October 30, 2004

NLBPA President, Stanley Glenn to be inducted to the Eastern Shore Baseball Hall of Fame (Maryland)

Tyler, Glenn are inductees into Shore baseball 'Hall'
sourced from DelmarvaNow.com
By Ted Shockley

SALISBURY, Md. -- One is a career baseball man known to many on the Eastern Shore. The other is a former player in a segregated African-American league who is an Accomack County native and is the current president of the Negro League Baseball Players Association.

Both will be enshrined next month in the Eastern Shore Baseball Hall of Fame, which is located at Arthur W. Perdue Stadium here and works to promote and chronicle the region's unique baseball history, its players and coaches.

Dave Tyler of Accomac, known to many as the longtime manager of Virginia's entry in the Eastern Shore Baseball League and a high-school umpire; and Stanley Glenn, born in Wachapreague and a catcher for the Philadelphia Stars of the Negro National League during the 1940s, are two of the six inductees for the Nov. 14 ceremony.

The 5 p.m. dinner banquet will be held at the Moose Lodge on Snow Hill Road in Salisbury. Tickets are $15 each and can be purchased by calling Parksley accountant John Bowden (665-5918), a board member who represents Accomack and Northampton counties on the Eastern Shore Baseball Foundation Inc., which operates the hall of fame.

The evening's guest speaker is Parksley native Dallas Parks, also a member of the Delmarva Hall of Fame and a former Major League umpire.

Tyler signed to play professional baseball with the San Francisco Giants organization (1960-61) and played minor-league baseball until suffering an injury. He finished his career with the Western Carolina League until it folded, according to Bowden. Locally, he has served baseball in several capacities, including as an associate scout for the Baltimore Orioles.

"David Tyler is known to most everyone who follows baseball at all on the Eastern Shore," said Bowden. "He has been instrumental, if not entirely responsible, for Virginia having a team in the Eastern Shore Baseball League for the past two decades. He has done everything imaginable for that team, and is very deserving of the recognition."

Stanley, who is 78 and lives in Philadelphia, plans to attend the induction ceremony. Among his fondest baseball memories include catching legendary pitcher Satchell Paige. According to a recent story by Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Stephen A. Smith, Stanley is one of only five members of the city's Negro League team still living.

Bowden found Stanley's local connection while doing research, and has spoken to him several times this year. In a letter to Bowden, Stanley called the Eastern Shore "home" and the "garden spot of the nation."

"It was tough, but I would do it again," Stanley wrote of his Negro League experiences. Former players in the league keep in close contact, and there were only 23 living former Negro League players alive when Stanley wrote the letter earlier this year.

Other inductees from Delmarva this year include Francis Gunning of Milford, Del., a former minor-league player with the New York Giants and St. Louis Browns; the late James Lester Christopher, of Bethlehem, Md., a notable minor-league player; Tim Barker of Salisbury, Md., a sixth-round draft pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers who was the 1987 Most Valuable Player of the Eastern Shore Baseball League; and the late J. Thomas Kibler of Queen Anne's County, Md., a longtime football, baseball and basketball coach at Washington College in Chestertown, Md.

Originally published Saturday, October 30, 2004