Mathews-Dickey Boys' and Girls' Club

For decades, Mathews provided St. Louis children with much more than baseball fields.

The Mathews-Dickey Boys' & Girls' Club and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis will merge on Jan. 1. The combined organization will offer more programs to children in north St. Louis.

Even one baseball game has plenty of innings — seven, nine, or, if there’s an especially stubbornly tied score, perhaps even 11 or 12 innings. But it all pales in comparison to the 39 innings Tom Sullivan and his teammates completed over the course of a single summer day (and night) in St. Louis 43 years ago.

When the St. Louis Rams football team moved to the city from Los Angeles in 1995, it did not have a practice field. Shortly after a deal with the…

In 1960, two neighborhood baseball coaches, Martin Luther Mathews and the late Hubert “Dickey” Ballentine, co-founded an organization that aimed to…

In the face of tragic news about violent crime and clashes with police, students may feel they won’t get a fair shake from those who are in charge. A new…

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, June 7, 2011 - The Rev. Dr. William G. Gillespie, who singlehandedly breathed life back into an…