I have this picture which simply says Main Street, Darby. Looking for a location, block etc.
NOTE: It is very hard to imagine today but 100 years ago but baseball players in Darby Boro were denied playing Sunday baseball. The fight was front page news in the Chester Times. The funny thing was Sunday baseball was being played elsewhere in Delco with no problems. In Darby it was a political battle with the mayor, magistrate etc. going after the baseball players, managers etc. The people of Darby were behind their baseball team 100 percent on Sunday they would cross Cobbs Creek and play baseball in Philadelphia.
CHESTER TIMES
September 20, 1920
DARBY FANS FIND SABBATH BLUE
Baseball Lovers Seek Their Inspiration in Orangeade
“The
Darby Borough Baseball Blues” is the title for a syncopated ditty Irving Berlin
might have been inspired to dash off had he paid a visit to Darby yesterday
afternoon. Great gobs of blue cluttered
up the atmosphere. Darby’s baseball
players were wearing their Sunday clothes – blue serge. Wild flowers and blue grass were untrampled
on the baseball diamond at Fifth and Main Streets. For the first Sunday this summer, the blue
laws of 1794 were battling nearly .400 in Darby, and the blue-stockinged champions
of the Sabbath chortled with glee.
But even
blue laws have a silver lining. The
Darby fans were not to be denied the privilege of a Sunday afternoon ball game,
not even if they had to leave the borough, as all of them did. And when the baseball fans leave Darby, the
place is another “Deserted Village.”
At
“Dad”, Shaw’s confectionery shop, which is the hub of Darby’s athletic element,
the fans and players had congregated early in the afternoon to drink their
contempt for the blue laws in brimming beakers of orangeade. There wasn’t even a church service they could
attend until after dark, and it’s a fact that every one of the players is a
church member.
Then the
Darby fans decided there was but one thing to do. So they took another drink of orangeade,
called up their girlfriends and walked across Cobbs Creek, which separates Darby
from Philadelphia and witnessed the first of a series of three games for the
championship of West Philadelphia.
The
bitterest pill of all for the fans was that Darby was about the only large town
in Delaware County where a ball game wasn’t in progress.
The game
just across the creek from Darby was between the St. Clement’s team and the
Paschall nine and was played on the grounds of St. Clement’s Church,
Seventy-Second Street and Woodland Avenue, before the biggest crowd that has
been there this season. The Paschall
players won the first game of the series by 5 to 2.
ADVISED
NOT TO PLAY – Samuel Shilladay, manager of the Delco team, spoke for Darby’s
fans and players, he said, when he assured the newspapermen that the game
wasn’t called off because of any profound respect for the blue laws or because
the players feared arrest.
“We were
advised by our counsel, John J. Stetser of Chester not to play while our case
is pending in court,” said Shilladay.
“Otherwise our game with the Woodland All-Stars would not have been
called off.”
A
petition has been filed in the Delaware County court appealing from the
decision of Magistrate Robinson, who fined eight of the players $4 each for
playing on the Sabbath.
Another phase of Darby’s baseball war promises to develop tonight. At the instance of certain citizens, the editor of the Darby Progress weekly, on Fridays), has called a citizens mass meeting to take place at the Odd Fellows’ Hall, where a law and order society will be organized. The Darby fans, 500 odd say they will be there to help elect officers.
NEED HELP
I'm looking for some help in identifying pictures. I have pictures of every town and boro in Delco and I need help. Foe example many are postcards from 100 years ago and say, for example, corner of Lincoln Ave and Chester Pike. I would like to identify the picture as "southeast" corner, the 300 block. odd side and house #, etc. I want to make the picture as clear as possible. Looking for, postman, policeman etc., retired or working that can sit down with me for an hour or so and really help me get this pictures of their town properly identified.
Below, I still have a few copies left of my centennial history of Prospect Park from 1994.
Price $ 20,00
If interested email me
keith106@rcn.com
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