WPMJGA
322 Mall Blvd., #165
Monroeville, PA 15146
United States
ph: 412-292-8175
rocklive
BASEBALL IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY
The Terrace Village Baseball organization was a pivotal part of Pittsburgh’s proud legacy of Negro Baseball in America. It was sandlot baseball at the highest level. The club was formed in the mid to late forties by pioneers of the Negro Baseball Leagues. Some of the original founders, coaches, players and managers played in the Negro Leagues. Harold Tinker, Bill Harris, Bill Berry, and Mr. Peatross were part of the management group for the first Terrace Village teams.
Terrace Village played in the Greater Pittsburgh League which was the premier adult baseball league in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The league consisted of approximately ten teams from Pittsburgh and the surrounding area but the over the years old teams disbanded and new teams were admitted. (Terrace Village, Dormont, Mt. Washington, 20th Ward, North Pittsburgh, Lawrenceville, St. Johns, South Side, North Side Mets, Munhall, Quaker Valley, Robinson Township, Mt. Lebanon, Monroeville, Swissville) These teams represented their communities and had huge followings. In the early years 1947 through 1960, Dormont dominated the league its team consisted of former minor league ball players and was well organized. North Pittsburgh was another strong team with a huge following and usually finished at the top of the league.
20th Ward, Lawrenceville, St. Johns, Terrace Village and Mt Washington fell in the middle of the pack in the period between 1947 and 1960. After 1960 Dormont, Mt Washington and Terrace Village dropped out of the league and Lawrenceville and North Pittsburgh became the perennial leaders followed by St Johns. However in the 70’s and 80’s the picture changed again when Lawrenceville dropped out of the league and the new entrant Monroeville competed with North Pittsburgh and St. Johns for top billing.
In the early years 1947 through 1965 these teams had tremendous followings of loyal boisterous fans who rooted with loud humorous catcalls from the stands. As a pitcher I found it quite amusing to hear fans from one side of the stands calling me rag arm and other notable insults, while my fans were cheering me on and encouraging me to strike out the opposing batters. Often the fans on one side shouted insults to the fans on the opposing side. To me this was often the highlight of the game, especially when I played for Lawrenceville when the manager the renowned Tim Szenski chimed in with his humorous comments to fans, players and umpires.
Each team was headed by a group of dedicated, hardworking men who at great personal sacrifice struggled to keep their teams competitive active and solvent. At Terrace Village, I think of Bill Berry who single handedly kept Terrace Village alive for some five years after his management group retired. Bill Berry struggled to keep the team active and financial with little to no financial support from the community. In the early years, teams could depend on their fan base for financial support. They simply passed the hat and loyal fans and opposing team’s fans dug into their pockets and made generous donations. However after the sixties when the fan base begin to dwindle and sandlot baseball was no longer enjoying the fan base it had in its heyday, managers struggled to keep their teams afloat. The diminishing fan base and rising cost (umpires, equipment, balls, bats and uniforms) made it more challenging than the game itself.
Terrace Village through the years enjoyed one of the best fields in Pittsburgh and in the early years a dedicated loyal fan base filled the stands and surrounded the field and many fans stood and took seats on the hill above home plate and third base. There was literally no available seating or standing room for fans. Every Tuesday and Friday from May through August fans turned out to watch their team.
There were numerous popular players who became local legends in the Hill and throughout Pittsburgh. (Jimmy Watts, Butch and Don Fabrey, Toe Joe Williamson, Doc Shanoenfelt, Charley and Billy Hall, Bill and Sun Smith, Ray Monday, Bob Lee, Peatross, Joe and Jim Atkins, Norman Gant, Jackie Younger, Bill Ford, Slim, Brownie and others).
Yes, Baseball was alive and well in the black community of Pittsburgh and will live on in baseball history as the home of two of the greatest Baseball teams in the Negro Leagues if not all leagues. Pittsburgh was the home of the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Homestead Graves. One of the greatest baseball players who ever put on a uniform played for the Homestead Graves, the legendary Josh Gibson who is renowned for his towering home runs and often compared to Babe Ruth for his explosive hitting.
