First Negro League Reunion on the Eastern Shore
Sunday marked the first Negro League baseball reunions. This day was devoted to honoring all the men who played baseball way back when.
“The fields were not the fields we see today,” said Howard Smack, a former negro league baseball player. “Bumpy,lumpy, stones – you might twist your ankle running to first base.”
Smack is one of the heads of the current league association. He played for Delaware’s Bridgeville commits back in the 60’s. On Sunday, he and many others piled in to enjoy one of the first Negro League baseball reunions. A lot of the men there had known each other for years.
“You start from 64 up until now we created a friendship,” said Clarence Selby, former Negro League player. “They had a winning streak,” he laughed. “Our team broke that.”
Before television fans uses to flock to eastern shore’s baseball fields. Where those fields were located depended on the color of your skin. More times then not Blacks played in back lots, cornfields, or any clean space that they could field the ball. That was of course until 1932 when The eastern shore’s negro league was created. And the theme of the day is all about honoring the players of the past and the league that paved the way for so many.
“It’s a good day because I can see some of the guys I used to play ball with,” said Clem Jordan, head of the current league association. “It’s nice just to be out and be able to honor some of the black negro league players that played years ago and didn’t get the honor back then.”
The reunion also hosted men that played baseball for the military during the Korean War. Like Linwood Cannon who just celebrated his 83rd birthday.
“I volunteered for the draft in 1951 and then- I played ball for Fort Belvoir and Fort Houston and that’s the first time I ever got to speak to Willie Mays,” said Cannon.
Raymond Moore also played ball during the war and he says reunions like this keep the spirit of the league and what it did for the community alive. Back then the legacies were mostly known by word of mouth so he says the event Sunday brings light to what has been in the dark for sometime.
