Catching Up : Negro League Players Reminisce at Fund-Raiser

For Laura Hendryx and her sister Marie Goree, it’s a memory that crystallizes the happiest times of their childhood: sitting on the floor pounding their father’s brand-new baseball mitt, proud to be charged with the task of breaking it in for a big game he was to play the next day.

Years later, long after their father stopped playing, the sisters talked frequently about rounding up former Negro League ballplayers living in Los Angeles for a reunion of sorts, as well as a chance to glean more firsthand baseball history.

On Saturday they finally got their wish at Hendryx’s Leimert Park art gallery, Gallery Plus on Degnan Boulevard. Seven former players from clubs such as the Kansas City Monarchs and the Drummondville (Canada) Cubs gladly told war stories and autographed memorabilia for those who came to listen.

“We’ve been wanting to do this for so long, it started eating at us,” said Hendryx, whose gallery boasts one of the city’s largest collections of contemporary African American art. “We’re so happy it came together.”

For onetime catcher Sammy Haynes, 74, it was a welcome opportunity to stimulate interest in a bit of black history that he and other players forged for many seasons. It was also a chance for the players to raise money that many retirees, who received no pensions or other benefits, badly need. Players autographed posters, photos and trading cards that sold for $3 to $40.

“This keeps us busy. It’s a good feeling to get out,” said the lively Haynes, decked out in a vintage Negro League jacket and cap. “We all feel honored when people ask us, ‘What was it like back then?’ ”

Hendryx set up tables for former players Haynes, Andy Porter, Merle Porter, Luther Branham, Fran Matthews, Albert (Buster) Haywood and Ernie Haskins, who range in age up to 84. Many fans, with memorabilia in hand, wanted to talk about the Negro League and their own recollections of games they had seen and players they had known.

“I changed my plans to be here today,” said Sharon Brown, who stood waiting for her son and daughter to get their baseballs signed. “We had planned to go to the movies, but I told my kids, ‘This is history.’ ”

Her son Lorenzo, 13, came away from a conversation with Merle Porter thoughtful and a bit perturbed. “They’re cool guys. It’s kind of sad that they had to be separated from the major leagues,” he said. “They should’ve gotten their chance to play like everybody else.”

The 12-team Negro League operated from 1920 to 1950 and spawned such greats as Satchel Paige, Roy Campanella and Jackie Robinson. Teams hailed chiefly from the East, Midwest and South, with names such as the Newark Eagles, Detroit Cubs and Atlanta Black Crackers. Robinson broke the major league color barrier by signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948, a triumph for African Americans, but a death knell for the Negro League. It was dismantled two years later.

Yet many Negro Leaguers played on, either in the majors, on farm teams or with semipro leagues. Hendryx recalled giving her father, Art Demery--who suffered a stroke five years ago that left him unable to speak--liniment rubdowns after games when she and several of her 12 siblings were teen-agers.

“He had odd jobs, but he never really left baseball,” said Hendryx, who has two brothers who also played professionally. “As I got older, I started to think about a lot of guys who played a long time and are living now without pensions from their career. . . . I wanted to do something for them and also for our own family research.”

Some of those who came to Hendryx’s gallery Saturday conducted some informal research of their own.

Melvin Aterberry and Pete Fulton engaged in a spirited exchange, rattling off baseball facts and figures as they waited to speak to the players. “There were some great players in the league, no question about it,” said Aterberry, a hard-core Birmingham Black Barons fan whose friend played with Haynes. “I heard white fans at games say how much better a lot of our players were than the major leaguers.”

Hendryx and Goree say that’s part of the reason they want to find out as much as possible about their father, who eventually played for the Brooklyn Dodgers’ farm team in Bakersfield. “We want him, and other black players, to get their rightful place in history,” said Goree, adding that she is working with Haynes to get Demery into baseball’s Hall of Fame.

For most of the players, who jokingly called themselves “The Brothers Who Played but Didn’t Get Paid,” any recognition now won’t change hard financial realities.

But, Haynes said, “we were just so glad to get the chance to play back then. . . . It was a labor of love. We didn’t make a lot of money, but we sure had a lot of fun.”