The Pittsburgh Crawfords was founded by Teenie Harris, (one shot Teenie), better known for his exploits as a photographer and Bill Harris. The Crawfords and the Graves played their home games at the old Washington Park in the lower Hill on the sight recently occupied by the Civic Arena; in the old days this was the lower hill district. Pittsburgh spawned a number of great Black baseball players in the years before 1947 but they were denied an opportunity to play in the Major Leagues. I followed the exploits of some of these great Pittsburgh ball players through the eyes of my Uncles, Jimmy and Joe Atkins.
Joe Atkins played for the Crawfords of the Negro Baseball League and a slew of minor league teams in Canada, Puerto Rica, Dominican Republic and Mexico. He played with other legendary Pittsburgh Black Ball players at the time like Bill and Dave Pope, Gabe Patterson, Dan Bankhead and a host of others whose careers peeked before the color line was broken in 1947.
Although Black baseball declined in Pittsburgh during the years following 1960, we can still claim the likes of Ken Griffey, Richie Allen, and Bill Robinson who made it to the Majors in a big way. There are numerous other great Black ball players in the Pittsburgh area who played in virtual anonymity in the sixties and seventies and I am proud to say that I had an opportunity to play against or coach some of these stellar players in my time. I think of Jackie Giles, a third baseman for North Pittsburgh, Philip, Skip Kiszie, who played at Lawrenceville, Scottie Payne and Howard Porter who played at St. Johns.
Then there were my ballplayers. As coach and manager of Terrace Village from 1971 – 1988, I had the privilege of managing some of the best ball players the world has never seen or heard of. Some of my players were extremely talented. Having played ball all over this great country I would rank my ball players with some of the best I have ever seen. Initially, I found it extremely difficult to find good Black ball players when I returned from Viet Nam in the early Seventies. I had to compete with basketball and football for athletes. Baseball took a back seat to Basketball and football after the sixties. Although, the first three teams we fielded were to put it mildly awful. Then several of our ballplayers in those early years helped me to recruit and find good ballplayers. My fraternity brothers, George Lewis and Buzzy Hariston recruited several ballplayers from Pitt. Then Richard Alsberry and Jim Trent helped to recruit several ballplayers from the Beltzhoover and North Side areas. Soon we found our stride as the young dedicated ballplayers begin to find us. Then my greatest challenge was finding and or holding onto good pitchers, shortstops and third basemen. I would like to think we were one pitcher and shortstop away from a championship in any given year after our bad start.
I found several pitchers but never more than one or two in any given year. Our first steady pitcher was Ron Ransom who anchored our staff in the first four years. Ronnie possessed a curve ball and a fast ball that had strange movements. I don’t believe Ron knew what it would do once he threw it. Then we had a collection of pitchers that followed; there was Denny Hawthorne, a tall talented lefty, Doug McClung, a hard throwing right hander who anchored the staff in the middle years. In those first years we had a slew of pitchers that played for a year or two including a few local football and baseball legends who hurled for a year or two. Archie Mcgill, Carmel Stewart Maurice Brown and Dave Smith were all very talented but their hearts were not in baseball. I thought we hit our stride when we got Howard Dimps, Walt Francis and Bill Davis. All were experienced pitchers young and talented but Bill only played for a year and Walt two.
We had good shortstops and third basemen, we just never had them for more than a year or two. I thought we solved our problem in our fourth year we got a shortstop who could hit field flawlessly and he was a great, mature team player, Bob Buchannan. However, I guess I worked against our own best interest. I helped him find a job with Rockwell and they moved him out of town in the middle of our season.
A year or two later I recruited another great shortstop, Cody and we unfortunately only had him for two years. Cody could do it all. He could hit; he covered the field like a blanket and he had a tremendous arm. Cody was a legitimate major league prospect. However, unfortunately racism was still alive and kicking in the major leagues. Cody was rejected by two major league teams and he took his second rejection extremely hard. Shortly thereafter he had a brake-down in the middle of a game. Cody never played again.
We had a third baseman that played for us in our fourth or fifth year, Melvin Payne. Melvin was recruited by Pitt as a running back out of Atlanta Georgia. Although he was a running back with speed, power and agility, he never had an opportunity to start at Pitt because he had the misfortune of playing behind Tony Dorsett. We tagged Melvin with the nickname Angry because he was. He was not only upset about football at Pitt but he was also upset with the baseball coach who relegated him to the bench.
