KENNETT SQUARE >> In his recently released biography of pitching great Herb Pennock, author Keith Craig strongly disputes the rumor that the late Baseball Hall of Famer and Kennett Square native made disparaging racial remarks about Jackie Robinson in a 1947 telephone call.
Craig, 55, who lived in the borough for several years and currently serves as the Kennett Square Old Timers Hall of Fame Banquet master of ceremonies, released the book “Baseball’s Faultless Pitcher” in April after five years of research. Particularly troubling in the information he dealt with was an account written by the late Dodgers executive Harold Parrott in the book “The Lords of Baseball.” In it, Parrott stated that he heard Pennock, who at the time was general manager of the Phillies, in a discussion with Brooklyn Dodgers general Manager Branch Rickey, advising him not to bring Jackie Robinson to Philadelphia for a game with the Phillies in 1947.
Pennock, who died in 1948, is alleged to have used a racial epithet in describing the black Dodgers superstar who had broken through the racial barriers of major league baseball.
When that statement was reiterated around Kennett Square about a decade ago, several opponents put the kibosh on a plan to erect a statue in honor of the borough’s hometown hero – a largely baseless movement that still angers residents, friends and relatives today.
Craig said of the incident, “Nothing I’ve found is a smoking gun.”
In the book he writes, “The alleged telephone call between Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey and Herb Pennock in which Pennock calls Robinson a (derogatory name) and threatened to keep the Phillies off the field if he played is apocryphal at best and defamatory at worst….the tale is without corroboration and crafted solely by Harold Parrott.”
The call, in fact, was about threats that had been made against Robinson by Phillies fans and what to do about them, Craig asserts.
It is possible, Craig said, that the call was even made by Phillies owner Bob Carpenter, not Pennock.
Craig added that Robinson’s widow said she hadn’t heard about the call, and the only source of the story appears to have been Parrott.
One of the things Parrot said in his book was that he “listened in” on the conversation on an extension line in Rickey’s office. But research showed that there was no extension line at that time.
And for Craig, the most telling evidence that Pennock, a Quaker, held no negative feelings about blacks is that he and his wife took in a black woman, Florence “Gig” Simon, who was fleeing an abusive husband in the 1930s. She lived with the Pennocks the rest of her life and stayed with Pennock’s widow even after he died. She lived to be 105 and is buried next to Pennock.
Craig admits that there were certainly racial aspects to baseball – and life – in the 1940s and now.
One of the things he talked about in an interview last week was the exclusive Wilmington area fox-hunting society that Pennock grew up in, which is largely white, and how the relationships with that society were enhanced as he worked with Phillies owner Bob Carpenter.
There was also the fact that the Phillies were one of the last teams to have black players, and the black Philadelphia community was well aware of that.
Craig said in Pennock’s defense, he had been developing a strong Phillies team in the late 1940s that emerged as the 1950 Pennant-winning Whiz Kids – Robin Roberts, Richie Ashburn, Willie Jones, Granny Hamner, Andy Seminak, Del Ennis. They – and players on all the other teams in fact – were white at the time. Craig believes that Pennock had nothing against bringing in black players – and had even said that – but that the group he had at that time happened to be evolving into what he wished for as future champions.
With that said, Craig’s book is not just about the telephone call incident.
Baseball enthusiast Keith Craig grew up in a family that loved and played the sport. His father was signed by the Phillies in 1956 and Craig himself played for Florida State University. Throughout his life he has been a Phillies fan, having attended many games, including the first at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. “Growing up, everything was baseball,” he said.
But his love of and interest in the game took a giant leap forward when he and his wife moved to Kennett Square and he began getting his hair cut at Burton’s Barbershop – a virtual shrine to baseball in general and local players in particular.
Out of that grew his curiosity about one player especially: Pennock, who was a Kennett Square native, a frequent host of Babe Ruth in the town and an in-law to second base Baseball Hall of Famer Eddie Collins, whose son Pennock’s daughter married.
To this day, their offspring, Eddie Collins III and his brother, Peter, are the only people in history to have had two grandfathers (Collins and Pennock) in Baseball’s Hall of Fame.
In his book, Craig said he wanted to explore Pennock’s career as a player, his career as a manager, and the racism rumors, and he does.
He talks about Pennock’s rise to fame and his ability as a master of the pitcher’s mound both in Boston and with the New York Yankees.
Craig also talks about the favorite topic in Burton’s Barbershop in Kennett Square: the relationship Pennock had with Babe Ruth, and how Pennock brought Ruth frequently to Kennett Square for fox hunting and parties.
Barbershop owner Bob Burton talks often about how is grandfather, Amos Burton, was good friends with Pennock and how Ruth and the other Yankees stopped by the barbershop for haircuts.
That barbershop was passed down the generations so that even today it is a center for baseball lovers with walls that are lined with photos and paraphernalia of major league and local players and the chatter is always on the diamond.
The book can be purchased on Amazon.
