William Penn Life, 1982 (17. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
1982-04-01 / 2. szám
Sandlot Star Never Tired of Playing Baseball By Jerry Di Paola, Staff Writer Today’s baseball players live like millionaires. No wonder. Many of them would sooner buy the manager’s contract than listen to his repeated beefs. They could easily afford to hire a chauffeur to drive them to the park. If he were alive today, Joe Menhart wouldn’t believe it. A sandlot pitching star in Springdale and New Kensington in the 1930’s and 1940’s, Menhart once tried out for the Pirates. Sadly, family and financial considerations during the Depression forced him to bypass a possible professional career. “I didn’t even have a nickle for the streetcar,” he told his daughter Elizabeth at the time. Menhart, who died in 1962, finally receives his due May 15 when he is inducted into the Alle-Kiski Valley Sports Hall of Fame at a banquet at the New Kensington Holiday Inn. Sandlot players throughout the Pittsburgh area remember Menhart’s sidearm, deceptively-quick motion. ‘‘He was a marvelous pitcher,” said Bob Michaels, one of Menhart’s teammates on the Amicus Club team of Springdale. “He was one of the nicest fellows you’d ever want to meet,” said his manager, Charles Brown. “I didn’t get to umpire many of Joe’s games until he was in the twilight of his career and even then he was one of the best,” said Leo Weber of Tarentum, a top sandlot umpire years ago. “There wasn’t anyone any better in the Valley,” another teammate, Chick Zimmerly, said simply. No one doubted Menhart’s ability on a pitching mound. His only regret was that a professional career avoided him. Family—including five daughters, two sons and his wife Mary—came First. In 1928, Joe and Mary bundled up their infant son Jesse, packed up all their belongings and set out for Detroit and a try-out with the Tigers. “In those days it isn’t like today when they had scouts,” Elizabeth said. “You had to push yourself.” Jobs were scarce in Detroit. Mary, a Springdale native like her husband, 8 became homesick and before the Tigers were convinced Joe could play, the Menharts were back in Springdale. “He had to give up part of his career for his family,” Elizabeth said. But the Pirates were still interested, and Menhart traveled to Forbes Field for another try-out. One day, Menhart was pitching to Buc Hall of Famer Paul Waner, a lifetime .340 hitter. Disgusted with Menhart’s elusive serves, Waner stepped out of the box and hollered, “Hey, kid. Throw ’em in so we can hit ’em.” “Some of the Pirate batters were even afraid to bat against him,” said John Fugal of Springdale, one of Menhart’s teammates on the sandlots. “Finally, the manager, Jewel Ens, had to tell them to stand up there and bat against him.” A pro baseball career needs time to develop and Menhart had little. The Depression forced him to seek secure employment in the coal mines, Joe Menhart Editor's Note: In 1931, when the Verhovay Branch 296 supported teams, Joe Menhart was the Manager. Joe Page, the Yankee's famous relief pitcher, started his career with the 296 team and was also trained by Mr. Menhart. but his reputation grew on the sandlots. Menhart won 38 games in 1930, including two no-hitters and three onehit games. Fugal remembers whenever the public address announcer would call out the lineup with Menhart pitching, the opposing team would throw their gloves in the air and cry, “Do we have to face him again?” Possibly Menhart’s most memorable game was a 13-inning, 2-1 loss to the All-Negro Pittsburgh Crawfords in the 1930’s. The Crawfords featured baseball legends Satchell Paige and Josh Gibson. Menhart also helped the New Kensington Corbins win the National Baseball Federation title in Cleveland in 1935. The Corbins expected little aid from Menhart in the tournament because he had hurled the team to the Greater Pittsburgh League championship two nights earlier. When the Corbins fell behind, 6-1, after two innings, Menhart got the call. He held the opponents scoreless for six innings and the Corbins rallied for an 8-6 victory and the $500 first prize. Menhart’s accurate control and quick, puzzling delivery made him the star on five different sandlot teams, including Allegheny Valley League champ Walker Buick, Hillman Coal, Springdale A.A., Springdale Amicus and the Corbins. (The Springdale A.A. once won 100 of 113 games.) “It was the way he delivered the ball,” teammate Lefty Phillips said. “He would hide the ball behind him while he was winding up and it would come out at the batter all at once.” Menhart’s teammates remember how devoted the sandlot players—and their fans—were toward baseball in those days. “In Springdale, you could come in and rob the bank when we had a game,” Zimmerly said. “Everyone went to the games.” “We’d hurry home from the coal mines every day at 4 o’clock,” Phillips recalls, “jump into our ball suits without eating dinner and hurry off to the ball game.” “We’d come home about 9 o’clock hungry, but we had a lot of fun or we wouldn’t have done it.” “He worked every day and pitched every day,” Brown said of Menhart. “It never phased him.” “When we played ball, we played ball,” Fugal said. “There was no such thing as tired.” Valley News Dispatch