I understand Melvin’s frustration because he was no doubt one of the best ball players to play in the Greater Pittsburgh League. He hit over five hundred during the course of his two year stint with us. He was no easy out; he had a complete skill set and he played with reckless abandon. Melvin had an arm, power, speed and he was flawless in the field, another victim of baseball’s racism.
Another year or so after Melvin, we got Phillip Scales, a scrappy good hitting third baseman who was an excellent fielder. Phil was a greater leader and team player who kept the teams spirit high. He was a delight to coach and I thought we had finally found our permanent third baseman. He was older, mature and settled. He no longer had the dream of playing major league ball. He played so many of us for the joy of the game. He was perfect to have around. We lost Phil to a beaning incident against Monroeville.
This could have caused a riot with any other team but I had to calm my players at all times. In order to get a team in the Greater Pittsburgh League, I had to agree to a whole host rules that included no fighting ever or we would be banned from the league. It also included rules regarding fan behavior and stealing or breaking into cars. So in addition to managing the team, I had to manage the crowd and act as a policeman. No other team had these restrictions. Of course we were the only predominately Black team in the league. A fact that caused us serious grief throughout our 18 year run in the league from 1971 – 1988. The umpires frequently found it difficult to find the strike zone for our pitchers but uncannily found it too frequently for our hitters; for our hitters the strike zone was stretched from the ankle to the top of the head and for our pitchers, it was the belt buckle. I any event we suffered the loss of Phil silently and angrily.
We eventually found a third baseman and an adequate shortstop in our glory years to go along with our collection of all stars but we never found a steady pitching staff to complement our everyday players. I don’t think any team could match our cast of players. In reference to the Pirates of the late seventies and early eighties, the team designated themselves Lumber & Lightening and selected Black and gold uniforms with home and away jerseys. The team was sharp, proud and talented. We attracted attention everywhere we played.
It was a privilege and a pleasure to watch this team. We had a talented group of players. Our catcher was Jeffrey Rudolph, a big strapping ball player with a strong accurate arm; and hit towering memorable home runs frequently over Kennard Fields right and center field fence. Jeffrey had no peer. At first base we had Mike Freeland a big Right handed hitter who great frequency hit the ball into the second baseball field at Kennard field. Mike hit some of the longest home runs I have ever seen. In fact opposing teams often played him in the second ball field at Kennard field which at least 450 feet straight away. Our second baseman was Rock Robinson who was an awesome fielder who possessed great range and a strong arm. Rock hit over 400 in his career with Terrace village and he hit with power.
In the outfield was anchored by Delani Howard, Gene Ashley, Dave Young and Mike Wade. Delani was a consummate athlete who possessed all the skills you would want in a complete ball player. He was an excellent fielder who hit with power and for average. Gene Ashley was a perfect complement he was also an excellent fielder who was fast and hit for average Dave and Mike were stellar ballplayers who were mature steady and talented who brought a sense of confidence to the team.
My goal in organizing Terrace Village in 1971 was to bring baseball back to the Black community. I played in the Greater Pittsburgh League and I never saw more than a sprinkling of Black players in the fifties and sixties. North Pittsburgh had two and St Johns had two each and the other teams in the league had zero.
I thought a team in the Hill would provide an outlet for Black youth to extend their playing careers beyond high school and give them an opportunity to reach the major leagues. I also hoped that it would encourage young kids in the community to play baseball.
My greatest disappointment was the racism and our failure to have anyone signed to a major league contract. I believed that we had at least six players that should have been signed and could have played in the majors. I frequently asked scouts why they refused to sign our players. They had no response. They could not defend their reluctance because our players had all the request skills speed, arms and hitting. Everything the scouts want in a prospect.
Pittsburgh remains a very tough town for the Black baseball player. My hope would be that someday, someone will come along to organize baseball in the Black communities of Pittsburgh continue the proud legacy of this city.
FRED MYERS,
Manager Terrace Village 1971-1988
WPMJGA
322 Mall Blvd., #165
Monroeville, PA 15146
United States
ph: 412-292-8175
rocklive