Lawreston
En-Route
April 15, 1947 could have been just another day. Did we have Tax Day back then? I was only three years old. Today, however, is the 60th anniversary of an event that changed professional sports, forever. On that day, television barely having been born, only thousands in Ebbetts Field watched Jackie Robinson introduced as a major league Brooklyn Dodger. Every major league owner was opposed to the action except Branch Rickey, owner of the Dodgers.
Back here in the little towns around coastal Maine it was particularly special to the generation, including my father, whose young men played on the various town baseball teams. You see, two towns over from Cushing, where Dad and I were raised, has been Waldoboro, since the late 1700s, before Maine became a state.
While Jackie Robinson was being introduced, the kind, unassuming man named Clyde Sukeforth -- who had scouted and signed Mr. Robinson -- was probably thinking about getting back to Waldoboro to hunt and fish during his off-days. My father told about times Clyde would attend some of the "townie" games and was always open to promote his love of baseball.
When the Dodgers were slated to move to Los Angeles, Clyde could have stayed with the team. But, when I was a teenager, I heard him say that when he was in New York he could dash away and get in some quick hunting and fishing back in Maine. "But I told Mr. Rickey that traveling from Los Angeles to Maine for such pleasures? So 'no, thank you, Mr. Rickey.'"
Clyde has been gone for nearly seven years, but he's not forgotten. In Maine, Pee-Wee Leagues, Little Leagues, Babe Ruth baseball, American Legion 'ball are all the better because of Clyde's active retirement in supporting the great American past-time. On the big scale, for another team he also signed another young man named, Roberto Clemente.
Happy April 15, Sukey; and thank you.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0876525.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCI/is_5_64/ai_n14702599
HR
Back here in the little towns around coastal Maine it was particularly special to the generation, including my father, whose young men played on the various town baseball teams. You see, two towns over from Cushing, where Dad and I were raised, has been Waldoboro, since the late 1700s, before Maine became a state.
While Jackie Robinson was being introduced, the kind, unassuming man named Clyde Sukeforth -- who had scouted and signed Mr. Robinson -- was probably thinking about getting back to Waldoboro to hunt and fish during his off-days. My father told about times Clyde would attend some of the "townie" games and was always open to promote his love of baseball.
When the Dodgers were slated to move to Los Angeles, Clyde could have stayed with the team. But, when I was a teenager, I heard him say that when he was in New York he could dash away and get in some quick hunting and fishing back in Maine. "But I told Mr. Rickey that traveling from Los Angeles to Maine for such pleasures? So 'no, thank you, Mr. Rickey.'"
Clyde has been gone for nearly seven years, but he's not forgotten. In Maine, Pee-Wee Leagues, Little Leagues, Babe Ruth baseball, American Legion 'ball are all the better because of Clyde's active retirement in supporting the great American past-time. On the big scale, for another team he also signed another young man named, Roberto Clemente.
Happy April 15, Sukey; and thank you.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0876525.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCI/is_5_64/ai_n14702599
HR
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