Baseball in Black and White

Submitted by Bob Foley, Program Director, Van Cortlandtville Historical Society

In conjunction with Black History Month, noted baseball historian Bob Mayer will present a program entitled Baseball in Black & White on Thursday, February 19th, at 7:30 p.m., at the John C. Hart Library in Shrub Oak, New York. Co-sponsored by the Yorktown Historical Society and the Van Cortlandtville Historical Society, the event is open free to the public. Mr. Mayer’s PowerPoint program, accompanied by vintage pictures and memorabilia, will highlight the history of African Americans in baseball, including some of the Black Barnstorming teams that played in the Hudson Valley. His talk will be a modified version of his Baseball in Black & White program that he presented in 2013 at the Adriance Library in Poughkeepsie for the “Pride & Passion” series and exhibit that was sponsored by the American Library Association and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. His passion for the game of baseball and its exciting history spans more than 50 years as a participant in various levels of amateur league play and mangement, and as a published author of many articles and as an avid memorabilia collector. Items from his collection were featured in The Glory Days (New York Baseball 1947-1957) exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York. He has owned and managed Spring Fever, a vintage baseball memorabilia company for the past 20 years. Samplings from his memorabilia collection will be on display at the Hart Library on Feb. 19th. In 2005, Mr. Mayer began research into the roots of baseball in Orange, Putnam, Dutchess and Westchester counties, with a particular focus on the players on the Wallkills, the Asylum Base Ball Club, the Hudson River Leagues, and the Black Barnstorming teams of more than 100 years ago when Blacks were barred from the major leagues. He has presented to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Negro League Conference and the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, as well as many historical societies, museums, and libraries in the Hudson Valley region, and also to the Peekskill Little League. Currently, Mr. Mayer is the President of the Peekskill Museum, a Board Member of the Middletown Historical Society, and a member of the Westchester Baseball Group and the Van Cortlandtville Historical Society. In addition, he is a member of the SABR Negro League, Minor League, and 19th- Century Baseball Committees, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Written articles by Mr. Mayer have been published in Baseball—A Journal of the Early Game; Glove Collector’s Newsletter, the SABR 19th-Century Newsletter, the Orange County Historical Society Journal, and the Mahopac News. In the 1970s, he was the originator and organizer of The Westchester Superstars, an annual competition that drew several hundred athletes benefitting the National Special Olympics. In 2012, Mr. Mayer produced a three-day Old Timers Baseball Celebration in Peekskill, honoring minor league players (some from the local area) of the 1940s and 50s. Special guest speakers at the event were former New York Yankees pitcher, TV broadcaster and Ball Four author Jim Bouton; and Marty Appel of the Yankees organization and author of Pinstripe Nation. Mr. Mayer’s professional career before he retired spanned more than 30 years in Financial Management with Bankers Trust, JPMorganChase, and pre-merger firms. He earned an MBA Degree in Business Management from Adelphi University in New York, and a BS in Finance from the University of West Florida. A native of Mount Vernon, New York, Mr. Mayer and his wife, Adelyn, have had a home in Putnam Valley since 1988. He is available for speaking engagements and baseball memorabilia exhibits by contacting him via email at: springfvr9@aol.com; or (845) 528-0726. The John C. Hart Memorial Library (the venue for the Feb. 19th program) is located at 1130 East Main Street in Shrub Oak, New York, next to the Lakeland Schools Administration Building. For more information, visit: www.yorktownhistory.org; or, www.vancort.net. In case of inclement weather, call the Library (914) 245-5262, x227. Or, call the Van Cortlandtville Historical Society at (914) 736-7868.

PHOTOS courtesy Van Cortlandtville Historical Society: Bob Mayer at the podium and Cuban X Giants baseball team pictured at Middletown (NY) State Hospital game in Sept. 1905. They were a professional team not associated with any major league because Blacks were barred at the time.