St. Thomas, Ont. declares 'Jack Graney Day' to honour local baseball legend

It’s a day to honour a local sports hero.

“Jack Graney Day” officially kicked off Wednesday morning, recognizing the 35-year career in baseball of a man who hailed from St. Thomas, Ont.

Graney played 14 years on the diamond, and spent another 21 years as a play-by-play broadcaster for the Cleveland Indians.

“It's been 70 years since his last broadcast, so it's wonderful that people still remember him and honor him,” says Perry Smith, Graney’s granddaughter who made the trip to St. Thomas from Missouri.

It’s been a busy week for Smith, who was in Cooperstown, N.Y. on the weekend for the presentation of the Ford C. Frick Award, which Graney was awarded this year. The award is handed out annually for baseball broadcasting excellence.

On Tuesday, she toured the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ont. where the Canadian equivalent of the Frick Award is named after Graney.

Graney isn’t a household name for many in his hometown because he played a century ago, and retired from broadcasting in 1953. However, a group of local historians who call themselves the “Graney Gang” have kept his legacy alive over the past 20 years, and brought his story to many residents in recent years.

Jack Graney was honoured with the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence by the National Baseball Hall of Fame. (Source: Submitted)“This is a St. Thomas man that started playing sandlot baseball, played in the Major Leagues and then made that amazing transition from the ball field to the broadcast booth for Cleveland,” says Steve Peters, a local historian, city councillor and member of the Graney Gang.

Peters added, “Sadly, we don't know all the good things that come out of our own backyard and this is a great way to showcase our history, showcase our heritage and I think can be inspirational to young people that you know what you can be good at sports here in St. Thomas and who knows where you can end up?”

Over at Emslie Field in Pinafore Park, a new banner was unveiled naming the broadcast booth after Graney.

“We were trying to think of the right way to honor someone who was both a player and a broadcaster,” says Sean Dyke, CEO of the St. Thomas Economic Development Corporation.

“With the Ford C Frick when at Cooperstown this past weekend, it seemed more appropriate to really focus on the broadcast career of Jack Graney, while recognizing he won a World Series with the Cleveland team back in 1920,” he added.

There have been two books written about Graney’s career and both authors held signings Wednesday afternoon.

Local Graney Gang member Bill Rayner has written Three and Two Jack, while Barbara Gregorich was signing Jack and Larry.

Gregorich first brought to light the story of Graney’s dog Larry — the Indians Mascot — who would travel alone from Cleveland, Ohio to St. Thomas. The dog would take the ferry to Port Stanley, Ont., get off and jump on a train to St. Thomas, and then run home from a downtown stop.

It’s all so hard to believe, but it’s true.

“When I read the ending of the two-part poem about Larry being sent from Cleveland onto the ferry to Port Stanley and then taking the trolley to St. Thomas, they understand this was a different era,” says Gregorich. “The words love, trust, beautiful to give, beautiful to receive it was an era where people loved, trusted and respected.”

The broadcast booth at Emslie Field in St. Thomas, Ont. is now named after Jack Graney. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)Smith and her mother Margot Mudd made the trip to St. Thomas a decade ago to unveil Graney’s plaque in the St. Thomas Hall of Fame.

Mudd passed away two years ago at 98, but Smith says it’s a day her mother would have loved.

“This would have meant so much to her,” says Smith. “I know of course it would have meant a lot to Jack. He was very humble, but to be recognized in his hometown would have been the most important thing for him.”

In Cooperstown, Smith got to lead the parade of Hall of Famer’s and also delivered a great ten-minute speech about Graney.

She finished with a line which she felt summed up her grandfather’s legacy.

“They say on a warm summer’s day, when a cool breeze was blowing in from Lake Erie, you could walk down any street in Cleveland and you’d hear Jack Graney’s voice coming from every house on the block,” says Smith.

The evening capped off with a special night at Emslie Field.

There is plenty of pomp and circumstance leading into a minor baseball game between St. Thomas and Sarnia at 8 p.m.

That is followed by the area’s first ever drone show in the sky above the park at 10 p.m.