Mount Pleasant Magazine July/August 2019

63 www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.ILoveMountPleasant.com | www.BestOfMP.com feature Today, many former players who spent Sunday afternoons competing on fields that, for the most part, are long gone, look back fondly on those days and enjoy reminiscing about the competition, the relatively huge crowds and the game they still cherish. “It’s in my blood,” said Joseph “Dune” Fordham, who is now 73 but still plays on a traveling baseball team and a traveling softball team. “If it rained, I was sick because I didn’t get to play some ball. My father said he hoped he didn’t die during baseball season because ‘you probably won’t come to my funeral.’” Isaac Singleton, 69 years old and the youngest former player interviewed for this story, agreed that admiration for the game of baseball was among the most important reasons he looked forward to Sunday afternoons in East Cooper. “I fell in love with the game, and I really enjoyed it when I started pitching,” he said. “I love baseball. I was the first one to throw a breaking ball,” Wesley Wigfall, 84, added. “The other team would be thinking, ‘We’re gonna lose. Look who’s in the bullpen.’ I would fool the batter and the catcher. I used to dream I was playing baseball. I’d be in church thinking about baseball.” “I grew up listening to games on the radio, especially the World Series,” William Richardson, 74, said. “And I couldn’t wait for Sunday to get here.” Just about every black community in Mount Pleasant and its environs had a baseball team, including Snowden, the Old Village, 4 Mile, Remleys Point, Buck Hall, Santee, Sullivan’s Island, Tibwin, 10 Mile, Cainhoy and probably more. They sported names such as the Mount Pleasant Trojans, the Laing School Braves, the Cainhoy Sweepers, the Sweet Shop Sluggers and the Mount Pleasant Bums. The youngest players were 15 or 16, and many team members continued competing well into their 40s and 50s. The season always started on the Monday after Easter. It was the only game not played on a Sunday. “We learned from the older guys, and the competition was fierce,” said Aaron Green, 73. The versatile Wigfall, who was comfortable at every position except catcher, was among the most talented players in the league, while others over the years have reached legendary status in East Cooper. They include pitcher Freddie “Iron Man” Bryant; catcher John L. Green; James German, who played with the immortal Willie Mays in the military; left-handed hurler Douglas Richardson; and John Jones, who pitched for the Four decades later, many players fondly remember African American baseball in East Cooper. Left to right – back: Jerome Parker, Arthur Evans, Fred Lincoln, Isaac Singleton and Joseph Jones; front: Joseph Fordham, William Richardson and Wesley Wigfall. Behind the players is what once served as the baseball field for the 4 Mile team. Photo by Brian Sherman.