Philadelphia Stars (baseball) - Contemporary Honors and Celebrations

Contemporary Honors and Celebrations

Public recognition began to come to Philadelphia Stars in early 1990s. The Philadelphia Phillies and local community groups recognize the legacy of the club .

Philadelphia Phillies and MLB Tributes and Celebrations

On June 28, 1997, the Philadelphia Phillies played the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field in Atlanta. In honor of the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking professional baseball's color-line, the Braves hosted a Turn Back the Clock game. The Braves wore 1938 Atlanta Black Crackers home uniforms and the Phillies wore 1938 Stars road uniforms.

Prior to its 2008 First-Year Player Draft, Major League Baseball held a ceremonial draft of surviving players from the Negro leagues to honor those players excluded from organized professional baseball. Every team in Major League Baseball selected a player whose career encompassed the Negro leagues. Former Stars players who participated in the draft were Walter Lee Gibbons, a pitcher who pitched briefly for the Stars in 1941 and was selected by the Tampa Bay Rays, pitcher Harold Gould selected by the Toronto Blue Jays, and infielder Mahlon Duckett who was selected by the Phillies.

Negro league players who had signed with Major League organizations were not eligible for the ceremonial Draft. Former Stars players Bill Cash had played in the organization of the Chicago White Sox and Stanley Glenn had played in the Boston Braves' minor-league system. The Phillies chose to include Cash and Glenn in the Draft celebrations by recognizing the two players prior to their June 5, 2008 game against the Cincinnati Reds at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies presented Cash and Glenn with new Phillies jerseys while Gould and Duckett were at the MLB Draft.

Philadelphia Stars Negro League Memorial Park

Today at 44th and Parkside is a Negro leagues memorial park. In 2004, West Philadelphia's Business Association of West Parkside led a coalition of local groups in building the park. The Philadelphia Building Trades Council donated $150,000 in labor to help build the park in which the memorial statue, Pennsylvania historical marker, and Stars mural are now located.

A Negro Leagues Memorial Statue stands today at 44th and Parkside in tribute to the ballplayers who played at the site. The Phillies hosted the dedication of the statue on June 18, 2003 at Veterans Stadium. Mayor John Street and Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins attended the unveiling of the statue, along with the then living members of the Stars, Bill Cash, Mahlon Duckett, Stanley Glenn, Harold Gould, and Wilmer Harris. The Phillies committed to pay for the maintenance and upkeep of the statue for a period of 10 years.

Marian Anderson Recreation Center

During the summer of 2004, coach Steve Bandura at the Marian Anderson Recreation Center in Southwest Center City organized a youth baseball team of Philadelphia teenagers of different ethnic and racial backgrounds which he named the Philadelphia Stars after the original Negro league club. Bandura led the team on a 20-day, 15-city, 3,700-mile tour called the "Philadelphia Stars Throw Back Tour '04". The trip was sponsored by the Philadelphia Department of Recreation and Major League Baseball-licensee Mitchell & Ness. The team traveled on a c.-1947 bus which Mitchell & Ness purchased for the tour. The team visited with the living members of the Philadelphia Stars in Philadelphia, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Jackie Robinson's grave in Brooklyn, and the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. The team received national press coverage for the trip.

Other Tributes

Philadelphia-area youth baseball league, Mt. Airy Baseball honors the Negro league team by calling its senior and tournament teams the "Stars".