by Charles Norman | Mar 17, 2024 | Baseball
Trials of a Minor League Umpire in 1909 Are you blind? Where do you think you are? In a cow-pasture?– Thomas Wolfe, A Portrait of Bascom Hawke The cash-poor lower leagues of the South assigned a single umpire to each game. Most worked behind the plate until a...
by Charles Norman | Feb 10, 2024 | Baseball
Charles Durmeyer, the Cotton States Baby Charles Philip Durmeyer, Jr. was born in New Orleans on August 29, 1889. His father, Charles Durmeyer, Sr., was a butcher with a few seasons of minor league ball to his credit. Charles Sr. gave up the professional game when his...
by Charles Norman | Jan 31, 2024 | Baseball
The South And is there anything that can tell more about an American summer than, say, the smell of the wooden bleachers in a small-town baseball park, that resinous, sultry, and exciting smell of old dry wood.– Thomas Wolfe, letter to Arthur Mann, 1938 Captain W.T....
by Charles Norman | Dec 23, 2023 | Baseball
The Book About Jack Corbett and a Lot of Other Stuff – Part 1 Table of Contents (click chapter title to view post) ForewordThe Name on the Base The Jack Corbett Hollywood Base appears today on every Major League Baseball diamond. Does a player ever look down at...
by Charles Norman | Dec 23, 2023 | Baseball
The Name on the Base Jack Corbett’s best friend is Jack Corbett; his ideal, Jack Corbett; his criterion, Jack Corbett; and his hero, Jack Corbett.– Winston-Salem Twin-City Daily Sentinel, March 11, 1916 It has been said that we must judge a man by the enemies he...
by Charles Norman | Dec 23, 2023 | Baseball
Anderson Once more baseball is here. In every city and hamlet in the land eager “fans” can hardly wait for the results of the day’s games. On every vacant lot in the United States future baseball stars are quarreling over the weighty decisions of a young umpire. With...
