GaryMrMets
10-20-2004, 12:51 AM
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/sports/9956957.htm
Posted on Tue, Oct. 19, 2004
Stars are out again
Negro League team honored at park groundbreaking
By MARK KRAM
kramm@phillynews.com
At the very place they played baseball so many summers ago in a small ballpark at Belmont and Parkside, the five surviving members of the Philadelphia Stars Negro League team convened yesterday for an event that each agreed is long overdue: The groundbreaking for a park to commemorate their deeds, the centerpiece for which is to be a 7-foot bronze statue to be erected sometime next spring.
The five Stars in attendance were Mahlon Duckett, Stanley Glenn, Wilmer Harris, Bill Cash and Harold Gould. Wearing old uniform tops, the five remembered how it was in the days before baseball integrated 1947, when black stars such as a Oscar Charleston, Josh Gibson, "Cool Papa" Bell and others played for what Duckett called "the love of the game." For years, they labored in obscurity, yet became pioneers who ushered Jackie Robinson across the color line to the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Cash said the attention the old Negro League stars are now getting is "great, even if it is late in coming."
Glenn remembered his forgotten teammates. "To have this come about, I am reminded of all the guys I played with long ago," Glenn said. "I know how happy they would be to know that this was going on."
Harris added that he is "grateful that it is finally happening." He hopes that the statue and the park serve to educate generations still unborn of the way it once was. "I would like them to know the history of it," said Harris, who praised Robinson for his bravery. "Not many of us could have took what he took. He had the stamina and courage to take that abuse."
Said Gould: "I would like for younger generations to realize how it great it is today - and how it got that way. I worry that players today take too many things for granted and have no knowledge of who we were."
Gould added that it was "nice to see this happening, especially now that we are all in the autumn of our years."
Community support of the project has been enthusiastic, some of which has come from the Phillies.
Plans include a Philadelphia Stars Museum and the building of a Little League baseball field.
Posted on Tue, Oct. 19, 2004
Stars are out again
Negro League team honored at park groundbreaking
By MARK KRAM
kramm@phillynews.com
At the very place they played baseball so many summers ago in a small ballpark at Belmont and Parkside, the five surviving members of the Philadelphia Stars Negro League team convened yesterday for an event that each agreed is long overdue: The groundbreaking for a park to commemorate their deeds, the centerpiece for which is to be a 7-foot bronze statue to be erected sometime next spring.
The five Stars in attendance were Mahlon Duckett, Stanley Glenn, Wilmer Harris, Bill Cash and Harold Gould. Wearing old uniform tops, the five remembered how it was in the days before baseball integrated 1947, when black stars such as a Oscar Charleston, Josh Gibson, "Cool Papa" Bell and others played for what Duckett called "the love of the game." For years, they labored in obscurity, yet became pioneers who ushered Jackie Robinson across the color line to the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Cash said the attention the old Negro League stars are now getting is "great, even if it is late in coming."
Glenn remembered his forgotten teammates. "To have this come about, I am reminded of all the guys I played with long ago," Glenn said. "I know how happy they would be to know that this was going on."
Harris added that he is "grateful that it is finally happening." He hopes that the statue and the park serve to educate generations still unborn of the way it once was. "I would like them to know the history of it," said Harris, who praised Robinson for his bravery. "Not many of us could have took what he took. He had the stamina and courage to take that abuse."
Said Gould: "I would like for younger generations to realize how it great it is today - and how it got that way. I worry that players today take too many things for granted and have no knowledge of who we were."
Gould added that it was "nice to see this happening, especially now that we are all in the autumn of our years."
Community support of the project has been enthusiastic, some of which has come from the Phillies.
Plans include a Philadelphia Stars Museum and the building of a Little League baseball field.