Found out that the ever-youthful, spry and handsome Herb Simpson (above, in his playing days), NOLA’s most famous surviving Negro Leaguer, will again be the guest of the Seattle Mariners at the team’s annual African-American Heritage Day, which this year is scheduled for July 27. It’ll be the second year in a row Herb travels to Seattle to be honored by the major league team.

Herb is the last surviving member of the Seattle Steelheads, that city’s entry in the short-lived and ill-fated West Coast Negro Baseball League in 1946.

In addition, I’m about to work on an article for the Spokane Spokesman-Review about Herb and his half-season with the Spokane Indians (details in the link above) in 1952.

Plus, and this simply humbles me, the Mariners’ RBI booster club has invited me to attend the festivities in July as a media representative. I’m incredibly honored by the invite — but, as you can see, not above bragging a bit about it 🙂 — and if there’s some way we can pull off the finances of it, I’m headed to the Jet City in a couple months! Hopefully while I’m there I’ll see Nancy and/or Ann Wilson, and possibly Geoff Tate. We’ll see.