Judy Johnson memorial fundraiser auction held
BERLIN, Md. – Dozens of items from throughout baseball history were up for auction Friday at the Atlantic Hotel.
Signatures from all time greats like Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, and Ted Williams. As well as those from the Negro Leagues.
This auction has a special purpose for Worcester County, raising money for the Judy Johnson Memorial in Snow Hill.
Joe Mitchell is the founder of the Judy Johnson Memorial Foundation in Wilmington, Delaware. He supplied almost a hundred items up for auction.
Mitchell met Johnson during an autograph session with Bob Boone, a catcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, in 1976.
“I walked over to him and asked if by chance if he was Judy Johnson. Smile on his face, finally someone recognized him,” said Mitchell. “He was the 140th inducted into the hall of fame, from 1939 when it opened, and nobody out of those hundreds of fans there knew who he was.”
The two formed a tight friendship that only grew tighter over the years, like back in 1985 when the two lost their wives in the same calendar year.
“We’d sit in the living room with the shades all drawn and he cried openly to me,” said Mitchell.
Johnson was a trailblazer. Breaking in to the Negro Leagues in 1921, a time when life in organized black baseball was a day-to-day struggle during Jim Crow segregation.
“When these guys went to play ball, they drove three or four hours in a car. They got out, what are you going to do to go to the bathroom, whites only. When you go to eat, whites only,” said Newt Weaver, the president of the Worcester County Historical Society.
Over his 17-year career in the Negro Leagues, Johnson played along side other greats like Cool Papa Bell, Josh Gibson, and Oscar Charleston. Teammates on the legendary 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords.
Following Johnson’s death in 1989, Mitchell made it his goal to continue to spread his legacy.
Friday, he continued his mission, all to help the Snow Hill native get the recognition he deserves in his hometown.
“I just decided to keep something going to keep his memory alive. That was my biggest mission and I think I’ve accomplished that to a certain degree,” said Mitchell.
Weaver says their goal was to raise $5,000 Friday night. They need $10,000 to pay off the memorial, which will soon stand in front of the Snow Hill Library.
