Ernest Westfield

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Ernest Westfield Position: pitcher career: 1959-1965 Team: Birmingham Black Barons

HT: 6'-3"; WT: 160 lbs batted and threw right Born: Nov. 30, 1939 in Cleveland, Tennessee

On August 21, 1960, Jackie Robinson threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the East-West game. A few minutes later the first pitch in the bottom of the first was thrown by a skinny flamethrowing 21-year-old named Ernest Westfield.

Westfield pitched 3 innings and left, down 3-2, two of the West's runs being unearned (Westfield himself had a throwing error). The West won 8-4.

There may have never been a player who was more oblivious to Negro League history when he was a player, and so awed by it in retirement. Westfield, though a footnote in the history of Black Baseball, has made the Negro Leagues his life's passion in recent years. He has a talent for writing poems that capture the essence of the Negro Leagues and its biggest stars.

Westfield had a live arm as a young man and was scouted by the Chicago Cubs. His break in professional baseball, though, came while he was pitching for a team is his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee. The Birmingham Black Barons came to town and Westfield pitched against them at Smokey Stadium, impressing them enough that they offered him a contract--Westfield remembers that he signed for a $300 bonus and $175 a month. "I don't think I ever saw the $300 bonus," recalls Westfield. "But it was the best time of my life."

Besides traveling and playing the game he loved, Westfield spotted the woman who would become his wife while riding in a bus to a game.

Westfield played with the Black Barons for seven seasons, retiring in 1965. He did not, however, fully appreciate Negro League history until many years later.

Growing up, Westfield's baseball heroes were not Negro Leaguers. "I didn't know anything about the history," he recalls. "My favorite player was Carl Erskine, the pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He threw that knucklecurve, just like I did. I was interviewed a while back and when I said that Erskine was my hero the reporter said, 'What about Joe Black and Don Newcombe?' They wanted me to say someone black."

In the last few years Westfield has studied the Negro Leagues and speaks at schools, passing along the history to receptive audiences.

Westfield, one of the youngest Negro Leaguers alive, still looks like he could pitch, in fact his fastball was clocked at 80 miles per hour a few years ago.

Westfield now is CEO of ELW Enterprises which sells Negro League memorabilia.