FROM CY YOUNG TO 9/11
IT’S A trip in local history, with many twists and turns, but bear with me and you’ll find out how it all connects.
IT BEGINS with a recent trip to Peoli (that road had lots of twists and turns, too) to visit the legendary Cy Young’s grave and take part in an unusual custom there. In his 22 years of major league pitching, he amassed a record of 511 wins, the most in Major League Baseball (MLB) history. He was inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in 1939 and the MLB established the Cy Young Award which is given annually to the most effective pitcher in each league.
No one seems to know why, but some visitors started leaving a circle of nickels with a stone in the middle on top of Young’s tombstone. Now, some just leave change, but our group carried out the original custom.
ALL DURING this journey, I tried to recall when it was that Cy Young visited Barnesville. I figured it must have been in the early days of our new lighted baseball field in Memorial Park. I found undated clippings in a baseball file I had and learned it was in conjunction with the appearance of Honus Wagner and his Pittsburgh All Stars when they played the Barnesville American Legion team. Charlie Murphy was not only the tireless leader and worker promoting the lighted field, but also the leading pitcher for the Legion team in the area’s Little Mountain League. Honus was heard to yell to his team, “Get out there you guys. You can beat those hayseeds.” A photo showed Honus pointing to Murphy’s abdomen and saying “Too much belly.” But those “hayseeds” and Charlie Murphy, accused of having “too much belly,” ended up beating the Honus Wagner Pittsburgh All Stars 4-3 before a record crowd which included some other baseball greats including Cy Young and Sad Sam Jones.
BY SHEER chance the September 15 Enterprise, which carried the story of that game, surfaced among all my clutter. The front page showed a picture taken before the game with Cy Young visiting at the Elks with Bob and Bill Peters, Art Hunkler, Everett Cronin and King Morgan. Page 8 was the sports page which covered the game. A block in the corner read “Bill Davies Sports Editor.”
AFTER READING the entire game story I discovered it was played on Thursday night, September 8, just three days before Bill and I got married on September 11. Inside was a picture and account of our wedding and on another page the notice of my graduation from Ohio State on Friday, September 2. Is it any wonder I couldn’t recall precisely when Cy Young and others were in Barnesville? My only recollection of baseball in conjunction with our wedding was that we chose the destination of our wedding trip to whichever Ohio team was playing at home. It was the Reds, so we went to Cincinnati. We saw Jackie Robinson, in his first season after breaking the color barrier, play. There was tension in the air that there might be some trouble, but there wasn’t.
NOW YOU know how I connect Cy Young and 9/11.
jeanealities is compiled by Jean Palmer Davies, lifetime Barnesville Enterprise associate. She may be reached at jeandavies@comcast.net.
Comments