Before Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball in 1947, pitcher Ray Brown was making a name for himself in the Negro Leagues.
Today, he’s one of just a few dozen Negro League players recognized in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
But his hometown of Alger in west central Ohio never recognized him for his accomplishments. Until now.
The community is refurbishing a park in his honor.
Growing up in Alger
In the 1920s, the Village of Alger had a reputation.
“The Scioto Marsh was literally the onion capital of the world. More onions were grown here than any place else in the country,” said lifelong local Jerry Cramer.
Back then, his parents weeded the onion fields alongside Brown’s family.
“They all played together, grew up together,” Cramer said.
His dad and Ray Brown even played high school baseball together. Cramer has an old photo of the team.
“There are 10 players. That’s all they had. And their uniforms are a hodgepodge of whatever the guys could find,” Cramer said.
But despite the lack of resources, they were good, especially Brown.
“He was in the Hall of Fame as a pitcher — one of the best ever, of course,” Cramer said. “But in high school, he was a shortstop. His senior year, they never lost a ball game.”
A forgotten star
Brown went on to play for the Homestead Grays — a Pittsburgh team in the Negro Leagues. During his tenure in the ‘30s and ‘40s, the team won eight pennants in a nine-year span.
“He was a heck of a pitcher,” said David Strittmatter, a self-proclaimed baseball nut and a history professor at Ohio Northern University, located just five miles north of Alger.
“He had a great curveball. There's one year that he won the pitching Triple Crown, where he led the Negro Leagues in wins, lowest ERA and most strikeouts,” Strittmatter said.
But Brown was never recognized for his success during his lifetime. When he died in 1965, he was buried in an unmarked grave in Dayton.
He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame 40 years later, as part of a special election to honor players from the Negro Leagues.
Even then, he was mostly forgotten in his hometown of Alger.
“There was just no mention of this guy,” Strittmatter said. “His name is not on the water tower. When you drive into Alger, it doesn't say, ‘Birthplace or hometown of Hall of Famer Ray Brown.’ There’s nothing, nothing at all.”
But now, that’s changing.
Refurbishing a local park
When Strittmatter learned of Ray Brown’s Alger upbringing, he tasked his students with drafting a nomination for an Ohio Historical Marker to commemorate him. His students proposed placing it in Alger Village Park.
The greenspace is modest with some playground equipment, a couple picnic pavilions and a few baseball fields.
Strittmatter pointed to a spot between a concession stand and a row of bleachers.
“Over here, behind the backstop, this is where the marker will be installed,” he said.
But at this point, about five years on, the plans to memorialize Ray Brown don’t end with a historical marker.
In 2021 and 2023, Alger’s Village Administrator received grants from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to refurbish parts of the park.
Plus, Strittmatter and ONU art professor Melissa Eddings-Mancuso received another grant too — to the tune of $110,000 from Forecast Public Art.
“Especially for the scope and scale of Alger and the project, that is a lot of money,” Eddings-Mancuso said.
They were one of just eight projects selected for the grant, which was focused specifically on helping rural Midwestern places tell stories commemorating people of color.
The money will help the village further improve the park with everything from a new outfield fence to a hand-painted mural depicting Ray Brown winding up for a pitch.
“I think it's a story that needs to be told and it's a point of pride for the community,” Strittmatter said.
But not everyone in Alger agreed. Tomorrow, we’ll learn about the controversy over renaming the park after Brown.
