The final Frogs game of the season featured a family reunion and a celebration of local roots that run 100 years deep in both the city and baseball.
The team honored Fredericksburg native and original Frogs player Kelsie Deane, who was a standout pitcher for the team from 1925-1930. Nearly 90 members of the Deane family, ranging from 48 months to 80 years and up, attended Friday night’s Frogs game to celebrate his memory.
Sean Deane, Kelsie’s daughter, says she remembers her mother telling her and her siblings about their father’s baseball pedigree as a child. She remembers hearing that a team from DC would pick her father and others up in Fredericksburg before their games that were played around the region. She’s thrilled to see her father receive recognition for his performance on the field.
“It is an honor. An honor and a blessing,” Dean says of her father’s commemoration.
According to research performed for the team by Dr. Kerri Barile Tambs, PhD from Mead & Hunt, Deane was born in Fredericksburg in 1900 and was the operator of a local pool hall.
Deane joined the Frogs in 1925 as an outfielder before quickly becoming a standout pitcher. At the time, the Free-Lance Star described Deane’s performance as pitching “airtight ball,” and it was reported that he scored two shutouts in just three days.
Tambs’ research shows Deane stayed with the Fredericksburg Frogs until the 1930s, and eventually returned for a comeback season in 1944. He also played for several Fredericksburg amateur football teams.
Deane’s connection with the team was discovered during a Fredericksburg Area Museum tour with local activist Eunice Haigler, who started working with the Nationals to reach at-risk youth around the area earlier this year.
Haigler says family friend Sylvia Williams spotted Deane’s name on one of the exhibits, and together they made the connection between the Deane descendants and the team.
The Deane family reunion on Friday would also wrap up the free Fredericksburg Frogs ticket initiative for at-risk kids that started this season, an effort that was the product of a partnership between Haigler and Nationals Owner and Team President Seth Silber. Silber gave away a “generous” number of tickets to the five different Frogs games throughout the season.
Those experiences have been magic in the making, according to Haigler.
“It’s been incredible. A lot of excitement…it’s great having members of the African American community here to appreciate history and enjoy baseball,” Haigler said.
“A lot of the legacy of baseball runs through their veins.”
When downpours interrupted one Frogs game, Haigler says the Silbers offered the kids the use of his suite for the remaining innings, as well as an additional ticket to the next game each was able to attend.
According to Haigler, that kind of generosity and willingness to go the extra mile is something Silber demonstrates often.
Silber’s sense of giving back includes continuing to extend invitations to local Frogs fans next season and into the future.
It didn’t take long for all that good will to come back around.
Friday night ended with a walk-off grand slam by Nationals shortstop Jorgelys Mota, besting the Carolina Mudcats and clinching a playoff birth for the team.
The Nationals will play the Lynchburg Hillcats tomorrow for their first game in the Division Series at Virginia Credit Union Stadium.
