| During
the late 1940s and early 1950s, there were some great adult, pickup baseball games in the
vicinity of Gillespie St. and Robbins Ave. on a field known as Daisy Field. Jules Renner,
a music teacher and baseball afficianado, together with Joe DePinto, a local barber, kept
these games active for a long time. My Dad played there a lot, and I can remember
being the "water boy" running around with a galvanized bucket of water and a
ladle to keep the players "watered down." The big games were on Sunday
mornings after church. It cost a quarter to play (for equipment and supplies), and
everyone was welcome. On windy Sundays, kite fliers flew home-made kites on the open
lots on the southeast corner of Jackson and Robbins. Almost all of the kites were
made of the "funnies" section of the local newspapers. Some other local teams
were the Robbins A. A. who had a home field at Jackson St. and Robbins Ave.; the
Wissinoming A. A. who had a field in the area of Devereaux St. east of Frankford Ave.; the
Northeast Triangles who played at what is now Moss field at Torresdale and Cheltenham
Aves.; and the Scanlon A. A. team, named for St. Bartholomnew's first pastor, whose home
field was at Jackson and Sanger Sts. These teams were all adult, uniformed teams and
they played in what was known then as the Twilight League. |
