Silas Simmons, the oldest living baseball player, has passed away at the age of one hundred and eleven.
He died Sunday in a retirement nursing home, Zion Hill Mortuary said Wednesday.Simmons, a left-hander, played for several teams from 1912-29, including the New York Lincoln Giants of the Eastern Colored League, the Cuban Stars and the Blue Ribbons of Germantown, who later became the Homestead Grays.
He was born in Middleton, Del., in 1895, the same year as Babe Ruth, and honored by the Center for Negro League Baseball Research on his birthday Oct. 14. A Tampa Bay Devil Rays fan, Simmons was presented with a No. 111 jersey. Researchers this year identified him as the oldest living man to have played professionally.
The discovery of Simmons made him a minor baseball celebrity. To celebrate his 111th birthday on Oct. 14, the Center for Negro League Baseball Research organized a party at Simmons’s nursing home that attracted 300 people, including 39 former Negro leagues players.Carl Boles, who later played the outfield on the 1962 San Francisco Giants, presented Simmons with a plaque from the Society of American Baseball Research that recognized him as the oldest living professional ballplayer ever. And the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, - whose games Simmons still occasionally attended with his church group, gave him an official jersey with No. 111 on the back.
Simmons spent the afternoon regaling attendees with stories of the old Negro leagues, of his having played against legends like [Pop] Lloyd, [Judy] Johnson and [Biz] Mackey. He often described Lloyd as "the second Honus Wagner."