With baseball season in full swing, it’s fun to look back at Black Diamond in the late 1940s. Since its founding as a coal mining town in 1885, baseball had always been the biggest sport, with soccer a close second due to the many European immigrants who brought their sporting tradition with them.
The baseball field along Highway 169 in the center of town dates to about 1900 when the Black Diamond Coal Mining Company donated a marshy area for a field. During off hours and weekends, the coal miners wheelbarrowed in fill dirt and soon a real baseball field took shape. By 1915, a wooden stadium was built and baseball games between rival coal mining teams were one of the top entertainment draws in town. The property is now owned by the Enumclaw School District with a deed restriction forever reserving the property for athletic and recreation purposes, and to the town’s inhabitants the right to use the area for the conduct of such sports.
Black Diamond’s 1949 team consisted of the following players and positions. Front row, left to right: Howard Parmenter, outfield; Jack Hope, 2nd base; Willie Franchini, outfield; Joe Darby, pitcher; Wilton Poolman, outfield; Jack Darby, short stop; and Jimmy Hawthorne, batboy.
Back row, left to right: Chuck Barbero, pitcher; Gomer Evans, outfield; Jack “Frenchy” LaGrande, pitcher; Norm Livernash, catcher; Darwin Bainton, 1st base and outfield; Stan Celigo, 3rd base; Coach Roy Darby; and Frank Zumek, 1st base and catcher.
This photo was donated to the Black Diamond History Society by Jack Darby and appeared in the book by Diane and Cory Olson, “Black Diamond: Mining the Memories” an oral history of life in a company town. Copies are available for purchase at the Museum located at32627 Railroad Ave in Black Diamond.
