HUMBOLDT — Allie Utley and Hank Thomas were enjoying a cup of coffee at Humboldt’s Mercantile last weekend when four youngsters entered the coffee shop.
They were toting bats, gloves and other baseball essentials.
The 79-year-old Thomas, author grandson of legendary fireballer and Humboldt native Walter Johnson, struck up a conversation with the group.
“What kind of bat you got there?” he asked.
The youngsters, unaware of Thomas’s baseball lineage, answered a bit sheepishly, even as he pressed on with the conversation.
Utley, whom most could have mistakenly assumed was Thomas’s granddaughter, interjected.
“Do you know who Walter Johnson was?” she asked them.
Of the four, only one had even a passing knowledge of Johnson, nicknamed The Big Train, universally considered one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history, with 417 victories, a lifetime 2.17 ERA and an unmatched 111 career shutouts,
As the conversation ended, Thomas and Utley headed to their car when one of the youngsters came chasing after them.
“Sir, can you sign my bat?” he asked excitedly. “I just googled who you are!”
Thomas happily obliged,leading to another extended conversation, this time with the youngsters peppering the questions, and Thomas basking with the newfound appreciation a few youngsters gained of Humboldt’s baseball legacy.
“It was really a heartwarming story,” Utley said.
THOMAS, who lives in Washington, D.C., was in Kansas last week for a two-pronged visit with Utley, whose love of baseball was also shaped by her grandfather, the late Dick Davis, a Humboldt native and baseball historian.
The first was to tour the sites of Humboldt.
Thomas last was in town more than 25 years ago for the dedication of Sweatt Park, named after another Humboldt sports legend, George Sweatt.
Aside from both being Humboldt natives, Johnson and Sweatt also carried a unique link in that both played in their respective leagues’ World Series in 1924, Johnson for the Washington Senators; Sweatt for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues.;
