It happened here
The Korean War from 1950-53 created some interesting situations when military draft notices increased across the nation. In 1951, baseball great Willie Mays was drafted by the New York Giants and completed his rookie year. But in 1952, he was drafted by the U.S. Army.
Many big-name Major League players were being drafted and served their time those years by playing ball on military base baseball teams, such as the Fort Eustis Wheels in Newport News.
In 1951, Middlesex County native Syd Thrift was drafted in the Army and assigned to Fort Eustis where he was named player/manager of the Wheels. Several Major League players had arrived at Fort Eustis, including Vernon “Deacon” Law, a talented 21-year-old pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Joe Lonett, a catcher with the Philadelphia Phillies organization who later became an outstanding Major League coach.
In 1952, word came down that a black player named William Howard “Willie” Mays Jr. was joining the Wheels.
Part of Thrift’s job was to schedule games and he began calling around to the all-white semi-pro teams in the area to schedule games, but when it was learned there was a black player on the Fort Eustis squad, several teams would not play the Wheels—even if they had Willie Mays.
Segregation was still alive and well on the Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck and Thrift learned quickly his schedule would have to be filled by playing all-black teams in the Northern Neck Negro League.
The all-black Tidewater Cubs of Cooks Corner in Middlesex County were called and put on the schedule. The Cubs were one of the top teams in the Northern Neck Negro League. They had played a 90-game schedule in 1952 and won 80.
The Tidewater Cubs were a force mainly because of brothers Theodore and Warren Williams, two fireball pitchers with Major League arms.
The day the Cubs faced the Wheels, Theodore took the mound. He had two pitches, an overhand fastball that traveled over 90 miles an hour and a three-quarter fastball that went into the high 80s.
Even with Willie Mays and other Major Leaguers, the Wheels struggled to beat the Cubs, but ended up winning 6-5.
In the third inning of that game, Theodore Williams made local history that is still talked about among old-timers in Middlesex County’s black community. Theodore struck out future Hall-of-Famer Willie Mays.
It happened right here in Rivah country.
