David Kilby, Managing Editor
JAMESBURG — To assure no one in Jamesburg forgets one of the region’s greatest professional sports stars, the Jamesburg Civic Association has elected Jamesburg native Frank Hayes as Citizen of the Year for 2011.
Dec. 6, Richard Reinhardt, co-owner of Barbara’s Unique Antique Boutique, gave a presentation on the late local legend at the Forsgate Country Club.
”People are starting to realize the professional ball player we had in town who was for the most part forgotten,” Mr. Reinhardt said to The Cranbury Press.
Mr. Reinhardt travels around the country looking for memorabilia for his Frank Hayes museum at Barbara’s Unique Antique Boutique. In November, he traveled to New England to retrieve a glove and some baseball cards to add to the museum.
Mr. Reinhardt has been the driving force in making the public aware of the town’s baseball history and the legend of Mr. Hayes.
”He’s the area’s only professional baseball player and, clearly, the only one out of Jamesburg,” Mr. Reinhardt said.
Mr. Reinhardt used to live in the same building with Frank Hayes’ mother, Elizabeth Hayes, and he remembers her saying to him once, “Don’t let them forget my Frankie.”
Mr. Reinhardt promised her he wouldn’t, and his little museum and Mr. Hayes’ Citizen of the Year Award are the ways Mr. Reinhardt is fulfilling that promise.
Born Oct. 13, 1914, on Gatzmer Avenue, Jamesburg, Mr. Hayes became a member of the Jamesburg Presbyterian Church in 1924. He graduated from Jamesburg Elementary School in 1928 and Jamesburg High School in 1932.
He graduated from the Pennington Seminary for Boys in 1933 where he met Cornelius McGillicuddy, better know as Connie Mack, owner of the Philadelphia Athletics.
Mr. Hayes was signed by Mr. McGillicuddy in 1933 at age 19, making him the youngest baseball player in American League Baseball.
He was selected with Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx and others to play in the All-Star games played in Tokyo, Japan, in 1934. In 1940, he was selected as New Jersey’s Athlete of the Year.
Now nicknamed “Jersey Giant” and “The Blimp,” Mr. Hayes played with the Athletics, St. Louis Browns, Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox.
He set a record for most consecutive games played as a catcher with 312, a record that still stands today.
A six-time All-Stars team pick, Mr. Hayes retired from baseball in 1947 and opened a sporting goods store in Point Pleasant.
He died suddenly of an aneurysm June 22, 1955, and is buried in Fernwood Cemetery on Forsgate Drive in Jamesburg.
”Every year, we try to choose an outstanding citizen of the year,” Mr. Reinhardt said. “This is the first time someone has been picked (by the association) posthumously. It was unanimous.”
The Jamesburg Civic Association donates to the Presbyterian Church of Jamesburg and other local charities and sponsors three college scholarships for Jamesburg high school seniors. The association meets the first Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. at the Presbyterian Church.
