Results matching “polio” from York Town Square

The New York Giants' Willie Mays makes what has become known as "The Catch" of York County native and Cleveland Indians Vic Wertz's long fly ball in the 1954 World Series. Mays amazing play overshadowed Wertz's stellar performance in that series. Background posts: Who were most prominent 20th-century sports heroes in York and Adams counties? and York County sports a miniature Cooperstown and Story answers much about great athlete Hinkey Haines, including origin of his nickname.

I've written before about York native and major league baseball player Vic Wertz.

All he did was hit .500 in the 1954 World Series in which his Cleveland Indians lost to the New York Giants.

He returned from a bout with polio to hit 32 home runs.

Late in his career, he broke his ankle and came back to play on.

But it was that World Series and Willie Mays' over-the-shoulder grab of Wertz's long fly ball that relegated Vic Wertz to baseball's "almost-great" list.

But this post really isn't about baseball.

In a York Sunday News column (11/1/09), I compare Vic Wertz to his native York County, Pa., a kind of human metaphor for this south central Pennsylvania county ... .

These patriotic pre-World War II York (Pa.) Fair days were hopeful after a rough summer of battling a polio outbreak. Fairgoers needed this respite. Just two months later, Pearl Harbor changed everything. Also of interest: This York Fair mural is fading from sight and Good old days at the York Fair were at least old and JFK received grand applause at York Fair visit.

An e-mailer, an exec with a local firm and proud of the York Fair, asked the York Daily Record/Sunday News to ask for special York Fair memories.

I wrote back saying we have done just that, and they're available with audio clips by clicking here.

And we've created a thread on the York Daily Record/Sunday News' bulletin board, The Exchange, for you to share your memories.

And the posts on the blog All's Fair includes many historical memories of the fair.

That's all past stuff... .

The York Daily Record tells about native son and major league slugger Vic Wertz's life and career upon his death in 1983. Here, Wertz holds a photo sequence of his most-noted mark in baseball history. He smashed the 450-foot fly ball that Willie Mays turned into "The Catch" in the 1954 World Series. Background posts: Babe Ruth, indeed, played in York in 1928 and York turned its eyes to Joe DiMaggio and Before the York Revs came the Hanover Raiders.

When York-born major leaguer Vic Wertz did not make the top 10 list of 20th-century York County sports heroes, one fan posed a revealing question:

"How could you leave off Vic Wertz?"

Vic Wertz, indeed, was one of York County's most accomplished professional athletes.

If his long smash had eluded Willie Mays in the 1954 World Series, he would have been on that York Sunday News' list.

But Mays' execution of "The Catch" relegated Vic Wertz to a footnote in national history... .

This Associated Press photo shows Illinois Army National Guardmen receiving medical supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile in preparation for the swine flu. York County, Pa., officials are dusting off swine flu plans of their own. To learn about local and worldwide preparations, visit the York Daily Record/Sunday News special Web page Latest on Swine Flu. Background posts: Well-known doctor, York, Pa.'s Edmund Meisenhelder, beat back flu and All Spanish flu-related posts from the start and All polio-related posts from the start.

York Town Square was giving lessons from history about the potential devastating effect of an influenza pandemic days before the current swine flu attack made the news.

Exhibit A was the Spanish flu of 1918 that challenged people of the world - and coffin-makers in York County - to their core. (See: Spanish flu epidemic in York: 'People died one right after the other')

So the following story from McClatchey News Service came into view as an interesting comparison between 1918 and the current swine flu:

This clip from The (York, Pa.) Gazette and Daily observes what happened on the war front "over there" in World War I. It shows part of a roll call of the 195 or more York countians who died, including George Woods (left), fighting with a machine gun unit. While those in the military were battling the Germans, the Spanish flu and other deadly diseases in France, their families back home were struggling against the flu virus, as well. Background posts: World War I bond drive: Spanish 'Flu bug, no more than Hun, was not going to tarnish York's perfect patriotic record' and York's Spanish flu epidemic of 1918: 'It remains one of the darkest periods for White Rose residents' and Easter in York County, 1919: Sadness, joy, hope.

York Hospital had no ambulances except a horse-drawn carriage in 1918.

That was particularly problematic in this year of the pandemic Spanish flu.

"(B)ut even if there had been one, it could not have taken all of the stricken to the hospital; there was simply no room for all of them there," Florence La Rose Ames wrote in "That Sovereign Knowledge."

