Horse shoes and baseball: Author pens another book on Fayette City
Submitted photo
Eric Moskala stands in front of Vargo Newsstand with his latest book titled “Voices of Fayette City, Pennsylvania: Recollections from the 1940s.”
Submitted photo
The 1949 Fayette City Merchants’ championship sandlot team in Legion uniforms is photographed at Fayette City Ball Field. Pictured are, front row, from left, Bill Gardner (Fayette City), Mike Planey (Gillespie), Ray Watson (Fayette City), Bill Janeri (Fayette City) Ray Ermlich (Allenport, kneeling), Jack Young (Fayette City), Tinker Baldwin (Fayette City), George Yusko (Gillespie), Barney Crawshore (Gillespie), Jim Leithold (Fairhope), Jim Ridgeway (Fayette City); back row, from left, Pete Barnes (Gillespie), Ron Ledgerton (Allenport uniform but lived in Fairhope), Joe Cvetan (Fayette City), Manager Dickie Barker, Tom Evans (Fayette City), Curt Davis (Gillespie), Oliver Niemela (Fayette City), Shorty Brown (Fayette City), Don Mossberg (Fayette City), Bud McKevitt (Fayette City) and Business Manager Bob Pivarnik (Fayette City).
On July 14 author Eric Moskala had a book signing in the tiny Vargo Newsstand in his hometown of Fayette City.
Moskala had just released his second book about Fayette City history, “Voices of Fayette City, Pennsylvania: Recollections from the 1940s.” It is a wonderful look back in time and has a special chapter on sports in Fayette City. Moskala released his first book on Fayette City, “From Freeport to Fayette City: A History of a Small Town in Southwestern Pennsylvania from Its founding in 1800 to its Zenith in the 1920s,” in 2019.
Chatting with a crowd of fans, Moskala explained the genesis of both books.
“The first book I wrote about three years ago,” Moskala stated. “It started when I collected postcards of Fayette City from the early 1900s. For about 20 years I collected postcards and after awhile I thought there might be enough of a story here where I could write a book. The first book focused on Fayette City’s early history from it’s founding in 1800 to around 1920-1930. The first book was “From Freeport to Fayette City.”
Fayette City has special meaning for Moskala.
“I was born here in 1959 and graduated from Belle Vernon High School in 1977,” Moskala said. “I lived in Fayette City the entire time.”
Several factors influenced Moskala to do a second book.
“The second book focused on the 1940s up until 1950,” Moskala said. “I did that time period for a couple of reasons. One is I did an oral history and I interviewed as many people as I could find who actually lived in Fayette City in the 1940s. Much to my amazement I got over 30 interviews.
“Also I had access to four years of the Fayette City Journal, the weekly newspaper from 1944 through 1948. I had every issue. Between the interviews and the newspapers I thought I could put together a good story of what life was like in Fayette City at that time, including a little bit on sports, what people did for fun.”
The chapter on Fayette City sports history was brought to my attention by Steve Russell the chairman of the Mid Mon Valley Sports Hall of Fame.
“I knew baseball had a rich history in Fayette City,” Moskala revealed. “I didn’t know that horse shoe throwing was so prominent.
“In the late 1930s they had the Pennsylvania State Horse Shoe Champion George Curry, he was a five-time state champion. His first state championship was in 1932 and then 1935, 1937, 1938 and 1940. He was very, very prolific. Before the war that was really the thing to do apparently in Fayette City. The town had a Horse Shoe Association and it was led by Wilbur Evans who was a prominent citizen at the time. Wilbur had two sons, Don Evans and Randall Evans, and they both played horse shoes.”
This is an interesting side note about Randall Evans.
“Randall opened up the restaurant out on Route 51 — still called Randall’s to this day,” Moskala explained. “Don Evans opened up the Midway Restaurant by the baseball field in Fayette City. They were both horse shoe players, but Don was the better horse shoe player and Don was a doubles partner with George Curry. They might have won some state championships as doubles partners. Don went into the Army and there wasn’t much horse shoes around Fayette City when the war happened, there wasn’t much horse shoes around. After the war ended he was stationed in the Pacific and they had like an informal Olympics there and he won the silver medal for horse shoes in that informal Olympics in Manila.”
Baseball was big back in the day in Fayette County and Fayette City has a rich baseball history.
“Of course Jim Russell was obviously a very prominent player for the Pittsburgh Pirates,” Moskala said. “It seemed like life in Fayette City sort of revolved around what was happening with Jim Russell. When I looked through those newspapers from 1944 through 1948, that was kind of in his prime or a little bit past his prime in baseball. Everywhere that he went there was a little article in the local topics, Jim was in Fayette City this day or Jim went to New York this day. They worshiped Jim, the kids did, and apparently he was fantastic for the community and he would bring Pirate players like Ralph Kiner to Fayette City to meet people, so he was quite a celebrity.”
Moskala has good information on baseball in Fayette City after the war in the Fayette City Journal.
“There was a baseball team in the summer of 1945,” Moskala stated. “After the war ended there was sort of an informal baseball team. The next year in 1946 a team organized called the Fayette City Independents and the Russell brothers who didn’t play in the big leagues, Carl and Jack, played part time for that team.
“The next year in 1947 the American Legion started a team and they played in the Mon Valley League. The Russell brothers Carl and Jack played on that team and they did pretty well. The next year in 1948 they won the regular season and lost to Allenport in the playoffs. In 1949 they won the regular season and lost again to Allenport. There was quite a rivalry with Allenport which is just across the river here.
“In 1949 a second team formed in Fayette City, The Merchants. They played in Mon-Yough League. In 1949 they won the Mon-Yough League. My book covers up to 1950 and you had both teams that year. The Merchants won the Mon-Yough League and the Legion won the Mon Valley League regular season. This time Allenport had lost in the semifinals and the Legion beat Charleroi in the championship. Many of the same players played on both teams.
“After both teams won their championships in 1950, Fayette City got the nickname as “The Biggest Little Baseball Town in Western Pennsylvania.”
Baseball was very important in Fayette City.
“In 1946 the Marine Coal Company put the land up for sale where the baseball diamond was,” Moskala offered. “Fayette City freaked out and business owner John Canigiani started a campaign to raise money to buy the land. They raised money and purchased the land for $4,200 and it was all done by donations. They had five years to pay for the lot as a town, but they paid for it in two years, and they gave the lot to Fayette City. The commitment to baseball and how important baseball is to the community can’t be understated.”
Moskala’s book “Voices of Fayette City, Pennsylvania: Recollections from the 1940s,” is like a time capsule. The book can be purchased online at Amazon and at Vargo Newsstand in Fayette City.
George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” column appears in the Sunday editions of the Herald-Standard. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.