Negro League Baseball featured
Negro League Baseball featured for Black History Month lecture
Wed, 18 February 2009
Celebrate uniqueness without barriers. Triumph in adversity. Do what you love, love what you do. These are the residual truths that emerged from the existence of Negro League baseball teams, which spanned from the early 1920s to the 1960s.
Ed Ripley and Bryan Steverson will discuss the history of Negro League Baseball Wednesday, February 25, at Y‑12’s New Hope Center auditorium at 11:30 a.m., and again at the American Museum of Science and Energy at 6 p.m. as they present “Negro League Baseball and a Changed America.” Ripley also will have items from his collection on display, as well as two educational videos regarding the history of Negro League baseball.
“They did what they loved,” said Ripley, a Y‑12 employee who owns an extensive collection of Negro Baseball League memorabilia. “Even when they were treated badly, they shook it off and kept going.”
Ripley, who “collects anything that has a good story,” loves to talk baseball and enjoys sharing items from his collection and stories he has collected about the Negro Baseball League.
Local baseball historian, writer and speaker Steverson, who has been collecting Negro League memorabilia for many years, met with Ripley to discuss his collection. “Ed has assembled a historic and important collection of Negro League Baseball memorabilia,” he said. “The autographed baseballs in his collection are very noteworthy and give a real sense of presence to these players; including the three ladies who played in the league.”
Ripley recently learned that history is closer than he thought when he found out that one Y‑12 employee is especially close to this special baseball league. Deborah Long’s father, Eugene “Fireball” Williams, played for the Memphis Red Sox in the late 1950s.
A third-baseman and top-notch pitcher, he earned his nickname because of his fast overhand and sidearm deliveries over the plate. Williams played alongside Satchel Paige on traveling teams and against Willie Mays when Mays was a member of the Birmingham Black Barons. In 2003, Williams was inducted into the Negro League Legends Hall of Fame.
Long remembers being around baseball players throughout her childhood and said that after her father retired from the Negro Leagues, he recruited recreational teams from around Tennessee and other states to play in Oak Ridge.
“They’d come to my house where my mom would feed them, and my sister, Shirley, and I would serve them iced tea,” said Long. “We did it for the tips they’d give us.”
B&W Y-12, a limited liability enterprise of The Babcock and Wilcox Company and Bechtel National Inc., operates the Y‑12 National Security Complex for the National Nuclear Security Administration.