Josh Gibson's grave (Shotgun Spratling)

Read parts 1-4 of Shotgun's journey here.

Day One

Sometimes you get the luxury suite. Sometimes you get the closet…literally.

I will never complain about the arrangements people provide me with on a cross-country journey, but I did find it humorous that I ended up sleeping on a hardwood floor in an extra closet in Chicago. With one thick sheet to lie on, the floor wasn’t the most uncomfortable part of the three-hour sleep night. I’ve slept on a pool table before, and they are unforgiving to sleep on. No, the worst part was the heat.

Chicago has been affected by the heat wave sweeping across the country this summer. I saw one temperature reading in the triple digits. 100 degrees! So with no air conditioning at the place I stayed, it was a tad bit uncomfortable. Nonetheless, I met some new, chill people and the conditions made it easy to wake up early (the strong indigestion from eating Mexican food and deep dish pizza the day before also contributed).

Being on the north side of the city, I decided to check out Wrigley Field and snap some pictures. Walking around the stadium, I could see why it is referred to as the “friendly confines.” It just seems so homey and feels like you are bound to have a great time if you see a game there (regardless of whether the Cubs are any good). I checked out the Ernie Banks and Harry Carey statues and the giant noodle. I even saw a larger-than-life sculpture of Captain Morgan.

Thanks to an awesome groundskeeper, I was able to walk out onto the field down the right field line. The groundskeeper was opening an outside gate to take a small tractor around to another part of the stadium. When he opened the gate, I started to edge my way in. The groundskeeper looked straight in my eyes and just turned away to continue his work. He never said anything as I walked out onto the warning track.

The rest of my time in Chicago was a debacle though.

Heading to the downtown Harold Washington library, I unsuccessfully tried to find a place to park on the street. Out of frustration I just pulled into one of the first parking garages I saw near the library. What a mistake.

After completing my research in the library, I tried to get my car only to find that the parking garage had locked my keys inside. Because all the spots in the garage were double parking I had to leave my keys in the ignition and the doors unlocked, which seems like an easy opportunity for theft if someone was so inclined. I assume there are security cameras somewhere, but when I sat in the office waiting for the locksmith to arrive there were no monitors to see what was happening on the other floors.

Thirty-five minutes passed before the locksmith finally arrived and got me back into Yolanda the Yaris. I met up with Connie Nowal from the Chicago Baseball Museum and purchased/donated $20 in exchange for a DVD the museum produced about black baseball in Chicago.

Being over an hour and a half behind schedule, I thought the day was going to be ruined because I wasn’t going to be able to make it to the House of David Museum in Benton Harbor, Michigan until after 5 p.m. But I called Chris Siriano, the owner/curator/historian of the museum, and he told me to come on out.

I’m glad he did. The House of David Museum tells the virtually unknown story of the religious faction (very close to a cult) that grew to national prominence in the first half of the 20th century only to shrink to near extinction today. Only three members of the colony -- whose members are known for their celibate ways and refusal to cut their hair -- are still alive.

Siriano has spent hours upon hours listening to the stories of members of the nearby religious colony over the past 15-20 years. He was full of knowledge and was able to answer almost all of my questions about the House of David baseball team that played with and against the Negro League players and teams.

The museum was a fascinating little nook that showcased all kinds of interesting memorabilia. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who happens to be driving through southern Michigan or northern Indiana.

If you don’t have that opportunity, you can check out the documentary film Siriano produced that will air nationally on PBS on September 11, according to Siriano.

From Benton Harbor, I backtracked a bit to Laporte, Indiana to meet a classmate for dinner and grab a few hours sleep.

Day Two

Heading out of Indiana, I got my first taste of ridiculous tolls (the ones for 80 cents in Illinois don’t count).

In Indiana and Ohio, you get a ticket when you get onto the interstate and then you pay a toll whenever you get off at an exit or leave the state. This system hurts the town economies because everyone stops at the “plazas," which are like rest areas on the side of the road that also have a gas station and exorbitantly-priced fast food restaurants ($3.29 for a six-piece chicken nuggets at McDonalds).

Enough about the terrible tolls (you can find my toll total below). Let's move on to a terrible city: Cleveland. Cleveland is terrible. Just ask LeBron James. I was actually looking forward to Cleveland, but, like it has done to its sports fans over the past 46 years, Cleveland turned out to be a disappointment.

