Homestead’s Asmongas: Sandlot Baseball Tradition in a Steel Town
(The following article was published by the Western Pennsylvania Sport Museum)
Homestead, Pa. has an extraordinarily rich sports history. Traditions of success in early professional football, women’s swimming, basketball, and baseball frequently filled Pittsburgh’s sports pages. Through the 1940s, though, town and company adult sandlot baseball teams were a more central point of pride and entertainment at a time when America’s pastime was far more popular than any other sport. Across the state, this baseball team was often a coal mine or steel mill team, and in Homestead, Carnegie Steel’s Homestead Steel Works often sponsored the team. Generations later, as old, forgotten sandlots were redeveloped, the communal memories of many lost stories and unsung heroes unfortunately faded. Two such exemplary players for the Homestead Aces, local stars of a bygone era, were Homestead steelworkers and brothers of Hungarian descent John (1904-1995) and Joe “Mutt” Asmonga (1906-1983)…