pgs. 156-159, Greenwood, c. 2012

[2] ”Exhibit chronicles Negro Leagues,” Liz Bowie, The Baltimore Solar, p. 3B, 24 January 1999