Earl "Flat" Chase
Earl "Flat" Chase (16 August, 1910 – 5 May, 1954) was a black Canadian baseball player,[1] a power hitter and pitcher on the Chatham Coloured All-Stars. The team was the first all-black baseball team to win an Ontario Baseball Amateur Association (OBAA) title.[2]
He was born in North Buxton, Ontario, to George Chase and Elva Gambril. Chase had eight siblings. When he moved to Windsor, Ontario, in the 1920s, his home was located across the street from a ball park where he spent majority of his free time.[1]
By the age of 15, Chase played on baseball teams through churches such as the Second Baptist Church and the Detroit Church League Champs.[1] He continued playing baseball and was quite well known throughout the community. He was said to be a "very versatile player as he could catch, pitch, and play all infield positions".[1] In 1934, Chase was recruited by the Chatham Coloured All-Stars. The All-Stars regularly had to endure overt racial discrimination on and off the field.[2] In the deciding game of the 1934 championship, Chase out-pitched his counterpart, Phil Marchildon, on the Penetanguishene team.[1]
Much like teammate, Wilfred 'Boomer' Harding, it was said that the one factor that might have kept Chase out of the major leagues in the 1930s was the colour of his skin.[1] Teammates made similar statements, suggesting that "Chase should have been a big league pitcher."[1] Chase's pitches ranged from 80 to 100 miles per hour (130 to 160 km/h), and he had set many records for longest hits across different baseball parks,[1] including those in Sarnia, Strathroy, Aylmer, Welland, Milton, and Chatham. He once hit .700 while he was playing in the Chatham City League.[1] Boomer Harding stated that once during a game in Welland, Chase hit the ball so hard that "the ball not only cleared the right field fence, it cleared a building way behind the fence" and eventually was said to land in downtown Welland.[1]
Chase played on various other baseball teams, including the London Majors, Patterson Cars, Windsor City League Champions, Windsor Stars, Chatham Shermans, Chatham Hadleys and Arcades.[1] He even played with the Taylor AC Panthers, where many other former All-Stars and their children went to play. While part of the London Majors, he helped bring them to victory by pitching the Canadian Sandlot Congress championship in 1944.[1]
Outside of baseball, Chase worked in a sanitation department in Chatham. He married Julia Ethel Black in 1934. They had four children: Earl Jr., Horace, Marilyn, and Gladys.[1] Chase’s two sons, Earl Jr. and Horace, later followed in his footsteps and played with the Panthers in the 1950s.[2]