I recently posted about Satchel Paige, Casey Stengel and Hack Wilson playing in York.
The information came from “Satch, Dizzy & Rapid Rorbert: The Wild Saga of Interracial Baseball before Jackie Robinson.”
Well, there’s more about York in Timothy M. Gay’s fascinating book.
In 1935, squads led by Dizzy and Paul Dean played a game against Negro Leaguers in York.
According to the book, legendary slugger paced the Negro Leaguers to an 11-1 thrashing of Dean’s boys.
“Cool Papa Bell claimed years later that his squad stung Diz for four early runs, with Gibson tagging tape-measure home runs in the first and again in the third. ‘THe peoplestarted booing,’ Bell told John Holway, ‘and Diz went into the outfield for a while; he hated to just take himself out of the game.’”
After the game, according to Bell, Dean walked by the dugout and said, “Josh, I wish you and Satchel played with me ‘n’ Paul on the Cardinals. Hell, we’d win the pennant by the fourth of July and go fishin’ the rest of the season.”
Also, that night, Connie Mack was in the crowd.
According to newspaper reports at the time, York residents weren’t happy with the white barnstormers.
Gay concludes, “If only the good people of York had realized that evening how many future Hall of Famers they’d had the privilege of watching.”
For the Southpaw’s money, York’s Eagle Park hosting Connie Mack, Satchel Paige, Dizzy Dean, Josh Gibson, Cool Poppa Bell, Judy Johnson and Daffy Dean, has to be the greatest collection of baseball talent in this city at one time.
The book doesn’t say whether Hall of Famers Judy Johnson and Ray Dandridge played in the game, but they were on Satch’s team.
I’d be willing to bet that if you could have those three pitchers, Gibson batting third, Bell leading off, Johnson and Dandridge in the infield and Connie Mack at the helm, you’d win the pennant with whatever other talent you had around you.
Copy Editor Patrick Abdalla doesn't need performance-enhancing drugs to take a look at all things Major League Baseball. Whether it's arguing about the Hall of Fame, quizzing someone with a stat out of left field, discussing a good baseball book, or talking about "Field of Dreams," Pat always enjoys some infield chatter. 