In honour of the Boys of November (why is baseball being played so late in the year anyway?), we pass on this bit of news from the Masonic archives.
Lodges are always—or at least should be—places of fellowship and conviviality, and have some kind of events involving the social aspect of a fraternity. One Lodge, I gather in Connecticut, had annual event along the following lines. This story is from the Hartford Courant of October 20, 1959:
Whitey Ford To Appear At Masons’ Sports Night
MANCHESTER (Special) -- Whitey Ford, star left-handed hurler for the New York Yankees, will be “subbing for the sub” when he appears here to night at the Sports Night of the Manchester Lodge of Masons.
Gil McDougald, another outstanding performer for the Yankees, was scheduled to appear here along with Jackie Farrell, Yankee public relations man and two local youths, both in the minor leagues, Moe Morhardt, who signed with the Chicago Cubs last spring as a “bonus baby”, and Gene Johnson, of the Milwaukee farm system.
Substitute Can’t Come
Several days ago, Howard Waddell, chairman of the committee making arrangements for the Sports Night, was informed that McDougald will be hospitalized until the middle of next month and that Bill (Moose) Skowron. Yankee’s first sacker would appear in his place.
Monday, Waddell was again told by Mrs. Skowron that a wrist injury her husband received several weeks ago during the ball season had not healed and that he underwent surgery for it again Sunday night,
The affair will start at 7 p.m. with a dinner at the Masonic Temple.
Kyle Rote was the featured speaker the following year and the event seems to have carried on through the 1960s. I gather the Lodge simply called the Community Relations department of some sports team, arranged for some athletes, and then sold tickets to a dinner as a fund-raiser.
Is your Lodge organised enough to be able to pull off the same kind of thing today?
2 comments:
Cool story, there are 30 ball clubs now requiring there to be more playoff games and thus extending the season.
Yes, Manchester Lodge #73 had quite a few big name sports stars speak at "Sports Night". This was in the days before honorarium of $10,000 or more to get these guys to turn out for an event like this. It slowly petered out as it became impossible to get these guys with out paying.
I suspect that you still might be able to get someone to show up if you held a well publicized event with all of the money going to a big name charity.
Alternatively, you could probably get college athletes out for a free dinner and a panel discussion and question and answer time as a lodge fundraiser.
Otherwise, unfortunately, today you need to pony up at least 5 figures to get the equivalent stars to speak.
How many lodges can come up with $30,000 or $40,000 for a dinner speaker?
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