The Historic Baseball Museum is located in Cleveland’s historic Colonial Marketplace and looks like it would be a useful study spot for me. The museum has a bunch of information on the Negro Leagues, including a section on barnstorming, which really intrigues me.

Unfortunately, the museum is only open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday…and it was Thursday. Of course, this is all information I would have known if I would have been able to speak to anyone on the phone or over email. But my emails went unanswered and the phone number from the museum's website is old and hasn’t been updated.

On my way out of Cleveland, I did stop at Progressive Field (formerly Jacobs Field) to snap a couple of photos. The stadium is the largest I’ve been to on this journey. It would absolutely dwarf Wrigley Field. The ultra high-rise light standards give it an even larger appearance.

I got into Pittsburgh around 6 p.m. and went directly to the Carnegie Library in Oakland. It has a great section on Pennsylvania history that includes a microfilm section that kept me busy for the two hours until the library closed.

Right before I left, I started looking at some of the books on the floor and saw a book titled “Black Baseball in Pittsburgh," a book I should have definitely found over the course of three years of off-and-on research about the Negro Leagues. Yet, it had went previously undiscovered.

"Black Baseball in Pittsburgh" is a perfect book for my story. Not only does it tell the story of the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords, it also has lots of pictures from the Teenie Harris Collection (a former Crawfords player who went on to international acclaim for his pictures of black America, which included the Negro Leagues and Pittsburgh).

Day Three

I intended to read a few other books on my return to Carnegie Library on Friday, but I ended up not spending much time there. Why? Because I love museums too much.

I went to the Heinz History Center to check out their Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum thinking I could get in and out in an hour or two. Instead, it had been three hours by the time I even got through the baseball portion. I am a big fan of history museums, and I could easily spend a week or two visiting all of the exhibits in the Heinz History Center. For example, I didn’t even get a chance to go to the floor with the Clash of Empires exhibit about the British, French and Indian Wars.

The Heinz History Center also has a floor dedicated to a library and an archives that I didn’t have time to use before I headed back to the Carnegie library.

With the Carnegie library closing at 5:30, I had plenty of time to explore some of the areas that were hotspots during the 1930s. There are now plaques that commemorate Josh Gibson and Greenlee Field on Bedford Avenue in the Hill District but there is nothing that resembles the place that was once a thriving locale for culture, arts and sports. Greenlee Field is long gone. So are all three Crawford Grill locations that were once the epicenter of nightlife in the district. It was sad for me to think of the demise of the once rich and vibrant area.

Even sadder was the site of Josh Gibson’s grave.

Gibson formerly had only a number marking where his grave. But in the 1970s former teammate, and MLB commissioner, Bowie Kuhn added a small headstone. It says simply “Legendary Baseball Player” and is hard to find in the Allegheny Cemetery even with a sign directing visitors to where the great slugger lies.

Unlike Crawfords owner Gus Greenlee, whose grave is located in the same section of the cemetery, Gibson does not have a prominent location on the hill. Instead, he is buried next to three other random Pittsburghers who also died in 1947. Greenlee has a vertical headstone for both he and his wife and also has individual headstones on the ground (the only person in Section 50 of the cemetery to have both a ground and vertical headstone). Gibson’s grave is easily walked by and somewhat covered. It nearly brought tears to my eyes to see how low on the totem pole Gibson is after he was quite possibly the greatest player to ever play.

One more day in Pittsburgh and then…

Next Stop: Museum of Bus Transportation

Quote of the Day: “Mother always knew where her baby boy was. I was down at that ball field. Because I was baseball nuts.” – Rev. Harold “Hooks” Tinker, former Pittsburgh Crawfords player/manager

Part 5 Tallies:
- Days: 3
- Full Meals: 3
- Hours of Sleep: 18 (I splurged)
- Miles: 765
- Non-Destination Stops: 4
- Tolls Paid: 8
- Cost of Tolls: $21.95
- States: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania
- Rivers: 12
- Big Rig Trucks Passed: 208
- Pictures Taken: 246

Totals:
- Days on the Road: 9
- Full Meals: 10
- Hours of Sleep: 43
- Miles: 3,910
- States: 14
- Rivers: 33
- Times Heard “Love the Way You Lie”: 21
- Bags of David sunflower seeds needed to fill an empty In-N-Out cup: 1.5
- Non-Destination Stops: 20
- Big Rig Trucks Passed: 471
- Pictures Taken: 1,085

To reach reporter Shotgun Spratling, click here.