BASEBALL: Sam Sylvester wrote to us about the Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York (PONY) League baseball team that used to play in Bradford.
The minor league team was called the Bradford Bees.
Sam writes, “I believe the eighth team in the League was Lockport, N.Y.”
Oops. We missed that one when we were listing the teams, but we looked and it looks like the team played alternately as the Lockport White Sox, Lockport Cubs and Lockport Reds in the league from 1942 to 1951.
Sam recalled some of more noteworthy players.
“In addition to the great, high kicking, Warren Spahn, another future Major League pitcher had his start in Bradford — Elroy Face. Face pitched for two seasons in Bradford (1949-1950) and went on to great success as a reliever with the Pirates. Roy Face is still with us and can be seen on a YouTube interview discussing his days in Bradford.
“Also, let’s not forget Pop Bailey and his wife, Maude. I used to help shag balls for Pop and ‘helped’ Maude, who managed the concession stand, by devouring her sensational hot dogs.”
LEAP DAY: It’s not that easy to be a Leap Day baby, so there aren’t that many compared to Other Day babies, which is a term we just made up. Only one day out of every 1,461 days is Leap Day, according to our calculations.
But it seems those rare babies have organized to reach out to each other. The Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies is nearly 10,000 strong, according to their website, www.leapyearday.com. The group’s biggest goal is to spread awareness about the day.
The Honor Society is trying to learn more about a couple other societies for Leap babies, too, the Headlight-Sun Order of 29’ers (brownie points for creative name) and the Society for the Preservation of Youth.
The Honor Society shares a list of celebrations worldwide, and it seems each group is finding a different way to recognize the day.
For one, a group in Glasgow, Scotland, is holding a Leap Day Challenge by trying to find 29 people to shave their heads that day. The event is for an honorable cause, as organizers are doing it to show support to cancer patients.
In California, a Morgan Hill group is holding an adult coloring event, while a San Diego group is holding a 10k to raise money to help foster kids.
So, we think the message is that you should find your own way to put that extra day to use!
