A Moment of Silence Please

Two ballplayers with Detroit ties have recently passed.  Dave Roberts died of lung cancer at age 64.  Exposure to asbestos is the apparent cause of his cancer--he worked during off-seasons as a boiler-maker.  Let that be a lesson to you kids to stay away from asbestos, unless you've got the required hazmat suit on.  Can you imagine a major leaguer now working a second job, or on an unrelated note, shoveling snow four times in 24 hours as we did here in Michigan?   Insert uproarious, sarcasm-laden laughter here.  Mike over at The Daily Fungo has already done a nice piece on Roberts, so click over there.

"Prince" Joe  Henry passed on January 2 at the age of 78.  Joe Henry was a third baseman who played in the waning years of the Negro Leagues for both the Detroit Clowns and the Detroit Stars, among other teams, and then had a bit of a minor league career, but his progress to the majors was hampered by injuries.  The site Pitch Black Baseball has a nice bio of Joe Henry--check it out.

After his baseball career, Henry has quite a number of laudable achievements.  He became the first African American chief steward of the UAW.  He had a column in St. Louis' Riverfront Times called "Ask a Negro Leaguer."  He also wrote a stirring letter regarding pensions, because he was ineligible, even though he was barely scraping by.  If you're interested in his activist side, refer to the cool site Negro Leagues Baseball Player Association.  It's even got a copy of the letter he wrote to the MLB assistance team regarding Negro League pensions, along with some nice articles.

Henry was a showman on the field, hence the nickname "Prince," wearing non-standard clothing during games, and performing various antics, most notably when throwing from third to first, he would begin sprinting toward first before stopping at the last minute to make the throw in time.

Finally, click here for the Free Press' version of AP writer Betsy Taylor's piece on Henry's passing.

Rest well gentlemen.

Norman "Turkey" Stearnes

Kansas State University hosts the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum's e-Museum at:

http://coe.ksu.edu/nlbemuseum/nlbemuseum.html

It's a resource site for teachers, and has profiles of Negro League Teams and personal profiles of many Negro League individuals.

The Detroit Stars were organized in 1919.  The Stars became a charter member of the Negro National League on 1920, and remained until the league disbanded after the 1931 season.  The Stars reemerged twice as new leagues formed in 1933 and 1937.

Norman "Turkey" Stearnes hailed from Nashville, TN, and played for the Stars from 1923-1931, 1933 & 1937.  He was a power-hitting left handed bat, who also hit for good average.  He was a speedy outfielder and base-stealing threat.

Stearnes also played for the Kansas City Monarchs, the Chicago American Giants, and several other Negro League teams.

Turkey Stearns finished his career with 7 home run titles, and a .359 batting average.  Stearnes passed away on September 4, 1979 at the age of 78.  He was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000.

(Source, James A. Riley, The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues, 1994.)

Very sad to me that many like Turkey Stearnes never lived to see their achievements properly lauded.  Although integration came shamefully late to the Detroit Tigers franchise, I'm happy to see that they now host Negro Leagues weekend annually, and make a concerted effort to reach out to African-American baseball fans.