That history detailing the hospitals first hundred years starting in 1880 made several points about the homefront flu battle:

John Wilkes Booth attended school in York years before he gamed infamy for assassinating Abraham Lincoln. Background posts: James A. Garfield: 'York was the capital of the United States when congress was on wheels' and Piece of John Wilkes Booth's body to be shown in Philly and Abraham Lincoln was here.

Those attending the recent Treasures of the Trust were treated to two photographs that served as a reminder of an infamous former resident here.

The photographs at this York County Heritage Trust-sponsored event captured John Wilkes Booth (a cropped version is shown above) and the school he attended in York for a short spell in 1853.

An exhibit booklet said this of Booth and his school: ...

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Visitors to the York County SPCA view this portrait outside the human society's meeting room. Why is Esther Yeagley's so honored? Pre-World War II Thanksgiving holds lessons for York countians today and Loretta Claiborne's achievements bring spotlight her way and York County historical war deaths top 1,000.

Another in an occasional series of the people behind the names on the building facades and portraits hanging in public places... .

Dr. John Yeagley passed away years ago but people still remember him around York. Among other things, he was the chief of public health during the terrible polio outbreak of 1941. He received a bio in the 1999 publication "Heroes and Builders."

But reminder of Esther Yeagley's community contributions is possibly more visible than any her husband left behind. Her portrait hangs in the very public SPCA shelter in Manchester Township.

The SPCA's "Pet Gazette" gives background about the woman on the painting: ...

These distinguished gentlemen served as the board of directors of Delta's Peoples National Bank in 1930. The Depression was hard on banks in York County, too, as several rural banks failed. Charles Arthur Bloomfield gave this scorecard for bank failures in York County during the Depression: eight failures and nine reorganizations. Background posts: Events in 1777 helped tip Revolution toward patriots, Easter stories of sacrifice & selflessness and Bad economy turned York Safe and Lock toward lucrative defense work.

Tough economic times are taking some of the excitement away from today's Thanksgiving festivities.

Some of those facing the tough end of the economy might feel that there's no way out.

History helps show us that we've faced gloomy times before as a nation and have come out the other end generally for the better.

Consider the points made in this Thanksgiving Day editorial (11/26/08) in which I reflected on a moment when the world seemed to be piling on:

York County's Yeagley family produced multiple generations of physicians. Their community service earned them a spot in "Builders and Heroes," a publication coming out of York County's 250th Anniversary. Background posts: The Cassimatises and Wolf would join long list of Yorkers to gain political posts.

Making house calls might have cost Dr. John Dibert Yeagley his life.

But that wasn't the first time he took such a risk. He was the leading public health authority dealing with York County's polio epidemic of 1941....

The White Rose Amusement Park operated near the Farquhar Park Pool, now site of Arthur Ferguson Elementary School. York Daily Record Jim Hubley explained that, despite of the fun the pool offered, it was often a site of controversy: "It was closed several seasons, locked by polio, Sunday blue laws, racial difficulties, political mishandling, even drownings."

The Farquhar Park Pool is drained and suitably feted for its years of service.

After the bulldozer does its dirty work, the YMCA's Graham Aquatic Center will fill its void, complete with a 16-lane indoor pool with an accompanying outdoor pool.

The Farquhar Park Pool area has long been a center of activity - with the park next door, trolleys running nearby, and an adjacent amusement park thrilling thousands for years.

And the pool was the center of a racial controversy in the late 1940s after the city closed the pool rather than allow blacks the opportunity to swim there... .

A two-story-high scoreboard posted on The Gazette and Daily's East King Street building kept sports fans and news junkies up to date on sports and news happenings in the days before radio and TV.

Before the Internet, there was a scoreboard to keep news and sports enthusiasts up to date.

But before the scoreboard, there was a light bulb.

Columnist Jim Hubley recently wrote about a scoreboard outside The Gazette and Daily's building that updated the public between newspaper publishing cycles.

That brought to mind a newspaper story I read from the late 1800s about a way of notifying folks between newspaper cycles about the winner of, I believe, the 1896 presidential race between William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan.

A light atop a tower on a tall building in York would flash a certain color assigned in advance to one of the candidates if he won.

People could tell that their guy won or lost by standing on their front porch.

People always have been hungry for the news.

Here's Jim Hubley's scoreboard column: