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INTERVIEWER:
It's August 6, 1984. We are attempting our first interview with
King Terrell, who was one of the original All-Stars. The All-Stars
were a coloured baseball team who played in the depression years
and who made history, who had a lot of fun together, a lot of trouble
together too. And King, I'd like to ask you today how did the All-Stars
really get started?
KINGSLEY
TERRELL: Well from what I can remember, it was in 1933.
And a bunch of us got together. Well there was different ones, we
was playing Carl, and, let me see, somebody else that I knew real
well played on the old Sterling Imperials.
And
then they broke up, and then we started. We got the guys together
and it was in 19--, now if I'm not mistaken it was in 1933. And
then 1934 was the year that we won the Ontario Championship. And
from then on we just kept playing in different leagues. Boomer and
Flat and myself played for different teams in the country.
Like
Tilbury, Dresden, we played for Wallaceburg, we played for teams
in Blenheim, and Tilbury. The three of us. It seemed like when they
asked one, they always asked the three of us. But anyway, we, in
1934 was one of the greatest years of our baseball, and that was
the year we won the Ontario Championship. And I remember we played
different places. We's in Milton, we played in Milton, we played
in Penetang, we played in Meaford, we played in Niagara Falls, we
played in London.
And
finally at the end of it we had to play Penetang for the championship,
and we went to Penetang to play and we beat them I think it was
four to two, and then they come to Chatham and they beat us here.
The
third and deciding game was played in Guelph. The first day we played
we had, the score was two to one in our favour, I'm pretty sure
of that. And we had, Flat was pitching and we had two men out and
he had one ball and two strikes on the third batter, and the umpires
called the game because they said it was too dark.
So
we had to wait, and Mr. Sterling was there with us and he got in
touch with the OBA and explained everything to - I forget what his
name was, he lived in Strathroy, he was the head of the Ontario
Baseball Association. They got three new umpires from, I'm not sure,
I think it was Hamilton, and they come down and we played the next
ball game the next day. And we beat them, I think it was twelve
to five or twelve to six.
It's
on one of those things I gave you there. We won the championship
and when we come home, they had a great big parade for us that night
we come home from Guelph.
INT.:
I can remember that, we all stood on Fifth Street bridge and the
horns tooted and the parade came in, yeah.
TERRELL:
From then on, why we played more city ball than anything else. But
we played quite a bit of exhibition games all over the country and
that's the beginning of the All-Stars as far as I can remember.
We had a lot of fun, and one thing I can say about that ball team
was never a place that we played baseball that we couldn't go back
and play again, except one place. That was in West Lorne. We beat
West Lorne and they run us out. They run us out of the town.
They
had clubs and hoes and rakes and everything else and we just got
everything all packed up before the game was over, cause we knew
there was something going to happen anyway. So we just got the game
over, when that last man was out we all got in the cars and took
off, and we never went back. We wouldn't, couldn't go back to play
ball there no more.
INT.:
I think that happened in more places than one because I can remember
once they played in Stra -, no in Bothwell, and Ines and Joy and
I hitched, and Ollie - Ken's sister - hitch-hiked to Bothwell to
watch the All-Stars play ball. And some kids were calling us names
and throwing apple cores and stones at us and I finally got tired
for one and got up and I chased a little boy and when I caught him
I beat him.
And
I beat him so hard they had to stop me. And they stopped the ball
game and set me on the bench with the ball players. And they came
over behind the bench and started. And the ballplayers ignored it,
and when I went to get up again my brother Len slapped me down on
the bench and made me sit there. But they chased us out of Bothwell
too.
TERRELL:
Yeah, you're right.
INT.:
It was really rough.
TERRELL:
We had some rough games, we played some rough games. We went the
first time when we went to Penetang to play ball, we got there around
midnight, around eleven o'clock at night and we went to Penetang
and they wouldn't let us stay there.
So
we called up Midland, which is just about six or eight miles from
there, and we explained it to the manager and he said, 'Yes, how
many is there?' And we said there was seventeen. So he said, 'Bring
them all down here.'
So
we went down to Midland and they put us up for the night and then
we drove back to Penetang to play ball the next day. And the fans
down there, they had baby dolls, all painted black, and they had
watermelon, and they had mushmelons, and they called us all kinds
of names and everything like that. So we got to playing ball and
we had a bunch of comical birds on the ball club anyway.
We
started playing ball and Flat Chase hit a ball so hard that the
centre fielder went back after the ball and it was down a hill and
he looked and seen the ball going over his shoulder and he just
run. I know that ball was hit too hard for him to catch. But he
come up with the baseball and showed them he had it in his hand
and the umpire called Flat Chase out.
But
that's the truth, and I remember when the ball game was over we
had beat them four to two. And you know those people, about the
middle of the game, you didn't see a watermelon, you didn't see
a doll, you didn't see anything. Everybody found out that we was
decent and respectable people, you know, and before, when the ball
game was over, they wouldn't let us go back to Midland.
They
made us stay right there in Penetang and they took us all to the
hotel down there and I never drank so much beer in all my life as
them people had up there.
INT.:
They turned out to be quite hospitable, didn't they?
TERRELL:
Yes sir. They was really, really nice after that. And in the meantime,
the people in, the manager in Midland said, 'If you beat them, we'll
put on a dinner for you, won't cost you a dime and we'll have entertainment
for you tonight for a party.' Of course there's a lot of the guys
got so much beer in them they didn't know whether they was coming
or going anyway.
So
we went back, changed our clothes and . . . all went down to the
dining room and sure enough we had our dinner. And they had the
girls come there, and we danced and had a good time.
The
car that I was in, I don't know who all was in our car but anyway,
everybody got sleepy and tired and I drove the car from Penetang
to Chatham in the thunder and lightning of a storm.
INT.:
Now King we've had the one most important experience I think with
the All-Stars, the winning of the OBA Championship. But you mentioned
Mr. Sterling and I think it would be nice if you told them who Mr.
Sterling was and just all about him.
TERRELL:
Well, when I was sixteen years old there was a fella lived on Wellington
Street and his name was Charlie Lynn. He was a mail carrier.
And
he had a race horse, but I don't think he done any racing. He was
a very good friend of Archie Sterling's. So one day Archie Sterling
and Mr. Lynn came to my place - I lived on Brock Street - in their
horse and buggy. My grandmother knew both of them real well, and
they talked to my grandmother: 'Mrs. Terrell can King play baseball
for the Sterling Imperials?' And that was the beginning of me knowing
Mr. Sterling. He was one of the nicest men that you'd ever want
to be around or meet.
So
when I joined the Sterling Imperial Juniors, like I say he was so
nice he had a Greydor car, six cylinder Greydor car, and he used
to take us all over playing baseball around Kent County - Tilbury
and Blenheim and Ridgetown, wherever the Juniors played, Wheatley
and all those places - and no matter where he took us, we always,
after the ball game was over he always took us in and had a lunch.
He'd
buy us sandwiches and tea or coffee or milk or water or pop or whatever
you wanted to drink.
INT.:
Did he have the drugstore at that time?
TERRELL:
He was the gentleman that owned the drugstore. That's when I first
began to know Mr. Sterling, and then he was in baseball with the
gentleman I was telling you about from Strathroy. He was not prejudiced,
that's one thing about him.
He
wanted a ball dub and he didn't care who you were or what you was
or where you come from or anything else. As long as you could play
ball and you was decent and respectable and you didn't, you know
what I'm trying to say, didn't put yourself above anybody else.
Because
he was a normal man and he was, he was just the same as one of the
ball players. That's the kind of man he was. You couldn't be around
a nicer person. We all got together, and they all played good baseball.
And like I said, that picture you have there will show the original
baseball club of this, the beginning of our real baseball team.
But
some of them disappeared you know, and when they finally broke up,
you know - this one went this way and that one went the other way.
INT.:
I think probably the reason why you had so many imports and local
boys at the time too was because nobody really had a steady job,
did they?
TERRELL:
That's right.
INT.:
Maybe the reason why they missed some ball games is because if they
had a day's work they had to work.
TERRELL:
That's right.
INT.:
About the best jobs were bell hopping and occasional work, and if
it was nice you had to work.
TERRELL:
Well we had three baseball players working at the pit.
INT.:
And then the imports that you brought in, Flat came from Windsor?
TERRELL:
From Windsor, Fergie come from Windsor.
INT.:
Yeah. Fergie was working on the boats at the time along the river
and he came from Windsor. Don Washington came from Detroit. Don
Tayburn came from Detroit. Willie Shaganosh came from Walpole Island.
TERRELL:
That's right, I forgot about him.
INT.:
Yeah. Then there were some boys from Buxton and then the boys from
Chatham. I don't think you had any, did Pliny Stongfish play for
you? Pliny was a little later on.
TERRELL:
He was, he would be later on. But Willie Shaganosh, he was one of
our regulars. I tell you, we had an infield of pitchers.
INT.:
You certainly did.
TERRELL:
We had an infield of pitchers, which has never been heard tell of
in your life. And the oddest part of the infield, you had a left-handed
third-baseman, which has never been heard tell of before neither.
INT.:
And he was one of the best. He was the Brooks Robinson of the thirties.
And that was King himself. You didn't hit a ball down to third base
and think you had a hit because he had an advantage, being left-handed,
of throwing them out before they left home plate.
TERRELL:
We had a lot of fun. And let me see, there was, it started off this
way. Ross Talbot played first base a lot and he could pitch. Flat
Chase played second base and he was a pitcher. Don Tayburn was the
shortstop and he was a pitcher. I played third base and I was a
pitcher.
And
Don East Washington was the catcher and he was a pitcher. So we
had an infield of pitchers. Then on the outfield we had your brother
Len. He didn't do any pitching. Then we had a fellow play out in
right field by the name of Sten Robbins. And he was a pitcher. Fergie
never did do any pitching and he always played centre field.
But
when we needed, say we was in the ninth inning or something like
that and we needed a run or something to get somebody on base, we
could, it just seemed like it happened that Fergie would come to
bat.
And
if he didn't hit the ball he got on base anyway, by being hit by
the baseball. And then we always had somebody to bring him around.
But that's the way our baseball club went, and we were proud of
our baseball club and everybody was proud of our baseball club.
The city was proud of it.
They
was cheaper than the dickens so they didn't put out a whole lot
of money or anything like that to help you.
INT.:
Well now the ballplayers themselves had something to contend with
too because they didn't have a place to stay always when they came
to town.
TERRELL:
That's right.
INT.:
At our house the door, the side door was always open for anybody
that Len or Boomer brought home. Sometimes maybe five or six of
them would stay. . . . the original All-Stars. And the paper that
it was printed in is dated Thursday, October 11, 1934, which says,
'the high hopes for Chatham's first OBA championship rests on the
success of the Chatham All-Stars, the only coloured team to ever
engage in provincial play downs.
The
Stars, now in semi-finals, play a deciding game today at Milton.'
That's the one that you, you told us that you won, in the championship
that you won. Now I wonder if you will help me identify some of
these players here. It says, the first one is Mr. Louie Pryor, who
was the coach.
TERRELL:
He was the coach. He was third-base coach, I think.
INT.:
He didn't play ball at all.
TERRELL:
No, he didn't play ball.
INT.:
Just a coach.
TERRELL:
Yeah.
INT.:
All right, and next to him is Goy Ladd.
TERRELL:
Goy Ladd was an outfielder, he played right field. Goy was a good
ball player. Couldn't run very fast but he was a pretty good ball
player and he was a pretty good batter. He got his amount of hits
the same as anybody else. He was tall and he was slim. And he was
practically to all of our ball games. He missed very few ball games.
INT.:
The next one here is Segasta Harding.
TERRELL:
Segasta Harding was a good ball player, we used to call him Frog
Hand. He didn't hold a bat. He was a left-handed batter, and he
didn't hold a bat like an ordinary person. When you're a left-handed
batter, your right hand is at the bottom of the bat and your left
hand is at the top.
But
he always changed it around and put the right hand at the top and
the left hand at the bottom. And that's why they called him Frog
Hand. And I had read that in the paper, about frog-handed batters.
He
was a good ball player, he was slim and he could run. He got his
amount of hits the same as everybody.
INT.:
And what, which position did he play with the Stars?
TERRELL:
He played in the outfield too, but I'm not too sure whether it was
left or right outfield.
INT.:
Now a lot of these, some of these ballplayers are still around,
but is Segasta still around? I know Goy is deceased and Mr. Pryor
is deceased.
TERRELL:
Segasta Harding?
VIVIAN
CHAVIS: I can fill you in there, he's from Buxton.
TERRELL:
Yeah.
V.C.:
And he has, he sold a home in Buxton but he's still living, and
he's in Romulus, Michigan. He used to sing, too, you know.
TERRELL:
He used to play a piano too. I played lots and lots and lots of
times with him, and I just loved his playing.
INT.:
These fellas did a whole lot of playing besides baseball. All right,
and next to him is Boomer.
TERRELL:
Boomer played first base. And he was another guy that was on base
a lot. And if he didn't get a hit he'd walk because when you walk
in a baseball game you got a good eye. And he had a good eye because
he was on base a lot.
INT.:
And then there's Percy Parker.
TERRELL:
Percy Parker was a coach. I can hear him holler now that Boomer
was on and I was on or somebody else was on, and I forget who would
come to bat. He'd say, 'Get a grounder through the infield because
you got fast runners ahead of ya.' And I never forgot it.
INT.:
He had one of those original chants, too, didn't he? Now they have
mascots for baseball teams but Percy Parker used to yatateeyat -
what was that yell? Can you remember the yell that he used to give?
He was loud, you could hear it all over the east end.
TERRELL:
Oh, I can't remember it. I can't remember that.
INT.:
Well after Percy Parker we've got Hyle Robbins
TERRELL:
Hyle Robbins, he played in the outfield. He didn't play with us
very much. He was very, he played with us a little bit but not very
much. I didn't know whether he was working the majority of the time
that he couldn't get into the baseball games or what. But he didn't
play with us too much. But he was a good fast runner.
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INT.:
And then next to Hyle is Flat, his name is -
TERRELL:
Earl.
INT.:
Yes.
TERRELL:
Earl Chase Wichison. Flat, he got the name Flat because it looked
like he had flat feet. And he could run. He was a power hitter.
He could hit home runs just about as easy as the rest of us could
hit singles and doubles and triples.
Because
at Sterling Park it didn't seem like it took him very much of a
swing to get a double over the right field fence, or a home run
over the centre field fence. And he was a, whatcha call a spray
hitter.
That
means that you can hit a ball in any part of the field because -
nine times out of ten if he hit a ball south the ball would be going
direct over right field because he was a power hitter. But a spray
hitter means that you can spray a ball through the outfield, in
the outfield because that's when you don't know where it's going
to go.
more info...(88k)
And
he was one of those kind of guys, you didn't know where the ball
was going to go. It's the same as his pitching because lots of times
Don East would ask him for a fast ball, and he was liable to throw
him a curve.
And
he'd ask him for a curve, he's liable to throw you a fast ball which
I know all about, his fast balls and his curves 'cause he darn near
killed three of us in one night.
INT.:
Well now, I see you're sitting in this picture, you're next to Flat.
And we know that you were the left-handed third baseman who was
really quite unique, very good.
TERRELL:
Yeah, well I ain't going to brag about what I did myself or anything
like that because then it wouldn't sound right.
INT.:
You were good. You were one of the team and everybody had
their spot but there were, there wasn't any left-handed third-basemen
around at that time.
TERRELL:
No. I had my picture taken in two or three places about being a
left-handed third-baseman. We played a place, a team down between,
just outside of Windsor going towards Amherstburg, what was the
little town there?
INT.:
Now we've come to Don Tayburn.
TERRELL:
Don Tayburn was a little skinny guy. He was about five foot eleven,
five foot ten, and he was about as smooth, he was smooth and he
was fast for a shortstop. And had an arm like a whip. He could throw
a ball from any position. He didn't have to stand up straight or
anything like that. He could pick a ball up and almost throw it
underhand and it was there.
INT.:
Then next to him is Ross, Ross Talbot.
TERRELL:
Ross Talbot was a good ball player. He played first base quite a
bit. Ross wasn't a fast runner, he wasn't a real fast runner. And
he got his amount of hits just about the same as the usual bunch
of us got.
INT.:
Then Cliff Olby?
TERRELL:
Cliff Olby was fast. He was small and it took quite a good pitcher
to strike him out. And he done a lot of walking because the ball,
pitcher, nine times out of ten the pitcher'd walk him. But he got
his hits the same as the rest of us.
INT.:
And how about Sten Robbins?
TERRELL:
Stenton Robbins? Stenton Robbins was a right fielder, he played
right field a lot. And he had an arm about as strong as any one
of the ball players on the team because he cut many a guy down from
right field going into second base and third base - as nice a throw
as you'd ever want to see. And he got his share of hits too.
V.C.:
Can I add that being from Buxton, he used to hunt rabbits and he
had an accurate arm and he could kill rah bits with -
TERRELL:
a twenty-two rifle.
V.C.:
Or a stick.
TERRELL:
Yeah.
V.C.:
I mean his arm was that strong.
TERRELL:
Yeah.
INT.:
And then they've got Jackie Robinson, which isn't, that's not the
Jackie Robinson that broke into the big leagues. This was the mascot
that the Stars had.
TERRELL:
Yeah the mascot, our mascot.
INT.:
Yeah.
TERRELL:
He was a little guy, real small. And no matter where we went he
went with us 'cause he was young. He went to school and he wasn't
working at the time when we was playing quite a bit of our baseball.
But he went with us to a lot of our baseball games and he was always
there gathering up the bats and gathering up the gloves and this
and that and the other. And he was a busy little dude.
INT.:
He was a good little fella too.
TERRELL:
Yeah.
INT.:
And then Len, Len Harding.
TERRELL:
Len Harding was one of the fastest guys we had on the baseball team.
When I was pitching, Len took my place at third base. And when I,
when I wasn't pitching, I was playing third base, Len played in
the outfield. I think Len played in the left field, I'm not too
sure. I think he played a lot in left field.
INT.:
He used to pitch sometimes.
TERRELL:
Yeah, and he caught quite a bit. Talking about, getting back to
Flat Chase. Flat Chase was a good ball player, he was a good pitcher
but he was wild. And I remember the night we played a baseball game
in London, that's when we was playing, when nat and I and Boomer,
when Sherman's, the furniture store, took over the team. But like
I said, Flat would never remember what you asked him to throw.
So
I asked Flat to throw this ball on the outside corner and his curve
ball would naturally curve into a right-hand batter, right-hand
catcher, you see, 'cause he was a right-hand pitcher. Instead of
him doing what I asked him to throw, this curve ball, he throws
a straight ball, right straight down the middle.
And
I knew there was no way in the world that I could get back fast
enough to get this ball to keep it from going to the backstop, so
I grabbed it with my bare hands. And I didn't use my bare hand for
about three days afterwards 'cause it was paralyzed.
INT.:
They said that Flat was good in his day and when you played up east,
I don't know whether it was in Penetang or Milton, but you played
against a man named Phil Marshallton.
TERRELL:
That's when we played in Penetang, he was a pitcher from Penetang.
INT.:
And he was a white man.
TERRELL:
Yeah, that's right.
INT.:
And he made it to the big leagues.
TERRELL:
Yeah.
INT.:
And Flat was better than he was
TERRELL:
He was. Yup. We beat him three times. We beat him in Penetang, he
beat us here in Chatham, and we had already beat him in Guelph in
the playoffs.
And
then they called the game when we had two men out and they had two
strikes and two balls or one ball on the third batter when the umpires
called it.
And
then Flat Chase beat him, he didn't pitch the next day, they pitched
another guy and we beat them the next day because it snowed that
night.
INT.:
And that was, that was just in the fall.
TERRELL:
In October there. In October.
INT.:
Now King, maybe we could just pick out a few interesting little
things about the coloured All-Stars, about their troubles. We know
they had problems with prejudice everywhere they went, even at home.
And they were good. Flat was major league. And I think there were
a few others on there who could have made it. Can you enlighten
me on that?
TERRELL:
Well, let me see. Flat Chase, he could have been in the big leagues,
he could have been, there was not a better second-baseman around
than he was. He was a good pitcher and God only knows that there
was nobody around in the country that could hit the ball any better
or any further than he could. And yet he wasn't a big guy at the
time.
Then
there was another guy, Don Tayburn. He was a little guy, not a heck
of a lot bigger than I was. I say about five foot ten, five foot
eleven something like that. And he was fast. I don't think he would
have been in the major leagues as a pitcher but God knows I've seen
shortstops play ball that could play, couldn't play a bit better
than he played when he was playing ball.
And
there was Don East Washington, was a catcher, and I don't think
there's any catcher in the major leagues - the National League,
the international league, the major leagues, any league - could
catch any better than Don East Washington could catch.
I seen
Don East Washington cut guys down at second base when he was on
his haunches. He wasn't even standing up straight. He could throw
a guy out just as easy as he could if he was standing up straight.
And there was very few balls went by, he could trap a ball and talk
about guys coming into home plate. He wasn't a rough guy but nobody
would try to rough him up because he stood his ground, and he let
everybody know, wherever we played baseball, that he was our catcher.
And
you heard all over, wherever you went to play baseball, say it was
too bad he couldn't get in the major leagues.
INT.:
But he was the wrong colour at the wrong time.
TERRELL:
But he was the wrong colour at the time.
INT.:
And then, of course, you had Fergie. Fergie Jenkins, Sr.
TERRELL:
Fergie Jenkins was the same way. Fergie was a good outfielder. I've
seen him catch balls out in the outfield that you'd swear up and
down that he would never even get close to. He would dive and catch
balls and catch balls over his head and all kinds of things. And
he was good. He could have been in the major leagues.
INT.:
Well, his son did make it.
TERRELL:
And his son, young Fergie Junior, is in the major leagues, which
is good. But like I said, there were about six - I'd say there was
five or six on the All-Star team we had who could have been major
league stuff, right at the present, if they could have got in.
Yeah,
yeah, we had a good ball club and sure people act, they'd act funny
when you went there, you know, look at you as though they were looking
at a bunch of clowns that's what it looked liked.
They
looked at you as a bunch of clowns. But when you got out on the
baseball field to play baseball, those guys played baseball. They
knew how to play baseball and they played baseball. And we went,
we played baseball in Walpole Island so much, so many times, that
they began to call us the Walpole Island All-Stars.
INT.:
And that's somebody we didn't mention was that you had a ball player
from Walpole Island.
TERRELL:
Yeah, we had Willie Shaganosh from Walpole Island. He was about
six foot two or three, and he did get into the major leagues because
I think they got him, they signed him or something with Detroit.
INT.:
As a pitcher?
TERRELL:
As a pitcher. And I don't know whether he did go or what happened.
