The push continues to get the 1934 Chatham Coloured All-Stars baseball team inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
A baseball game is scheduled to take place in Chatham this coming weekend that will feature some descendants of the famed All-Stars, a team of black athletes who got the chance to play for the Ontario Baseball Championship and were the first black team to win an Ontario Baseball Association title.
Author Brock Greenhalgh is the man behind the event, dubbed The Field of Honour. Towards the end of 2020, Greenhalgh self-published Hard Road to Victory: The Chatham All-Stars Story, a children's book that told details the obstacles and triumphs of the team.
Greenhalgh has also been an advocate for getting the team inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, which is located in St. Marys.
The team has been on the nomination ballot for four years and can stay on the ballot for a total of nine years altogether as long as they receive at least one vote every year. Greenhalgh previously told Blackburn News that he believes one of the reasons they haven't been inducted yet is that they haven’t garnered enough support, something he said is a key factor in getting inducted.
He said he's hopeful that the Field of Honour will not only celebrate the team and their families but also be the final push needed to get the team formally recognized.
“The All-Stars should not only be in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame for their talents, but also for their role in breaking the colour barriers of baseball in this country,” said Greenhalgh. “Along with the Vancouver Asahi, an all-Japanese Canadian team that is already in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, the Chatham All-Stars are an incredible example of talent, perseverance, and the fight for racial equity. Their history is Canadian history, and their presence in the Hall of Fame would recognize the struggles Black baseball players faced, and continue to overcome in Canada.”
The 1934 Chatham Coloured All-Stars was first formed in 1932 as a group of friends playing baseball in Stirling Park in east Chatham. As an African-Canadian team playing among predominantly white teams in the 1930s, the team was faced with many challenges including discrimination on and off the field, racial taunts, being turned away from hotels, and dealing with threats of violence. The team also played over a decade before Jackie Robinson broke Major Leagues Baseball’s colour barrier in 1947 when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
English and History Librarian at the University of Windsor Dr. Heidi Jacobs, who is also working on a book about the team, said not only should they be recognized for their achievements on the field, but for also shining a spotlight on the rich history that southwestern Ontario has in Black baseball.
"What's interesting, is that they certainly were not the first Black team in this area, so it's a much deeper story than just this one team that seemingly came out of nowhere," said Jacobs. "Ontario has a pretty long history of Black baseball and also a lot of First Nations baseball. So once you start digging in this story, it becomes very, very interesting."
According to Executive Director and Curator of the Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society & Black Mecca Museum Sam Meredith, The Field of Honour will feature two teams made up of descendants of the All-Stars.
“We worked very hard to track down a direct [descendant] of each player that donned an All-Stars uniform in the 1930s of the All-Stars roster which included players from Chatham-Kent, Detroit, Windsor, and Walpole Island," Meredith explained.
Throughout her time researching, Dr. Jacobs research said she has completed oral histories with multiple family members of the team. However, when she's presented the team's story to communities outside Chatham-Kent, she said many people were unfamiliar with the All-Stars and she hopes that changes.
"One of the things I've really gotten from meeting the families and talking to their children and grandchildren is just all of the barriers that this team broke, not only on the baseball field but how their success on the baseball team help them forge some lives within the community... and why this story really needs to be told. I think the family has been doing a fantastic job in terms of maintaining it... but I think everybody's ready for this story to be told on a larger, national and international scale," she said.
The Field of Honour takes place at 11 a.m. on Saturday, October 2 at Fergie Jenkins Field at Rotary Park. The event is open to the public, with admission by donation.
The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame Committee will make its induction decision in early 2022.
-With files from Craig Needles