Was Roesink Jewish?

[sumas]

I am a member of the Village of Fairview Historical Society. We often get requests from other researchers for local Detroit history. This one has me stumped. Mack Park was venue for the National Negro League. I wrote a short blurb for a local non profit newletter which I will include here. The researcher is a faculty member of an esteemed College. Anyone have thought or memories to share?

Mack Park
Home to the Detroit Stars

The Detroit Stars were formed in 1910 as a Detroit Negro baseball team. The owner of the baseball team was John Roesink a Jewish businessman, originally from Grand Rapids, who owned several haberdashery stores in and near downtown. In 1914, Roesink built a baseball stadium for his team named simply � Mack Park� with seating for 6,000, located in what was then called German Town. The location of the park was at the southeast corner of Fairview and Mack.

Prior to and after the creation of the Negro National League, Negro teams played each other and also played Caucasian major league teams which would schedule exhibition games on their teams day off to create additional revenue for their players. The establishment of a major league players union and the fact that Caucasian major league players disliked being bested by Negro teams stopped this practice.

On a good day, Mack Park out drew Briggs [[Tiger) Stadium with an integrated crowd. During World War I, Roesink booked the Boston Braves, the Brooklyn Dodgers and other Pro teams to play his semi-pro Negro team.

In 1919, Rube Foster, a black sports promoter, created the Negro National League.
The semi-pro Negro National League was well organized. There were two leagues, a 140 game schedule, an all-star game every year in Chicago and a world series at the end of each season.

Andrew “ Rube� Foster named John “Tenny� Blount, the franchise owner for the Detroit Stars. In reality, Blount, a local gambler and numbers runner could not raise the financing to own the team and functioned as the general manager until the mid twenties when Roesink, reassumed ownership.


Mack Park ceased to exist as a venue for the National Negro League in July, 1929, when a fire broke out due to careless grounds keeping. No one was killed but 220 were injured when the grandstand collapsed. The Detroit Stars played out the season at Dequindre Park In 1930, the Detroit Stars, the franchise still owned by Roesink, moved his franchise to Hamtramck.

Mack Park was eventually rehabilitated for use by Southeastern High School for their baseball team and used for that purpose into the 1960’s. At that time, an influx of federal monies enabled the City of Detroit to build new eastside housing. Mack Park was razed to build condo-housing units named Fairview after the street it abuts. The street Fairview was originally called O’Flynn. Fairview Village, which existed between 1903 and 1907, renamed this street in its own honor.

Several players of the Negro National League have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Of the Detroit Stars Hall of Famers, the most notable is Norman “Turkey� Stearnes. Turkey, a consistent high hitter, got his nickname from his habit of flapping his arms while he ran bases.

[REL]

Interesting post, Sumas.

I have no idea about your question, but thanks for the baseball history!

[East Detroit]

Yes, he was both Jewish and Dutch.

[jiminnm]

Sumas, if you haven't done so, check out Turkey Stearnes and the Detroit Stars, the History of Negro Leagues in Detroit. It's by Richard Bak, an occasional DYes poster.

[jiminnm]

Oh, Bak concurs with East Detroit.

[Stosh]

So is that ballpark in Hamtramck,Veterans Memorial, is the last existing Metro Detroit ballpark from the Negro League days?

[sumas]

The researcher has already contacted Bak. Her research is pretty thorough. It doesn't help though that he and his wife lied on numerous census reports. His obit is pretty vague too. He is buried in a Christian Cemetary which is the puzzler. The researcher posted a request for info on the sports threads. She would love to talk to anyone that knew him or his wife or are in touch with families of players. Thanks all for your input. I did find a past pitcher for the Tigers but he was too young to remember anything much other than his Dad took him to the Hamtramck ballpark a few times.

[East Detroit]

Many Jews lied on census reports.

Being Jewish is like being Black except that you can hide it from haters.

[Stosh]

Nice story here about the ballpark mentioned above.

http://www.detroit1701.org/Roesink.html

There is no historical marker commemorating this site. There should be. Perhaps as many as nine members of the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame played professional baseball on these grounds. This includes Cool Papa Bell, Satchel Paige, Turkey Stearns, the most accomplished of the Detroit Stars, and Smokey Joe Williams.
There is confusion about the name of this stadium. At some point, I believe that it was given the name Hamtramck Stadium. However, it shares a large campus with the famous Keyworth Stadium, named after a leader of the Hamtramck public school system in the 1920s. That facility was one of the early Works Project Administration projects. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt came to Hamtramck on October 15, 1936 to dedicate Keyworth Stadium, and candidate John F. Kennedy spoke there in his 1960 campaign to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. That football field may also be known to some as Hamtramck Stadium. Some who have written about black baseball in Detroit think that the Stars played at that WPA football stadium and overlook the small but extremely historic baseball park pictured here, a park that reminds baseball fans born before 1940 of the minor league parks of their youth.

[sumas]

Thanks Stash. As mentioned, the research project is not mine. But I really love history and anything new that comes to light is truely facinating.