On July 24, 1938, Homestead Grays catcher Josh Gibson hit a home run out of Monessen's Page Park that went 538 feet.
It's still one of the longest home runs ever hit in professional baseball, but the second longest of Josh Gibson's career.
Monessen, Major League Baseball, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Josh Gibson Foundation honored Gibson and the hit with a historical marker Thursday.
The marker stands at the intersection of Donner Ave. and Josh Gibson Way in Monessen, near the former site of Page Park.
"To be able to have something like this in a small town like Monessen, educate the community about Josh Gibson and the Homestead Grays, it's phenomenal," said Sean Gibson, executive director of the Josh Gibson Foundation and great grandson of the hall-of-famer.
Baseball fans of all ages attended Wednesday's ceremony, including 93-year-old Angelo Loulis, a lifelong Monessen resident who saw Josh Gibson play.
"I remember when I was a kid, maybe ten or 11 years old, I used to come down here from Oregon Ave. and sneak through the tunnel to watch the games," he said.
The Josh Gibson Foundation was founded in 1994, but has recently seen Gibson's legacy take off.
Sean Gibson said some of that has to do with Major League Baseball announcing last year they would integrate MLB and Negro League stats.
"Josh Gibson can be considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time, Black or white, and so we're excited about that because Major League Baseball did the right thing" said Sean Gibson. "People say maybe it's too late, but it's never too late."
Josh Gibson died on January 20, 1947, three months before Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier.
"He probably had no idea that his legacy would still be carried on like this," said Sean Gibson. "He probably had no idea he'd be in the Hall of Fame. He probably had no idea his stats would be in Major League Baseball record books. These guys played the game because they loved the game."
The Foundation is now campaigning for MLB to name the league's MVP award after Josh Gibson. The award was originally named after Kenesaw Mountain Landis, MLB's commissioner from 1920 to 1944. The Baseball Writers' Association of America voted to remove his name last year, saying he had "notably failed to integrate the game during his tenure."
