No bubblegum card, no greatness

Leave it to Lucy of the Peanuts comic strip to define what makes a baseball player great:

"He never got his picture on bubblegum cards, did he? Have you ever seen his picture on a bubblegum card?

"Hmmm?

"How can you say someone is great who's never had his picture on bubblegum cards?"

In addition to definitions, Lucy offers sage psychiatric advice for only a nickel.

Fear the Red Wings!

Rochester Red Wings statue.

Frontier Field, Rochester, N.Y.

Photo by Darrin M. Devault (taken in July 2007)

No game today

Snow covers the box seating area of the former Tim McCarver Stadium in Memphis, Tenn.

Photo by Darrin M. Devault (taken on Dec. 24, 2004)

325 feet to right

A weathered outfield sign at the former Tim McCarver Stadium in Memphis, Tenn., tells the distance from home plate to the right field fence.

Photo by Darrin M. Devault (taken on Dec. 24, 2004)

A nod to the Negro League

Bill Selby takes a break before a "Negro League throwback game" between the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds and Iowa Cubs on July 17, 2004, at AutoZone Park in Memphis.

Selby and his Iowa teammates represented the Homestead Grays in the game. After 14 years in professional baseball, including several in the major leagues, Selby is now an assistant baseball coach at Northwest Mississippi Community College.

Photo by Darrin M. Devault

Baseball troubadour Chuck Brodsky

I walked over to the Knoxville Visitors Center during lunch today to hear folk writer and singer Chuck Brodsky perform on WDVX-FM's Blue Plate Special.

A Philadelphia native, Brodsky spent his childhood rooting for the Phillies. His love for the team continued in adulthood, and he penned his first baseball song, "Lefty," for a 1995 album.

In 2002, Brodsky released an entire CD of cleverly-penned baseball songs titled "The Baseball Ballads." I bought a copy a couple of years ago when I first saw Brodsky perform on the Blue Plate Special.

I've got two favorites from the CD.

"Gone to Heaven" is a song about the life of baseball clown performer Max Patkin. (You'll remember Patkin from the movie "Bull Durham.") This song was meaningful to me because I had the pleasure of meeting and seeing Patkin perform at Greer Stadium in Nashville and at the former Tim McCarver Stadium in Memphis in the early '90s.

The other song is "Letters in the Dirt," which addresses the verbal abuse Phillies slugger Richie Allen endured from Philadelphia fans when Brodsky attended games as a child.

Tim Wiles, director of research at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, has called Brodsky "baseball's troubadour poet laureate.

"Chuck combines his gift for lyrics and melody with his love for baseball history and culture, and in the process creates a new chapter in the folklore of our national pastime," Wiles said.

Photo by Darrin M. Devault (taken on Oct. 18, 2010)

A visit to DeVault Memorial Stadium

Michael, Riley and Darrin Devault visit DeVault Memorial Stadium, home of the Bristol (Va.) White Sox of the Appalachian League, on July 30, 2007.

Baseball behind the prison walls of Eastern State

If you want to see a baseball game in Philadelphia, you should catch the Phillies at home in Citizens Bank Park.

But if you want to see the city's most unique baseball field, you'll find it behind the eerie walls of the abandoned Eastern State Penitentiary at 22nd Street and Fairmount Avenue.

It ranks as one of the most fascinating places I've ever visited.

Eastern State opened in 1829 as the world's first true "penitentiary," a prison designed to inspire penitence in its convicts. The "hub and spoke" floor plan has been copied by more than 300 other prisons. (Read a six-page history of the prison.)

The individual sky-lit cells once held criminals including gangster Al Capone, bank robber "Slick Willie" Sutton, and convicted murderer Sam "Red" Crane of the 1917 Philadelphia A's baseball team.

The prison operated continuously for 142 years, then sat in ruin from 1971 to 1991. It opened as a historic site in 1994, and most of the cellblocks and guard towers have been left in stabilized decay.

Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site executive director Sally Elk says the goal is to preserve the 10.5-acre prison "as a stabilized ruin" and to make the tour route safe for visitors. Visitors were required to wear hard hats until 2003 and sign liability waivers until two years ago.

Regardless of their crime, prisoners lived in solitary confinement in Eastern State's early years of operation, but this system "did not so much collapse as erode away over the decades," according to a prison history.

Group sports became popular after solitary confinement ended, and a combination baseball/football field was added to the prison. It was created where a power plant and carpentry shop once stood. (The photo above is taken from centerfield.)

The baseball backstop, located near the central guard tower, doubled as a goal post when used for prison football games. The left crossbar is still in place.

Fenway Park's "Green Monster" isn't the only imposing left field wall.

A home run at Eastern State had to clear a 30-foot high stone wall and small metal fence (above left).

According to prison legend, it was customary for home run balls in the 1960s to be inspected after being tossed back by people in the neighborhood surrounding the prison. These balls sometimes contained small weapons or other contraband.

