by James Wyatt Whitehead V
On March 3rd, 1987 a long-distance telephone call came to the home of Ray Dandridge. It was a call well remembered by Mr. Dandridge in a speech given that summer in Cooperstown, New York.
“I was resting and my wife was in the backyard. So, I answered the phone. The phone caller says, I’m trying to find Ray Dandridge. I say, I’m Ray Dandridge. Are you Ray Dandridge the ball player? I said, yeah. And all the sudden he said, your life has changed. I said, what do you mean my life has changed? I said, sometimes you know you get crank calls. So afterwards, me and him and talk awhile and then he said, I’m Ed Stack, President of the Hall of Fame and you have just been elected to the Hall of Fame. I want to thank each and every member of the Veterans Committee for allowing me to smell the roses. My only question is, why did you take so long?”
And just like that Mr. Dandridge, long time third baseman for the Negro League Newark Eagles became a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Continue reading
