72 years later, local family discovers photo of grandfather, former MLB pitcher with Frank Sinatra

David Badgley’s first impression upon seeing the photo was how young his grandpa appeared. One of David’s 11 siblings had asked what number their grandfather, John “Deacon” Donahue, wore when he pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies from 1943 to 1944.

Searching the internet for an image of their grandfather in uniform, David came across one from 1944. Their grandfather was 23 years old, still unmarried and not yet a father to his seven children. The striking thing about the imagine was that the Badgleys believed they had seen every available photo of their grandpa from his playing days – there weren’t that many, after all.

They never had seen this one.

The photo is taken at a wartime fundraising exhibition between the Phillies and the Brooklyn Dodgers. In the photo, Donahue stands at the far right wearing a Phillies jacket, mitt on his left hand, glasses atop his nose. He stands next to Phillies manager Freddie Fitzsimmons, Dodgers outfielder Dixie Walker and Dodgers coach Charley Dresser. In the middle, a man sings into a microphone.

David blew up the photo and zoomed in on Donahue. It definitely was him. He showed the image to one of his sisters, he can’t remember which one. With six boys and six girls – spanning 16 1/2 years in age difference – in the Badgley family, it can be hard to keep track.

Her response? Yep, that’s grandpa. And that guy there, singing in the middle, that’s Frank Sinatra.

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To understand the Badgley family’s surprise, one has to understand their relationship with Donahue. The 12 Badgleys spent much of their childhoods living a few blocks away from their grandparents’ house in Carpentersville. It was a short walk and a shorter bike ride.

They spent hours listening to Donahue’s stories. They played wiffle ball in the backyard or the driveway and Donahue would pull up a chair and watch. Dan Badgley, 38, a teacher and former baseball coach at Crystal Lake Central, said Donahue rarely missed a little league game.

“You’re born into my family, you play baseball,” Dan said. “After every game I’d have to explain to him why I did this or why I did that. We were as close as you can get to grandparents. They were second parents to us.”

“We spent a lot of time over there,” said David, now 31 and living in McHenry. “Probably more time than he did in our own house.”

Donahue’s stint with the Phillies was brief, but he loved talking about it.

Listed as a 6-foot, 180-pound righty according to baseball-reference.com, Donahue pitched a grand total of 13 1/3 innings in the big leagues. He had one plate appearance, a strikeout against pitcher Hal Gregg of the Dodgers on May 6, 1944, at Ebbets Field.

Zach remembers his grandfather’s favorite story being the time he got Cardinals Hall of Famer Stan Musial to pop out, possibly in a spring training game.

“He had a scrapbook with a lot of pictures and newspaper clippings that we’d always pull out and flip through,” David said. “He had a lot of stories from when he played high school until when he played for the Phillies.”

Donahue grew up in Chicago and signed with the Phillies shortly after high school.

He earned the nickname “Deacon” because he was a religious man. According to Dan Badgley, when Donahue faced a good hitter, he would say, “God help me,” as he pumped his arms over his head. He made his Major League debut in September 1943.

Donahue died in 2008 at age 87. After his baseball career, he worked for more than 40 years as a projectionist at the Des Plaines Theatre.

“I guess that’s cool,” joked grandson Zach Badgley, 26, an assistant baseball coach at McHenry. “Play major league baseball, leave, get married and watch movies the rest of your life.”

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The Red Cross War Fund baseball game was played April 13, 1944, at Ebbets Field, days before Opening Day. Dan Badgley vaguely remembers Donahue talking about seeing Sinatra once.

“I remember him mentioning one time he saw Sinatra,” Dan said. “I don’t remember him every saying he talked to him. He loved Bing Crosby. I remember him talking about how Sinatra used to copy Bing Crosby.”

Donahue’s grandkids remember him as someone who loved music. He surely would have mentioned having a front-row seat to one of the greatest entertainers of the era. Or maybe he never mentioned it simply because he didn’t much care for Sinatra.

“He was more of a Bing Crosby guy,” David Badgley said. “I never heard him say he liked Sinatra. Actually, I remember him saying that he didn’t really like any of Frank Sinatra’s music. Maybe that’s why the story never came up.”

Sinatra himself still was in his 20s in 1944 and at the height of his superstardom. Donahue did not last much longer in the majors. He made his eighth and final appearance on May 26 of that season.

The Badgleys discovered the photo with Sinatra last month around Christmastime. Their grandmother, Mary Donahue, died about a month earlier on Thanksgiving Day at 90 years old.

They likely never will know exactly why their grandfather never told them about Sinatra.

“He told us every little thing you could imagine, from the time he proposed to my grandma at the top of a ferris wheel to every baseball story you could imagine,” Zach Badgley said. “Never once did he mention that picture. That’s what made us all so speechless about it.”

Maybe the Badgleys don’t need the full story. They have the photo – another family heirloom to add to Donahue’s old scrapbook – and maybe the photo says enough.

“If you look at the picture,” Zach said, “it looks like he’s enjoying every minute of it.”