Clarence "Pint" Isreal Juneteenth Classic

The Game

On June 12, 2022, the Gaithersburg Giants came to Shirley Povich Field to take on the Bethesda Big Train in the First Annual Clarence “Pint” Isreal Juneteenth Classic. Major sponsors Westfield Montgomery, Lafayette Federal Credit Union, and the David and Mikel Blair Family Foundation supported a pre-game meal for African American community and church organizations and made it possible for every fan attending to receive a Juneteenth Classic t-shirt. Montgomery County NAACP president Linda Plummer received a Big Train Community Hero award. Thirteen year MLB star and Emory Grove native Milt Thompson joined Isreal family members, former Scotland Eagles third baseman Eddie Dove, and our very own Billy Gordon and Bill Hickman in the pre-game ceremonies.

Negro Leagues star "Pint" Isreal's grandson, Khali Isreal, speaks with Big Train president and founder Bruce Adams in a pre-game ceremony before the June 12, 2022 Clarence "Pint" Isreal Juneteenth Classic at Shirley Povich Field.

With the success of the first Juneteenth Classic, Big Train baseball is committed to continuing the tradition and keeping the memory of Montgomery’s Black sandlots alive. The 2023 game was played on the federal holiday on Monday, June 19 with the Big Train playing host to the Gaithersburg Giants at Shirley Povich Field again. Big Train players woreEagles jerseys to honor the 1954 Scotland Eagles, one of Montgomery’s Black sandlot teams. Former Scotland Eagle Eddie Dove will be on hand to toss out a ceremonial first pitch. Sponsors Gritty, Inc. and Hibiscus Health, Inc., and Big Train baseball will provide t-shirt versions of the Eagles jersey for the first 350 fans. MLB star Milt Thompson and Big Train alum and Ripken League All-Star Logan Farrar will host a 4 p.m. baseball clinic aimed at getting more kids of color interested in baseball. Memorabilia from the Hubert V. Simmons Museum of Negro Leagues Baseball will be on display at Povich Field. Chuck Williams of the Scotland A.M.E. Zion Church and the Second Century Project will receive a Big Train Community Hero award.

Hidden Diamonds

Along with churches and schools, baseball was the center of civic life in these communities during the 1940s through the 1960s. Communities from Emory Grove to Lyttonsville and Scotland to Sandy Spring organized sandlot teams. Local historian and Bethesda Community Base Ball Club board member Billy Gordon grew up in Rockville watching the stars of the Black sandlots play. “The entire African American community would turn out on Saturdays and on Sundays after church,” recalls Gordon. “It was quite a scene. The preacher would be at the game, and the bootlegger would be there dispensing beverages.”

The center of the county’s Black sandlot baseball was Johnson’s Park in Emory Grove. One thousand people would show up on Memorial Day for food, fellowship, and a twi-night doubleheader. Barnstorming teams from the Negro Leagues came to Johnson’s Park to take on the county’s top teams – Rockville American Legion Post 151, Maryland Wildcats, and Sandy Spring All Stars. Johnson’s Park and a ballfield in Norbeck that went by the names Bailey’s and Page’s hosted night games under the lights. Joe Davis’ Oak Haven in Boyds had a dance hall and served a full dinner after Sunday games. Wims Meadow in Clarksburg and Harris Meadow in Stewartown drew top crowds on weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Sadly, as Rev. Tim Warner of Emory Grove United Methodist Church puts it most succinctly: “history is buried with the people.” This extraordinary story of resilience in the face of the Jim Crow laws that denied Blacks access to other entertainment opportunities must not be lost to history. Big Train President Bruce Adams spent several months of our covid lockdown exploring this rich history for a 2021 presentation at Montgomery History’s annual conference (available on YouTube – “In Search of the Ballfields of Montgomery’s Black Communities”).

Clarence "Pint" Isreal

Big Train historian Bill Hickman has spent several years
researching and telling the story of Clarence “Pint” Isreal,
Montgomery County’s greatest Negro Leagues star. In addition to writing the definitive biography of Isreal for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), Bill successfully nominated him for the Montgomery County Sports Hall of Fame. Isreal was inducted in 2022 and to the Rockville Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019.

In an article in the 2022 Big Train souvenir program, Bill
introduced him this way: “He beat out an All-Star second
baseman to win a starting job with a Negro League baseball team. He held off a Hall of Fame third baseman from taking away his spot at the hot corner on his Negro League team. He was a starting third baseman in the 1946 Negro League World Series. He was penciled into starting lineups by three managers who now reside in the Hall of Fame. He was a local man who spent his
whole life in Rockville. His name was Clarence ‘Pint’ Isreal.”

As with other Negro League stars from the county like Russell Awkard and Bill Williams who realized that segregation denied them the opportunity to play at baseball’s highest level, Pint Isreal returned home to raise a family and compete in Montgomery’s Black sandlot games. Isreal devoted his life to helping Montgomery’s youth through the Black Angels Boys Club
and other organizations. He became a valued mentor to Billy Gordon and other youth. Isreal worked as a biological laboratory technician at the National Institutes of Health and was player/ manager of the integrated NIH baseball team. In 1988, the year after he died, the Mayor and Council of Rockville dedicated a park in his name in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.