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BITS AND PIECES - 08/17/2008
(by Howard Ball - OpEd Columnist - August 20, 2008)
A favorite pastime
That was my column on the editorial page last Sunday. They just forgot my picture and byline. Thanks for your concerned telephone calls. I will be vacationing this next week, but hopefully will send a column from California.
This was the time of year when the Romain Avenue Tigers would wear their football Jerseys when they played baseball. We were up early in the morning and made our way to Lakeside Oval (Feiler Field, Lakeside School site). There was a backstop and baselines because the Artistics Semi-Professional Baseball Team played there.
We were able to field nine players by drafting kids from around town – Bill Carnathan, Renny Betts, Ed Rumsey and Billy Amos were some of the characters besides Joe Feinbloom and me. We had a couple of bats and I was the catcher because I had a catcher's mitt and a mask. We often played a team fielded by George and Kenny Terhune who roundly drubbed us every time we played. We did not like to lose but we always had fun playing the game. This all happened with no adult supervision or butting in. We played baseball because we wanted to and it really did not matter who won as long as you played hard and fair. In football season we played on the same field on the portion that was marked out for the high school team before Hershfield Park was built.
I like being catcher because my cousin Edward Boyle was catcher for the Artistics and I used to join my dad and mom when we watched the Artistics play Uncle Sam's from Paterson or one of the other teams in the league.
Uncle Ed Jackson was the coach and manager of the Artistics and Aunt Edna was the chief cheerleader and advocate. Honey Jackson and Buck Jackson were on the team along with Key Edwards, who had turned down a major league contract because of family needs.
We passed the hat during the seventh inning stretch and we baseball fans dropped whatever we could to reimburse the players. These were the Depression times and the coins were few and far between. The players appreciated our donations, but they really played for the joy of playing. During the day they toiled at DuPont or Artistic Weaving or the Butler Rubber Mills, but at game time they were the pin-stripe heroes.
At times World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Joe Louis would be in the crowd to cheer the Artistics on. At one point Louis staged a softball game to raise the money for the first aid ambulance.
On occasion a rotund character with a big red nose would sit quietly and watch the game. George Herman (Babe) Ruth enjoyed watching and the privacy afforded him by the crowd.
Ruth was also a frequent visitor to the games of the Bloomingdale Troopers of the North Atlantic D League when they played at DeLazier Field in Bloomingdale.
By the way, one piece of equipment used by the Romain Avenue Tigers was a major league baseball signed by Babe Ruth. Oh, if we had that today! Frank Suter hit it over the fence into Van Avenue and we never did find it.
| Comments (1) |
On August 20, 2008 Barbara said:
Hi Howard, While you were watching the Artistic baseball games I was at the Parish Oval in Mountain View watching the Preakness Farmers play their games. I have forgotten the names of the players except for the Troianni brothers .After the games we would stop at the corner ice cream store (Country Club ice cream) for a cone.If we were lucky that is, if Dad had a quarter for two cones for Audree and I. Cones then were 10 cents with no tax. Those were the days my friend. Once we caught a family group in a big limosine that played instruments and sang. They too, passed the hat. One song they sang and I often sing myself was Side By Side. Oh we ain't got a barrell of money, Maybe we're ragged and funny, but we travel along singin' the song side by side. Depression days Howard and we didn't even know at that age what it was all about. Love ya' guy, Barbara |
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