A local member of the Ontario Legislature wants to see a historical baseball team take its rightful spot in Canada's baseball pantheon.
Windsor-Tecumseh MPP Percy Hatfield rose in the legislature Monday afternoon to call for the induction of the Chatham Coloured All-Stars to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. The All-Stars were the first Black team to win an Ontario Baseball Association championship, an accomplishment predating the integration of Major League Baseball.
"Last October hundreds of people turned out at the Fergie Jenkins Field in Chatham," said Hatfield. "They watched a baseball game to honour the Chatham All-Stars, a team of Black men who won the Ontario Championship way back in 1934. That was 13 years before Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier in the Major Leagues."
The All-Stars began play in 1932 at Stirling Park, in Chatham's east end. As heard in Blackburn Media's 519 Podcast episode about the team, the players dealt with racism and bigotry long before Robinson endured it, even when the team was playing well.
"It wasn’t uncommon for the Chatham All-Stars to have to fight their way out of another town when they won a game, or be ridiculed if they lost," said Hatfield. "Nobody would rent them a room when they drove to Penetanguishene for the OBA Championship game in 1934. They had to go all the way to Meaford, about 60 miles away, where they were allowed to stay overnight in cabins. But the owner said they had to be up and gone before sunrise so his neighbours wouldn’t know they’d been there."
Among the players with the Chatham All-Stars was centre fielder Ferguson Jenkins Sr., father of the Hall-of-Fame pitcher and Chatham native Fergie Jenkins.
Hatfield called for the All-Stars to get recognition at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, the highest honour for those with connections to Canadian baseball. The team is already enshrined in the Chatham Sports Hall of Fame.