Eddie Klep?

[ACrank]

I'm working my way thru "Negro League Baseball" by Neil Lancetot and it makes a mention of a white pitcher that the Cleveland Buckeye's signed in 1946 - someone named Eddie Klep who just happens to be from my home town. Does anyone here know anything about him? (I've done some basic research - apparently he later pitched for a prison team, and ended up dying of alcoholism, but I was hoping someone had more info.)

[Pere]

The war had finally ended, America had changed
It had beaten back the Nazis but the Jim Crow laws remained
There was talk of staging marches, talk of civil rights
There was talk about a Negro playing baseball with the whites

He walked into the clubhouse and the card players quit playing
Everybody stopped in the middle of whatever they were saying
It was just like when the sheriff walks into the saloon
He said, "My name's Eddie," as he looked around the room

"This man's here to play baseball," the manager said to the team
"We're all gonna have to live with this...aw that's not what I mean...
You know what I mean." And they all did, it went without saying
The card players looked at their hands, and they went on with their playing

They ran him off the field before a game in Birmingham one night
Made him sit up in the grandstand in the section marked, "For Whites"
In his Cleveland Buckeyes uniform, it was a new twist on the law
The marshals kept their eyes on him, and the hecklers ate him raw

Eddie Klepp, he should have run the bases in reverse
A white man in the Negro leagues, that had to be a first
He could not ride the same buses, stay in the same hotels
He could not eat in the same restaurants, they couldn't have mixed clientele

So while Jackie played for Brooklyn, wore the Dodger blue,
Eddie crossed the color line, the one without a queue
A white man in the Negro leagues, might as well have been a Jew
Now you mention the name of Eddie Klepp and most everyone says, "who?"


-- "The Ballad of Eddie Klepp," by Chuck Brodsky

[Brian McKenna]

Banned from practicing and playing with Cleveland Buckeyes in some southern cities in 1946 - including Birmingham

pitched seveal hitless innings against the Bucs in an exhibition game in late 1945

picture of him in the Chicago Defender on 4/6/1946

In 1946 Klep, a lefty, was 27

from Erie, PA

played semi-pro ball on an integrated club prior to the Bucs

started pitching when he was 15 years old

played semi-pro ball for four years before joining the Bucs

Offered a tryout with a pro club in PA in 1946 but he sought a slot on the Bucs instead

3/13/1946 -- Ernie Wright, owner of the CLE Buckeyes announced that Klep was invited to workout with the club -- Klep is described as "a local sandlot pitcher" in Erie

In 1945 Klep pitched for the North East Athletics, managed by Don Sherrange, a strong club in the Glenwood League in Erie

lived in a state home in Los Angeles near the end of his life

[Brian McKenna]

Klep and his brother Jules were almost killed in August 1938 when strong winds on Lake Erie tossed their small boat around -- nine people were rescued on the water that day

Edward Joseph Klep

Born 10/12/1918 in Erie, PA
Died 11/21/1981 in Los Angeles, CA

Klep was born to Konstantz (Gust) Klep and Mary Nitkowski

Gust was born circa 1891 in Russia to Polish Russian parents, came to US in 1913
Mary was born circa 1895 in New York to Polish Russian parents
Married circa 1915

Gust supported the family as a shoe repairman, butcher and welder

Children:
Joseph, born in 1915
Mary, born in 1916
Edward
Anna, born circa 1921
Theresa, born circa 1924
Julius, born 12/30/1925

Edward had a son Edward Jr. in 1940 with Ethel Maye (nee Fehlman) Klep (B:10/14/1922, D:5/1/1999). They married in 1941.

A quote:

Edward Klep is all over these books. There's a larceny charge in '37. Larceny again in 1939 and '40. He was jailed five weeks in 1941 awaiting trial for arson. Then, disorderly conduct.
Now it is getting interesting. In February 1946, a month before he joined the Buckeyes, Eddie Klep worked off 10 days at Erie County for larceny. Six weeks after the Buckeyes released him, he returned to await trial for burglary, larceny and receiving stolen goods.

http://community.seattletimes.nwsour...6&slug=2566342

[Brian McKenna]

March 24, 1946:

In Birmingham, Alabama, police pull Edward Klep from the lineup of the Buckeyes, a visiting Negro American League team. The first white player in organized black baseball is told to change into his civilian clothes and sit away from his teammates in the "whites only" section of Rickwood Field.

http://nationalpastime.fairfielddata...&fact_Month=03

[Brian McKenna]

Great article here:

http://www.la84foundation.org/Sports...3/jsh2503g.pdf

[Mischa]

I'm working my way thru "Negro League Baseball" by Neil Lancetot and it makes a mention of a white pitcher that the Cleveland Buckeye's signed in 1946 - someone named Eddie Klep who just happens to be from my home town. Does anyone here know anything about him? (I've done some basic research - apparently he later pitched for a prison team, and ended up dying of alcoholism, but I was hoping someone had more info.)

Here's his bio at Baseball-Reference: http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Eddie_Klepp

[Pere]

This is Rickwood Field in Birmingham...



My understanding is that for blackball games, the "white" section was that area down in the right field corner (above the Budweiser and Burma Shave signs). When the white Southern Association was using the field, the situation was reversed and that was the black seating section.

This pic is from the 2008 Rickwood Classic between the Barons and the Jacksonville Suns. Teams and stands now integrated.

[ronstiles]

Thanks for all the info. Eddie Klep was my Uncle. My father was Julius (Jules) who went on to work for JPL which also worked with NASA