As many victims try to recover from this year’s Midwest flooding, one Negro League legend had all his baseball memories washed away.

Jim Litke of the ASSOCIATED PRESS has the story of Art Pennington, a former baseball star whose house was damaged when the Cedar River engulfed the town of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And when then waters finally receded, Pennington’s collection of classic memorabilia was destroyed:

Newspaper clippings, programs, autographed photos from Mickey Mantle, Sal Maglie and a dozen other big leaguers who assured him he would play alongside them someday, scrapbooks that gave his living room the look and feel of a baseball museum …

Pennington hit one of the longest home runs in the history of old Comiskey Park for the American Giants and had an old brick from the since-demolished ballpark, but that was swept away, too. So were hats, jerseys and baseballs used in games.

Sadly, it wasn’t just baseball items that had been taken away from Pennington:

His house, his car, his clothes, nearly all his pictures, even one of his two dogs – it was all lost to the Midwest floods. “Every damn thing I had just floated down the river,” he said.

With everything gone, the 85-year-old is trying to decide what he can do next, if anything:

“When you get old, you can’t keep moving. You have to stay where people know you. I’m not doing too good, but I’m lucky to have a few good friends. Without them,” Pennington chuckled, “I’d really be up a creek.”

Nice to see that Art can find some humor in the face of a tragic situation.