A race to catch fading history [baseball's Negro Leaguers are dying out]

Wilmington (DE) Snooze Journal ^ | 12/02/02 | Doug Lesmerises

[foreverfree]

Howard Leroy "Toots" Ferrell was a living, breathing, laughing part of Negro League Baseball history, Delaware history and American history. And now he's gone.

Delaware's last Negro Leaguer died at his home in Wilmington's Compton Apartments on Oct. 11. Ferrell, who was 73, took with him stories, told and untold, of the joys and tribulations of his three seasons in the Negro Leagues.

[foreverfree]

A statue of Judy Johnson stands outside the entrance to Judy Johnson Field at Daniel Frawley Stadium on South Madison Street in Wilmington, DE (exit 6 of Interstate 95).

It sometimes makes my eyes water to think that the likes of Judy Johnson never got the chance to be in the REAL major leagues, because they were the wrong color at the wrong time.

"Wasn't segregation a b*tch?" I asked my mom, and later my dad. They agreed that it was. And we're white.

foreverfree

[WorkingClassFilth]

Being able to catch games played in the Negro Leagues would make a real justification for the development of time travel.

[solzhenitsyn]

Thanks so much for posting this article, foreverfree.

[MarkL]

For what it's worth, you can get some great, narrated stories from Buck O'Neil of the KC Monarchs here

Also, for anyone who's interested, the Negro League Baseball Museum in KCMO has a here

Mark

[foreverfree]

Thanks so much for posting this article, foreverfree.

You're welcome, solzhenitsyn. :-)

foreverfree