My oldest greatnephew, Gideon, is a baseball player and being not the least bit prejudiced, I would say a pretty good one, too.
His two main positions are first base and pitcher.
Every time we have a baseball player in the family my mother mentions the fact that we are related to the infamous professional baseball player Preacher Roe.
Many of you may remember my greatgrandparents “Windy” Bill Baker and Mittie Ann Roe Baker.
They lived in the Key West/Stroud area most of their adult lives.
Preacher, who was born Elwin Charles Roe was born in Ash Flat, Arkansas, on February 26, 1916.
His father was my greatgrandmother’s oldest of nine siblings. Their parents died when they were young and as seemed to be the custom in those days, other families took them in.
The children were separated and didn’t reconnect until they became adults. I had the opportunity to meet Preacher when I was a young adult.
He was residing in West Plains, Missouri, where a street is named after him. A side note is that this was also the home of Porter Wagoner who has a street named in his honor, too.
Preacher played for the St. Louis Cardinals (1938), Pittsburgh Pirates (1944-1947), and Brooklyn Dodgers (1948- 54) and was a five time All-Star.
He got a reputation for throwing the “wet one,” known as the spitball. He said, “I didn’t throw it near as often as they made out but it sure could psych out the batter.”
In 1955 a famous news article was released indicating that Preacher confessed to having thrown the spitball an unlikely number of times.
This created a stir in the sports world. In the Roe household it resulted in a quiet surprise. Due to the aftermath of the uproar, Preacher removed himself from the public eye for several years.
He swore that the article he approved and the one they printed were not the same. His friends, family and fans stood by this belief as well.
It has been said that this article is all that stood between the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame and Preacher Roe although he was inducted into many other Halls of Fame.
There is not much local news or happenings to report to you this week. Town Talk continues to work to complete some of our projects that have been on-going but have not started anything new.
We are trying to finish projects now so that with fall here and the weather a little cooler we can help with neighborhood community clean-up.
Many of you tell me you check out my column to find out what’s happening around town, so I guess “no news is good news.”
Hopefully, we are beginning the healing process from all the recent lives our community has lost. It seems the sickness we have experienced is slowing down.
Let’s continue to offer support to our many neighbors who have lost loved ones.
We are not only Stroud Proud but we are Stroud Strong.
Have a great week and thank you for choosing to shop local…………………….. first!