Gorton coming here to speak about former baseball great

Pete Gorton, a Twin Cities man who has worked tirelessly to honor the legacy of John Donaldson, has agreed to come to Minneota to speak about the flame-throwing African American pitcher who stood on the mound wearing a Minneota uniform and pitched in two games here in the 1920s.
Although the date is not set in stone, Gorton is penciled in to speak in the Opera Hall on Saturday, April 29. His presentation is compelling and lasts about an hour.
There will be no charge for the presentation, although a freewill donation is encouraged. After Gorton expenses are paid, any money left over will be donated to the Society of the Preservation of Minneota Heritage.
There are around 100 seats available for Gorton's presentation. We encourage you to reserve a seat by emailing me at scott@thomabooks.com. Seating will be on a first-come, first-serve basis. If more than 100 sign up, Gorton has agreed to give a second presentation on the same day.
Donaldson was a barnstormer back in those days, meaning he would travel from town to town across the country to play baseball. Through Gorton's vast network he has constructed over the past 10 years, it has been learned that Donaldson's arm was equally as golden as the great Satchel Paige. The more Gorton learned about Donaldson, the more the statistics grew.
To date, Donaldson had a 425-169 record with 5,221 strikeouts with 172 additional games he pitched in where strikeout totals were not kept.
Gorton knows in his heart that Donaldson's name needed to be mentioned with other greats even though he hadn't played Major League Baseball or even in the Negro Leagues. Many observers who saw Donaldson pitch compared him equally to other pitching greats of that era such as Satchel Paige, Joe Rogan and Rube Foster, all who are in the Hall of Fame.
Through Gorton's determined work, the John Donaldson ballfield was built in Glasgow, MO where Donaldson grew up, adorned by a statue of the pitching great.
Last year, because of Gorton and his network, Donaldson was one of 10 finalists in the Early Baseball Era category for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Although Donaldson needed 12 votes for induction from the 16-man committee and received eight. Because his legacy is being built, his chances are much greater of being enshrined someday.