PHILIPSBURG – Philipsburg’s one and only William “Keno” Beezer will be the featured speaker at the annual dinner of the Philipsburg Historical Foundation, to be held at the Parish Hall of Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Philipsburg, beginning at 6 p.m. Nov. 9.
Needless to say, the topic will be baseball, specifically Philipsburg area baseball, over the years. “Philipsburg has a great baseball history,” says Beezer, “Stretching from Scott Field in Hudson to the Power House in Slabtown, and we’re going to cover as much of it as we can, from A to Z.”
“That would be from Adams to Zelenky, with numerous great players in between,” says Laura Scott Bordas, granddaughter of baseball aficionado Harry B. Scott, who developed and promoted Scott Field, situated along Route 53 where the Assembly of God Church is now located.
The legendary diamond played host to Philipsburg’s dreams of glory from its opening in 1921 to the time of World War II. Bordas is working with Beezer on a book about area baseball.
Keno Beezer, the beloved former director of the Moshannon Valley YMCA (for 37 years), says he grew up at the corner of Eighth and Spruce streets, only one block from the official boundary of Slabtown at Ninth Street. Whenever there was a pick-up game at the Power House Field, and that was often, he always played ball with the Slabtown boys.
Later, when it came time for playing in high school and coaching in various leagues, there were sometimes entire Philipsburg teams whose roster was nearly filled with the eastside denizens.
“Of course we had competition from places like Gearthartville and South Philipsburg,” Keno says, “Such as that Woods clan in Southie who had enough boys in their extended family to fill all nine spots on a team.”
Is it just an accident that the Moshannon Valley YMCA, when it was relocated from downtown Philipsburg in 1990, turned up in Slabtown, hard by the site of the old Power House and its eponymous field?
“Well, I wouldn’t want to comment on that,” Beezer says with a smile, “But there might have been some connection. Proximity to the American Legion football field might have had something to do with it, too.”
Beezer became a major league scout early in his career, and for years, he helped arrange exhibition games and clinics for local players, in addition to running major league tryouts at the high school ball field.
These were by invitation only, and for years they were kept under wraps, so that major league scouts could make quick trips to Philipsburg to observe the best players from around the mid-Atlantic region, and then sign them up if they liked what they saw. A number of area players went to the majors by this route.
Beezer says he’s now ready to tell some of the best stories associated with the major league tryouts, and in fact will probably be telling them at the Historical Foundation dinner.
For tickets, at $25 per person for a nice buffet dinner catered by baseball fan Butch Molesky of Mountaintop Catering, call Paul Springer at 814-342-2480, Jeff Sleigh at 814-762-2041, or Luther Gette at 814-342-4842.
