Newcomerstown – Birthplace of Legends

My “Small Town Pride” series focuses on how very small towns celebrate a famous person born in their humble home. Certainly, Newcomerstown, Ohio, meets the definition of a small town, and perhaps a depressing town as well. But, greatness has been born here. Furthermore, as the curator of the museum quickly pointed out to me, greatness has happened upon Newcomerstown more than once. For a small village of less than 4,000 people, one may call it, Newcomerstown – Birthplace of Legends. Well, I do not want this post to be too long. So, I will focus on the legend that seemed to be the most celebrated. And, that person would be the great baseball pitching legend, Cy Young.

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Denton True “Cy” Young was born near Newcomerstown on March 29, 1867. Born to a farming family, he played for the love of the game whenever the work allowed. At age 23, Cy began his major league career in Cleveland. Thankfully, the team name was the Spiders in Cy’s days. So, no need to apologize for playing for the horribly offensive “Indians” nickname. Between Cleveland, St. Louis, and Boston, Cy played 21 years in the major leagues. His records are too numerous to mention. But, he basically has every “longevity” related pitching record. He has most wins, most losses, most complete games, most…..etc. Major league baseball does not work their pitchers like this anymore. Consequently, no future player will surpass Cy Young’s current records. Baseball thought so much of Cy Young’s career that the highly coveted, annual award to the best major league pitcher is called the Cy Young Award.

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The main repository of Cy Young memories resides at the Temperance Tavern Museum. In addition to a variety of county history, the museum maintains a section on the life and times of Cy Young. The memorabilia includes the expected items like old uniforms, team pictures, game gear, trophies, and photos throughout his life. However, my favorite treasure of the collection was the axe. Post baseball, Cy returned to Newcomerstown where he farmed for the rest of his days. Apparently, Cy chopped wood on his farm. Remarkably, the museum acquired his axe with wood actually chopped by Cy. Beyond the museum, the folks of Newcomerstown have many monuments to show their pride in their favorite native son.

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First, you have the Cy Young Memorial Park. The memorial is located on the pitching mound of a replica baseball field. The engravings mark Cy Young’s life and his accomplishments. Furthermore, active baseball fields surround the memorial which seems very appropriate. Additionally, while I did not attend, on the 4th weekend of every June, the townsfolk celebrate Cy Young Days. This 3 day extravaganza has baseball tournaments, cornhole tournaments, car shows, and, of course, a Cy Young Queen Pageant. Again, these tributes seems well done to me. However, other tributes impressed me less…

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“Cy Young Drive” is not much. True, it does lead to a baseball field. But, its kind of a short, one-way alley in a residential area of town. Give Cy a break. Rename one of the main town roads in his honor. Secondly, they named a bowling alley after Cy. Now, perhaps Cy liked to bowl, so I will make no judgement on the appropriateness of a bowling alley. But, this place was the most depressing bowling alley that I have ever seen. It was an unadorned cement block building that had plenty of junk as its landscape features. The “Cy Young Lanes” sign was in a state of disrepair. I confirmed that it was indeed still open. But, Cy Young deserves a bit better tribute than this decrepit place. Anyway, all good things must come to an end, here are the final tributes to the baseball legend…

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After baseball, Cy Young returned to this area to live out his life. The home above was the last home of Cy Young. If you want to see it, you better hurry. It could clearly collapse at any moment. No one lives there now. Rather, it seems to function as a storage building for the Amish farm where it resides. Just a very short distance down the road is the New Peoli Cemetery. There you will find the final resting place for Cy and his beloved wife. The marker, and the cemetery for that matter, are very well maintained in a scenic, rolling hills setting. Drive carefully over the rolling hills. We encountered several Amish buggies trotting down the road. So ends my tribute to Cy Young, the pride of Newcomerstown – Birthplace of Legends. PT

I hope you have enjoyed “Newcomerstown – Birthplace of Legends” on Traveling with PugsleyTonks.

If you enjoyed that story on Small Town Pride, check out Greenville, OH https://travelingwithpt.com/where-annie-lived-of-course/

If you want to enter the Cy Young Queen Pageant at the next festival, learn more here http://www.cyyoungdaysfestival.com/

p.s. For those still reading and paying attention, this post is called “Newcomerstown – Birthplace of Legends.” Well, “Legends” is plural. We need another legend from Newcomerstown. How about this Newcomerstown long time resident…

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