The baseball field was an unexpected but pleasant discovery on my self-guided tour of Eastern State in June 2010. (You can take the prison's virtual reality tour.)

When I stood near the backstop, I couldn't help but imagine myself as a pitcher.

Do you think I would've had the courage to deliver a brush-back pitch to an inmate who was crowding home plate?

Color photos taken by Darrin M. Devault on location at Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, PA. B&W photo courtesy of Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, Inc.

Suggested reading: "Baseball Behind Bars: Prison Baseball at Eastern State Penitentiary in the Early Twentieth Century," by Tim Hayburn of Lehigh University, Journal of Sport History, Vol. 34, No. 2, Summer 2007.

Father, son visit home of Little League World Series

Michael Devault and son Riley pose for a photograph at Howard J. Lamade Stadium located in the Little League International Complex in Williamsport, Pa. The Little League World Series is played each August at Lamade Stadium.

Photo by Darrin M. Devault (taken on July 27, 2007)

Stan Musial: "Baseball's perfect warrior"

Whenever I'm in St. Louis for a baseball game, I usually spend some time milling around new Busch Stadium admiring the statues of former Cardinal greats such as Hall of Fame outfielders Enos Slaughter and Lou Brock and legendary announcer Jack Buck.

My favorite is the Stan Musial statue, which I first saw in the summer of 1975 as a 9-year-old outside the old Busch Stadium. The statue of Stan the Man has greeted millions of red-clad Cardinal fans in front of both stadiums since its unveiling in 1968.

The statue is inscribed with a quote by former baseball commissioner Ford Frick: "Here stands baseball's perfect warrior. Here stands baseball's perfect knight."

Photo by Darrin M. Devault (taken on June 18, 2008)

Young slugger

My nephew: Daniel Johnson, age 5

Photo by Darrin M. Devault (taken in June 2010)

Getting "phanatical" in Philly

"Phanatic Around Town" was the name of a 2010 art project in Philadelphia that promoted the hometown Phillies and tourism.

Twenty fiberglass statues depicting the popular Philly Phanatic mascot were decorated by artists and placed in public areas, such as the "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" statue (shown above) near Philadelphia City Hall.

This statue fetched $17,200 last month during an online auction to support Phillies Charities.

Other statues I remember for their creativity were "Ben Phranklin" at the Franklin Institute and "Phanatico Latino" at the Independence Seaport Museum.

Photos by Darrin M. Devault (taken in late June 2010)

A lesson in civil rights

Riley Devault shows a special interest in a Jackie Robinson exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., so his dad Michael takes the opportunity to explain the significance of Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier.

Photo by Darrin M. Devault (taken in late July 2007)

Bullpen bound

Relief pitchers for the Memphis Redbirds walk to the bullpen before the start of a game at AutoZone Park in downtown Memphis.

Photo by Darrin M. Devault (taken on July 17, 2004)

Lights on at AutoZone

Top of massive scoreboard sign at AutoZone Park, Memphis, Tenn.

Photo by Darrin M. Devault (taken on Sept. 17, 2010)

The last long ball hit by baseball's true HR king

The ball hit by Hank Aaron (Baseball's True HR Champ) for his final career home run (No. 755) is on loan at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Photo by Darrin M. Devault (taken on July 26, 2009)

Herrreee's Ozzie!

Mascot Ozzie has been entertaining Nashville Sounds fans at Greer Stadium for many years. He confided to me that his all-time favorite players are Ozzie Smith and Ozzie Guillen, now the manager of the Chicago White Sox.

Photo by Darrin M. Devault (taken on Aug. 26, 2010)

Hunka, hunka ballplayer

Hometown hero Elvis is depicted as a Memphis Redbirds baseball player on the club level of AutoZone Park in downtown Memphis.

Photo by Darrin M. Devault (taken on Sept. 17, 2010)

"Train up a child..."

Sign in a youth baseball dugout in Bolivar, Tenn.

Photo by Darrin M. Devault (taken in June 2010)

RIP ~ Jeremy Steven Devault, a Red Sox fan

Red Sox Nation lost a true fan earlier this month.

I lost something greater—my first cousin.

Jeremy Steven Devault died April 3, one day before his beloved Boston Red Sox opened the 2010 baseball season against The Damn Yankees.

Only 36, Jeremy was the victim of a sudden and massive heart attack.

Those who knew Big Jer remain in shock.

However, I couldn't help but smile this morning when my Aunt B shared some photos that she took last weekend at Jeremy's final resting place—Prospect Cemetery in his hometown of Hollow Rock, Tenn.

One of his dear friends has adorned the grave with a small Boston Red Sox flag. He would have loved it.

I also think he would have loved the outpouring of love from the 200+ friends who turned out for his funeral.

Baseball Hall of Famer and philosopher Yogi Berra once said "you can observe a lot by watching."

Well, I had the good fortune to observe Jeremy's life in three phases: as a child, as a young adult, and as "the man about town" who influenced everyone around him.

To be continued.