Baseball in Fort Wayne

Posts Tagged ‘folk lore’

When I first embarked upon the work to put Baseball in Fort Wayne together, I did a lot of research. But what was even more valuable was meeting many men and women who had been participants, fans or otherwise suing the long and fascinating saga of baseball in Northeast Indiana. I heard many stories. Some of them I have repeated to others on multiple occasions. Others, I am saddened to admit, I have forgotten or cannot recall enough to accurately tell it without diminishing the facts.

It is this fact that got me thinking about the possibility of one day putting together an oral history book of the great game in our area. But putting it all into a book might require years of research, interviews and sockpiles of notes and tapes that might possible crowd me out of my house.

But, as this site has evolved, I’ve had the opportunity to e-mail with folks who have Northeast Indiana baseball ties. All of these folks have stories about the passion that is baseball in our region. A good example is Travis Weaver, who performed as Wayne the Wizard in the 1990′s. He sent me a simple interview. Curious for more, I responded and asked for more.

He wasn’t the first and hasn’t been the last. In fact, just last week, it happened again. I’ve received permission to post some of the correspondence, and will probalby do so tomorrow or early next week.

Perhaps this site might also offer a means of eOral history and make the original idea come to reality in a previously unthought of way.

On that note, if you ever wish to share your Northeast Indiana baseball stories or info (Taylor University even sends press releases!), please feel free to do so. You can use my contact form or e-mail me directly at fwbaseball at gmail dot com.