My Dayton Baseball Experience – From Dragons To Marcos To Flyers To Clodbusters, Part II

I began my Dayton Baseball experience with a trip to Day Air Credit Union Ballpark, home of the Dayton Dragons. From a previous search of Dayton baseball stories and experiences, I discovered the Dayton Marcos, a barnstorming Negro Leagues baseball club who had a star on the Dayton Walk of Fame. So, after leaving the Day Air Ballpark area, I headed over to W Third St. And wow did I get a City of Dayton education!!!

Whenever I am on the road, in a rental car, I am always leery of street parking. After all, it’s technically not my car and the last thing I want is to park a rental and come back to it broken into, damaged, or worse – stolen. When I arrived on W Third St, I was greeted by a massive Wright Brothers statue and immediately got the theme that the Wright Brothers place in Dayton was prominent. More about the Wright Brothers in a minute…

Down the road from the statue, I spotted a building sign for the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park and a park ranger outside on a park bench. I took a left off W Third and made a series of lefts into the parking lot and approached the park ranger for information. He was really helpful and pointed me to the Dayton Walk of Fame, which was located just a few clicks up the road on W Third St. He allowed me to park in his parking lot while I explored the walk of fame street plaques. If you are ever in the Dayton area and have an interest in Aviation, this is one of the many places to visit and learn more!

So, after speaking with the park ranger, he guided me to the Dayton Walk of Fame. He wasn’t exactly sure where the Dayton Marcos plaque was, only that it was on the walk. So, I set out to read the street plaques and was absolutely blown away by the names and legends and folks I read about. Did you know that Rob Lowe was from Dayton? How about actresses Lilian and Dorothy Gish? Or MLB Hall of Famers Mike Schmitt and Jesse “Pop” Haines? Or musician John Legend? Or innovators Orville and Wilbur Wright? Or kickass progressive rock band, The Breeders? Cannonball!!!! The names cemented into W Third St’s Dayton Walk of Fame were so incredible and I stopped at just about every one of them to read what they had to say. Like these…

There were a few sportswriters on the Dayton Walk of Fame who I had never heard of. I took some extra time to read up on these writers, including one that supposedly coined the phrase “Big Red Machine” for the Cincinnati Reds.

After walking nearly the entire Dayton Walk of Fame looking for the Dayton Marcos, I sort of forgot I was looking for the Dayton Marcos and just enjoyed reading the sidewalk tributes. Up and down W. Third Street I walked and stopped and read these great sidewalk tributes. Until crossing the street for one last row of plaques, where I spotted the Dayton Marcos plaque.

From the plaque, I learned that the Dayton Marcos had a twenty year run as a professional baseball club. Starting in 1920 and with the Negro National League, the Marcos played both league ball and barnstorming events. Their first home game was over 100 years ago, a home game at Westwood Field in Dayton. There is a fantastic article on the Dayton Marcos on the website, http://www.negroleagues.org. There you will find a Dayton Marcos article that outlines the team’s history, ownership, games played, and some very famous opponents along the way. Here is a link to that article – Dayton Marcos. A few excerpts taken directly from that article:

• As an independent team, and also as the only black team in the Ohio-Indiana League they played black and white teams all over the country throughout the 1910s.
• The team was started by Daytonian Moses Moore, a real estate agent. Moore owned the New Marco Hotel and apparently named his team after that enterprise.
• They were managed by Candy Jim Taylor, who also played Third Base.
• Local Koke Alexander led the team in hitting with a .350 batting average, while rookie George “Chippy” Britt was the Marcos’ workhorse on the mound.
• In 2011, the entire Marcos franchise was honored with a permanently installed marker in the Dayton Walk of Fame, located in the historic Wright-Dunbar Business District in the city.

In addition to the Dayton Marcos storyline, the article also has a number of black and white photos of the team posing for team photos and some game action. Definitely check out the Dayton Marcos article to learn more about this historic baseball team.

After my very successful walk down the Dayton Walk of Fame, I found the park ranger and an associate of his and chatted it up with them for a bit. I thanked the park ranger for the great knowledge and the awesome, safe parking spot in his parking lot. And let him know that I was excited to get a really great Dayton education on W Third St.’s Dayton Walk of Fame. Next stop, Carillon Historical Park and the Clodbusters.