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| Negro Leagues veterans bemoan treatment of players |
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July 11, 2009
By Pat Disabato, Staff Writer Southtownstar New In June 2005, former Negro Leagues baseball player Walt Owens attended a ceremony at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip to dedicate new tombstones for eight of his comrades buried at the historic cemetery. His hostess that day was the cemetery's manager, Carolyn Towns, who authorities say already at that time could have been ordering workers to dig up graves and dump the bodies elsewhere to make room for more bodies. "The lady showed us around and did a tremendous job educating us about Burr Oak Cemetery," said Owens, 75, a professor emeritus in the department of kinesiology and physical education at Northern Illinois University. "I saw all these guys' graves and how nicely the grounds were kept up. I'm just totally amazed at what has happened. I don't think that anyone would kick a dead man in the street." In the years when American society was segregated, Burr Oak was one of the few places in the Chicago area where blacks could be interred. It became the final resting place for famous black singers, Civil Rights figure Emmett Till and other important figures. It also is where at least 15 former Negro Leagues players were buried, men such as James "Candy Jim" Taylor, one-time manager of the Chicago American Giants, and John Donaldson, who's credited with throwing three consecutive no-hitters and once was a scout for the White Sox. At least twice this decade, Burr Oak hosted ceremonies to lay markers on the graves of some of the players, many of whom died destitute, in obscurity. The tombstones were bought with donations collected by people who saw their unmarked graves as one more indignity suffered by athletes whose race kept them out of the major leagues. On Friday, Owens and two other former Negro Leaguers were at U.S. Cellular Field for the second annual Double Duty Classic, which promotes the next generation of inner-city baseball players and is named for Negro Leagues legend Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe. "I was invited to read a poem at that cemetery a couple of years ago when they provided tombstones for a couple of the players' graves. Maybe three or four of them," said former player Ernie Westfield, 78. "Now if they're gone, it's a travesty. People do things for profit and other motives. But this is really sad." Hank "Baby" Presswood, 87, said he was astonished by the news out of the cemetery. "It's just a terrible thing to do. It's really unbelievable," Presswood said. "Some of those guys who are buried there played before me. But it was because of them that I was interested in baseball and tried to be the best I could." Owens said the scandal "just tears you up inside and takes your breath away. "I don't know what kind of sin you would get for doing something like they've done. It's worse than what Bernie Madoff did," he said. |
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