BASEBALL TAB -- Tschetter compiling history of Wayne County baseball

By Cam Ellis
Published in Sports on March 13, 2015 1:48 PM

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cellis@newsargus.com

Hidden among the rows of dusty wooden shelves and behind glass doors sits a history just waiting to be discovered.

There's tales of Jackie Robinson, 'Joltin Joe' Dimaggio, Honus Wagner and Ted Williams.

You'd never be able to find it, unless you knew where to look -- at the Wayne County Public Library. Marty Tschetter darts about, opening file cabinets and desk drawers with the tenacity of someone who knows how much he has to show, but little time to do it.

What to show first?

How about photos of Clyde King in his Brooklyn Dodger uniform, palling around with Robinson?

Or maybe should it be a picture of Johnny Peacock perched in his catcher's gear behind the plate while Dimaggio continues his historic 56-game hitting streak at Fenway Park?

A bottlecap with George Altman's face? He was great friends with Ernie Banks.

Those artifacts are just the tip of the iceberg - more appropriately, it's probably a glacier -- that is the history and culture surrounding Wayne County baseball. All of it, from the hardly-heard-of semi-pro teams in Mount Olive to the familiar faces of the Narron family will be documented this upcoming spring.

Tschetter, for the second year, will undertake the daunting task of collecting, connecting, and presenting all of Wayne County's baseball past in the second annual Wayne County Baseball Heritage Project.

Tschetter's card lists him as a Local History Librarian, but the title just doesn't seem to do him and his job justice. It makes no mention of his time as a ski bum or a part-time worker at different hotels in Telluride.

There's nothing about his time spent in New Orleans, which ended like many others when Hurricane Katrina hit. He even spent time backpacking and logging with his friends in Oregon.

The identification also ignores perhaps his most important credential -- a prestigious internship in the archival department at the Pro Baseball Hall of Fame.

After years of what seemed like living out of a backpack began to wear on him, Tschetter decided to settle down. His love of research and history led him back to school, where he got Masters Degree from Appalachian State University. While he was there, the job at Wayne County Library opened up.

It was a perfect fit.

"I knew a little bit about Goldsboro," he said. "And it's great. History-wise, Goldsboro is a really important. Historically, there's the railroad. Economically, there's the (county's history) with agriculture. It's been fun exploring."

While baseball is a passion of his, Tschetter -- and the exhibit this upcoming May -- are more focused on the history and culture surrounding the sport.

"I'm fascinated in all of it," he said. "What I find fascinating is that for a relatively small county, there were some really good major league players that had significant careers. We'll try and talk about all of them. It's just to help tell their story."

With the success of last year's program fresh in his mind, Tschetter is looking to draw an ever bigger crowd this year. They're pushing the promotion of the program through newsletters and keeping an active social media presence. One of this year's goals is to cater the event more towards the younger kids of Wayne County.

"I only had two kids come to the programs (last year)," he said. "I'd love to see more high school kids and younger kids. I want to do some kind of kids program."

Because he's doing this on his own, it would be easy for Tschetter to get caught up in the attention and accolades that accompany a project as large in scale as this one.

That's not the case, though.

Tschetter, who respectfully tip-toed around several personal questions in order to stay on topic, is only concentrated on telling the story.

"I think this year is going to be better," he said. "We've got some really unique events. We're trying to create a brand for the library, and we're trying to create a brand for public programs."