I don't know, I don't remember what happened to that.
INT.:
Willie couldn't say anything but ugh, could he? Didn't they call
him Ugh for a while?
TERRELL:
I think so.
INT.:
King let's relate an experience that we had quite often on Labour
Day. We would, the ball team would go to North Buxton to play an
exhibition for part of the day's celebration. And Mr. Doug Vincent,
I think, was the man who'd ask you to come out there and play ball.
And you were playing a ball team from Detroit, I believe, and -
well you go ahead and you tell.
TERRELL:
Well the beginning of it was, we had to change our clothes at the
store, you know the store right across from the church there? I
forget whose it was now. I don't know how it started but anyway
everybody was feeling good. It was a nice day and everything like
that. And the guys got to feeling their oats and one thing and another.
And that's what happened, that they, uh, they had to call the ball
game off 'cause the guys was feeling too good.
INT.:
You mean they were drunk?
TERRELL:
No, not exactly drunk, but they was feeling so good that they didn't
feel like playing baseball or something. But I remember this is
about myself.
I played
ball from the time I was sixteen years old until I quit baseball
when I was forty-two. And I played with men practically from the
time I was sixteen years old until I quit playing baseball. I remember
being on, except the Sterling Imperials, and then when they folded
up and then . . . and we got the old All-Stars going.
I was
getting a little bit older and a little bit older and a little bit
older, but I was playing baseball with these men when I was sixteen
years old. And then when we got the All-Stars going good then we
all growed up. Everybody was growed up. You wasn't no more sixteen
years old, it was twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, 'cause I
was twenty-four when I got married. And I got married in 1934.
And
then like I said, I played ball right up until I was forty-two years
old. Then we were playing ball out to Buxton. The last game of baseball
I played was in Buxton. And I forget who we were playing, I think
we were playing a team from Detroit. And that's the time the score
was tied, I think.
And
that's when they had the ball park in behind the church. Remember
when they used to have the ball park in behind the church?
INT.:
Yeah.
TERRELL:
Well Flat Chase, I had come to bat, I think I was the second guy
to bat and I hit one over the centre fielder's head to the fence
where the railroad track goes along. And I got home on the next,
on Flat Chase's home run.
And
he hit one over the centre-fielder's head to the, over the railroad
tracks. And they said it was one of the longest balls was ever hit,
that they ever seen was hit out there. And they had a lot of guys
out there and they had a couple of guys - I will not mention their
names - that was kidding all of us guys about we was too old to
play baseball and this kind of stuff, but anyway we beat this team
from Detroit out there that day. I remember playing against Strathroy
and the Fiddler brothers, one was Roy.
Art,
I think he played first base. And his brother pitched. And his brother
did go into the major leagues, he pitched in the major leagues for
a year.
And
he was pitching against me this, pitching against our team this
day, and we was playing baseball at Sterling Park. And it was about
the sixth inning and I was pitching.
And
I remember they was, the bases was loaded and Art, this guy throwed
a ball right down the middle, and it was the kind of a ball that
I like to hit. And I connected. And right dead centre field of Sterling
Park was a big black barn.
I
never will forget it. Right dead centre field. And I hit the ball
and it cleared that black barn, and we beat Strathroy nine to four.
That's three incidents in my life that I never will forget.
INT.:
Well I think your, your time with the All-Stars is very, very reminiscent.
I know it is to me because I think we didn't miss a ball game as
fans either.
I
want to thank you very much, King, for this little interview, and
I understand you're having a birthday, you're seventy-first birthday
on the fourteenth of this month, and I think you're still a very
remarkable man because you bowl.
He
bowls with the blind league, and he holds his own in that, too.
He's very active in the Kenja club. He's been a good sport all these
seventy-one years.
And
as one of the Hardings - I'm Wanda Harding-Milburn now - I am still
as proud of all the remaining All-Stars that are around. And it's
been a very, very pleasant experience having this talk with you.
Thanks, King.
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