Hometown Heros

[Jason]

That is players born in or that spent a significant portion of there life's in your hometown.Hopefully this thread will get a lot of different issues of cards posted.For me its Mr.Hooker.Born,raised,and died in Richmond Va.He even played a season or two for the local Richmond Team.Pop Tate is another that comes to mind but I don't have an example of him yet.So who is yours?

[JLange]

Joe Vosmik was born in Cleveland in 1910 and played for the Indians from 1930-36. By far his best season was 1935 when he led the league with 216 hits, 47 doubles, and 20 triples. He batted .348 that season, and came in third in MVP voting behind Hank Greenberg and Wes Ferrell. I always thought how cool it would be to play professional ball in the town you grew up in. Here he is in the 1936 R322 Goudey Issue, in his last season with Cleveland.

[wolterse]

Fred Tenney was born on Sunday, November 26, 1871, in Georgetown, Massachusetts. Tenney was 22 years old when he broke into the big leagues on June 16, 1894, with the Boston Beaneaters. With the exception of a brief two-year stint with the Giants (1908-1909), Tenney played his entire career with the Boston Nationals, retiring in 1911 with 2,231 hits and a lifetime .294 average. Tenney died on July 3, 1952 at Massachusetts General Hospital after a long illness. He was interred at Harmony Chapel and Cemetery in Georgetown.

[drcy]

My hometown, Madison Wisconsin, was the hometown of speed skater Eric Heiden and the only person to win two science Nobel Prizes, John Bardeen (both in physics). That might average out to a baseball player.

The Seattle neighborhood were I now live, West Seattle, was hometown of lobotomized actress Frances Farmer. She went to elementary school right near me, then West Seattle High.

[bigtrain]

Two guys from my hometown, Scotch Plains, N.J. "Skeets" Nehemiah was a freshman when I was a senior in high school. My brother played baseball and football with Jeff Hammonds, who played for the Orioles, Brewers and Rockies.

[z28jd]

My hometown is Kearny, NJ, birthplace of Dots Miller. His niece married into my family, so six of my relatives are also related to him. Ownie Carroll used to live in town too, so I have a couple cards of him, as well as Sam Dente.

Ellensburg, WA - James Ferguson pitched for the Ellensburg Deathdealers in 1891. His son, Lester "Stump" Ferguson, played in the minor leagues for many years with the Kittitas Sluggers (1920), Ellensburg Hawks (1921-26), San Francisco Seals (1926-27), Minneapolis (1928), and Denver (1929-30). His career was cut short by injuries.

The Ferguson family is legendary in Ellensburg. They once held amateur rodeos at their ranch in the teens/twenties. These "Sunday rodeos" were popular events and later became the Ellensburg Rodeo, held every Labor Day weekend since 1923. Stump passed away while training horses at LongAcres Race Track in Renton (ca. 1970).

Unfortunately, no images available. Here's a photo of James' younger brother Ben (co-founder of Ellensburg Rodeo).
http://www.washingtonruralheritage.c...nsburg/id/2921

[Bored5000]

Originally Posted by bigtrain

Two guys from my hometown, Scotch Plains, N.J. "Skeets" Nehemiah was a freshman when I was a senior in high school.

I had not thought about Renaldo Nehemiah in years, but I will always have a soft spot for him. I was around 10 or 11 when my father took me to a Nehemiah autograph signing at a local mall here in eastern PA. At the time, Nehemiah was in the football portion of his athletic career. In hindsight, having an autograph session with a 49er with no playing ties to the Philadelphia market was only going to be so successful.

As result, maybe a dozen people showed up for Nehemiah's autograph. Even as a kid, I knew it was a sad turnout. I am sure it had to be a disappointment for Nehemiah to show up for such a small gathering, but he could not have been nicer. Thirty years later, I can still remember him asking me what sports I played and expressing sincere interest in my answers.

[g_vezina_c55]

For me in canada it is not a beaseball player. It is a hockey players .. born and death in my town. Every years i go to the cimetery to see his tombstone.

[tedzan]

I grew up in Hillside, NJ (1945 - 1965)......we lived on Concord Place. Two blocks away, on Westminster Avenue, lived the Phil Rizzuto family.
Phil would drive down our street on his way to Yankee Stadium.

We always knew it was Phil because he was the only one in our neighborhood who drove a tiny 1953 Nash Metropolitan 2-seater convertible.
Phil would often stop and talk with us kids. A really friendly and talkative guy.

Needless to say, I became an avid Yankees fan. Fast forward to 1984, I'll share with you a nice story about Phil....which I will post later.





TED Z

[Cardboard Junkie]

Scooter's scooter? (Ted, if you can would like to hear your opinion on the Magee/Magie thread below this one titled "Compare the Names" Whatchathink? Dave.

[tedzan]

David

That indeed was the Scooter's 4-wheeled "scooter". In fact that car entered into the conversation Phil and I had in the story I'm about to tell you guys.








April 1984....I was at the ticket counter at Newark Airport for a flight to Chicago. In front of me was Rizzuto. I started the conversation reminiscing about the old neighborhood.
He thanked me for asking about his wife, Cora....and, that he still attends to his garden and flowers. They lived in a beautiful ivy covered English Tudor house. And, I asked Phil
if he still had his Nash Metropolitan ?

He was quite excited that I remembered it, it was one of his favorite cars. But, no....he had sold it to a vintage car collector.

Phil was flying to Chicago to do the Yankees game at Comiskey Park. We boarded the plane after a 2-hour delay. Phil invited me to sit in 1st class with him. We had a wonderful
time "Talkin' BaseBall" and reminiscing about the "good ole days" back in our neighborhood.


TED Z

[mets41]

reggie jackson is from my current hometown (Wyncote, PA) and we both went to Cheltenham High school.