A lesson in America’s pastime

HUMBOLDT — Phil Dixon first had to address the elephant in the room before speaking to a room full of Kansas City Royals fans.
“I bet you’re wondering whey I’m wearing a Chicago jersey, huh?” asked Dixon, who traveled to Humboldt on Saturday as part of the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit, “Hometown Teams: How Sports Shapes America.”
He explained how George Sweatt — one of Humboldt’s most famous athletes of all time — played two seasons with the Negro League’s American Giants in Chicago after making his mark on the game with the Kansas City Monarchs in the mid 1920s.
After that, the crowd of about 35 strong forgave Dixon for his choice in apparel and allowed the baseball historian to continue his presentation on Sweatt, the Monarchs and baseball’s history in southeast Kansas.
Humboldt marked Dixon’s 94th city in his nation-wide tour spanning 11 states. The author of the Best Baseball Book in 1992 brought along dozens of the game’s artifacts as well as his multiple books that chronicled some of baseball’s most cherished moments and players.
Although the majority of his presentation dealt with an era that predated many of the audience members, Dixon found numerous ways to bring a fresh perspective to the crowd.
“Back in those days, players had real nicknames,” Dixon joked. “There was Daffy, Dizzy, Turkey. Today what you do you got? What’s Salvador Perez’s nickname?”
Someone in the audience answers, “Salvy.”
“That’s no nickname,” Dixon exclaimed. “It’s just his name shortened.”
Dixon’s personal interactions with the subjects of his presentation also brought some life to the history lesson.
“Call waiting just became a thing,” Dixon recalled, “and I remember talking to John “Buck” O Neil. I said, ‘Hey, I got to put you on hold for a sec.’ After that, he told me, ‘Son, don’t put me on hold again.’ And I never did.”
He also discussed his correspondence with Sweatt and his wife from about 30 years ago, providing the letters from the exchange as proof.
Dixon ended his well-received hour-and-a-half speech with a poem entitled, “The Stars that Did Not Shine,” which discussed the forgotten heros of Negro League Baseball that Dixon spent so much time researching.
Henry Thomas was scheduled to provide his own unique perspective on his late grandfather, Walter Johnson. However, Thomas was unable to attend Saturday’s event.