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 previous and being handled for coronary heart and kidney points. A quiet and reserved man, he was among the best 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. Telephone 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 once they wheeled him into the hallway, not lengthy after one other HOF vote to find out his destiny, Day was somewhat optimistic. He assumed they’d let him in; they had been ready for him to die.

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

Dr. Bob Hieronimus, an internationally recognized historian, visible artist, and radio host, was an in depth private buddy 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 the most effective pitcher within the Negro Leagues—among the best, you possibly can positively say that—however he as an individual was so form,” Dr. Bob says. “He was not one in all your ‘take-over’ sort of individuals. And that received him in large 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 consider 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 had been simply not serious about Negro League baseball at the moment. There have been others that didn’t know their Negro League historical past. We received ourselves in numerous bother.”

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

He was in.

Day appeared 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, once 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 combat on the recreation that evening; not except someone felt embarrassed.

However by the point the metal mill boys had 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 highway earlier than any bother may end brewing. It was the unsuitable time and place to have fun a win, although they deserved to. It was simply simpler—and safer—to vanish.

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

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

“I believe the world of the Negro League gamers, as a result of now, sadly, all those I knew–dozens and dozens–they’re all useless. They’re all useless,” 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 to speak to Monte Irvin once more.”

***

Earlier than his demise, Leon Day knew how easy it was to be forgotten. However Dr. Bob and his associates have labored for years to ensure 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 house: Bats, balls, and posters he had gamers signal each time they had 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 Ladies 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 include the moments which have light from minds. It’s what makes them completely irreplaceable.

And now, it’s all gotta go.

You can sift through 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 venture:  the Leon Day Statue Project, the last word aim of which is to construct a statue of Leon Day outdoors Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Day isn’t invisible in Baltimore. He’s received a avenue 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.

For those who’re a Baltimore baseball legend, there’s an opportunity you’ve received 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 once they unveiled it in 2011, everyone got here.

“When you’ve got a statue devoted to you, that’s an exquisite tribute,” said 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 sort of expression solely a statue can convey; the scale of an individual is decided by their influence, not their top. And no baseball followers in Baltimore will argue with the concept Brooks Robinson was an enormous.

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

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

Dr. Bob desires Day to be greater than a reputation on a avenue signal or a plaque in Cooperstown. He desires him to be as well-known in Baltimore, the town he performed in and the town he died in, as anybody else who already has a statue there. A statue outdoors Camden Yards would be certain that followers go by him on their technique to see Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson, that his identify is learn by individuals caught in foot 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 believe they’re going to search out that they’re turning into increasingly fashionable. And I believe that is going to assist.”

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

And once they received it, “It was the world,” Dr. Bob says. “That sounds corny. However it was the world.”

***

Day’s profession spanned over a decade, enjoying 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 response to 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 turned 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 instructed him to stay with this baseball factor–he appeared good at it.

As soon as Hitler was useless, 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 enjoying profession, Burke resettled in Maryland and located building work in Baltimore whereas taking good care of 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 enjoying in entrance of a packed Comiskey Park for the Negro League All-Star Recreation, getting slurs screamed at him by gasoline station attendants, and consuming his favourite highway 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 said 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, due to 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 previous uniforms. The city council declared his birthday, June 26, “Ernest Burke Day.” The lieutenant governor despatched just a few 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 Recreation.”

The occasion, like Burke’s life, was well-attended. Amongst these in Tydings Park that day had been Dr. Bob and Negro Leagues ambassador Ray Banks. Because the singing transitioned from “Take Me Out to the Ball Recreation” to “Pleased Birthday,” Banks had an concept. He leaned over to Dr. Bob and muttered, “… 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 previous, she is aware of methods to get a statue up.

“You actually need to have the assist of your native authorities. They could not give very a lot, however their assist is vital. And one of many largest issues is getting the appropriate sculptor—you must have someone who’s vaguely conversant in how the stance ought to be, how the arm ought to be, what the foot place is, in the event that they’re batting or operating. In fact, the Negro League will not be acquainted to everyone. So fundraising will not be quite simple. You’ve received to analysis and discover individuals who love baseball, who’ve cash.”

Murphy and her committee had 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 Community Projects of Havre de Grace and the organizations inside. Former mayor Bill Martin would inform Murphy each time he noticed her: We’re gonna do that. It’s gonna occur. Don’t surrender. 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 once they stopped via for a go to as adults, a thought entered her head.

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

By way of just a few connections, Murphy and her husband received to satisfy 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 turned 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 varied packages and initiatives bearing his identify or impressed by his reminiscence.

“It has to go on,” Murphy says. “We have fun 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 when 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 the town of Baltimore and the Orioles concerning the statue, however not since October of final yr.

“The final we heard from them was that they had been planning some renovations alongside one aspect, though I believe 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 had been speaking about the identical aspect. And that’s the place it dropped. They stated, ‘we’re in the course of re-signing contracts,’ and we haven’t heard from them since.”

Orioles chairman and CEO John Angelos is somewhat busy proper now, getting ready to offer unprecedented entry of his group’s monetary information to reporters and hoping to recapture the awesome 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 via.

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

“I believe 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 speak to them about it and now are opening their mouths. As a result of it was not fashionable some years in the past for them to come back out and focus on the significance of the Negro Leagues. Different individuals have come to understand that I used to be not exaggerating concerning the capacity of the Negro League gamers or the talents 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 had been referred to as earlier, and see if that story can get on the market as a result of I believe 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 received house from preventing in World Battle 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 this present day, again on American soil, Day discovered the phrases.

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

There’s numerous unrecognized greatness in baseball; numerous unexplored corners and forgotten innings. A number of books retell the identical tales and numerous 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 yr 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 prime of Memorial Stadium to the seams of a baseball touring via 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.

Regardless 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’ll be able to identify a avenue after someone with out ever actually understanding the highway 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