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Thomas to finally have special dayFRANKFORT, Ky. (UPI) (- When Independence Day rolls around this year and Clint Thomas travels from Charleston, W.Va., to his hometown of Greenup, Ky., for a family gathering, it will be a particularly special day for the Negro National League great called the “black Joe DiMaggio.”Thomas, 83, now works at the Statehouse in West Virginia but his real love is baseball, and before the color barrier was broken by Jackie Robinson, Thomas played outfield from the early 1920’s through 1940 for teams like the New York Black Yankees, the New York Lincoln Giants and the Philadelphia Hilldales.Though Thomas batted about .350 in his career, he and many other Negro League stars got scant attention. That will change July 4.“A group of us who used to play in the Negro leagues will be on hand to honor Clint, who I understand, worked almost anonymously for years at the Capitol in West Virginia,” said Monte Irvin, one of the several blacks in the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y. Irvin now works for baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn.“Few, if any, apparently realize this man — in his 80’s but still in good health — was quite a player in his time,” said Irvin. “I broke into black baseball in 1937, and I knew him. I saw him play. But none of these fellas got much exposure, and the records weren’t very reliable.”Irvin escaped obscurity, gaining some fame for his play in the 1950’s for the New York Giants. Now, Clint Thomas — eligible for the Hall of Fame but a virtual unknown — will have his moment on stage.“There will be a lot there,” said Irvin. “Satchel Paige, the great pitcher; Bob Feller who used to tour with Satch; former baseball commissioner A.B. “Happy” Chandler.”Chandler, a former Kentucky governor who lives in Versailles, Ky., was at the helm of major league baseball when Robinson made his debut.Irvin said some of the others invited are Don Newcombe, Minnie Minoso and Roy Campenella “but we’re not surethey’ll make it yet.”The notion of honoring Thomas and other former black ballplayers began with Tom Stultz, publisher of the Greenup County Sentinel in northeastern Kentucky.Stultz said he was startled to learn Thomas, who starred so long in the black big leagues, was little known in his native Greenup. ‘‘I thought there must be others like him, and that we should preserve this part of our sportsheritage.”Stultz said he hopes there will someday be an annual major league exhibition to benefit black oldtimers. “There are exhibitions for other purposes, and I think this would be a worthy one.”However, Irvin said the idea has been tossed around the commissioner’s office and “frankly, I don’t think we 11 have one, at least not now.” Irvin said there was once a benefit game in Los Angeles “for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King but so few showed, it wasn’t worth it. The players would liave done more by making a simplecontribution to the cause.”Stultz said there will be a July 3 banquet in Ashland for “speeches, anecdotes, funny things they remember, the playing conditions. They all have a story to tell, and very few people have ever asked them.”The next day, Independence Day, belongs to Clint Thomas. “We’ll spend the day at the ballpark in Greenup. Little leaguers will be there to get autographs, ask questions, have their pictures taken,” said Stultz. Who knows, if these oldtimers feel like it, we might even have a pickup game of some kind.”Stultz said invitations “went out to several dozen, and it looks like 19 or 20 might make it.”
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