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Edward Burton was simply a baseball man.

A ball, bat and field were all he needed for a full day, and he packed them into 88 years of life as a Negro Leagues player, then an ambassador for the sport. Mr. Burton, also known as “G.G.,” died on Oct. 18 in Charlotte.

“He was a diehard baseball player,” said his wife of 33 years, Gaile Dry-Burton. “He would be locked up in the house watching Major League, minor league, Little League during the whole season. I have no doubt in my mind that they’re playing a game right now as you and I are speaking.”

Mr. Burton, who was born June 6, 1930, played second base with the Harrisburg (Pa.) Giants as a teenager and like most African American players during the era, barnstormed across the country with all-star teams made up exclusively of black players, some who went on to enshrinement at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Those teams were often a Who’s Who of baseball giants.

“He played with Satchel Paige, Minnie Minosa, Josh Gibson,” Dry-Burton said. “He never played with Jackie [Robinson], but he was always so proud of the fact that Jackie Robinson went on to break the color line. He always told stories about how whenever Satchel Paige would come to town he would be the only one who got paid because everybody would come to see Satchel Paige.

“He always had great stories to tell about how segregation and integration was never really in those barnstorming games white people would come in and watch the game and then they would segregate outside that ball field. It was almost like the majors and what everybody saw wasn’t integrated, but they played with white teams all the time.”

Mr. Burton didn’t have the offensive skills to advance to the majors when the game’s highest levels were desegregated, but considered his defense as his greatest asset.

“He always said he wasn’t a great hitter,” Dry-Burton said, “so he would’ve never been considered for any of the majors, but he was a good fielder.”

Major League Baseball banned African Americans until Jackie Robinson’s debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, robbing some of the greatest Negro Leaguers of maximizing their athletic prime. Still, they cheered the sport’s desegregation – and with it, a new era in America.

“That was something that really made us proud, that finally somebody had broken the barrier and that Jackie Robinson was so successful,” Mr. Burton told author Patrice Gaines in the 2007 biography “Ed Burton: Living History.” “The guys were hoping they might have the opportunity to play in the league after that, but the door was just starting to open. They were good enough, but didn’t have the opportunity. A lot of them were too old when the time came.”

A memorial will be held for Mr. Burton Nov. 10 at BB&T Ballpark from 2-4 p.m., which is open to the public. Mr. Burton was an annual participant in the minor league Charlotte Knights’ salute to the Negro Leagues, which coincided with Robinson’s Major League debut on April 15, 1947. He’d join fellow Negro League alumni to share stories and impart those experiences to fans – most of them too young to fully grasp a totally segregated society.

 “Eddie and his buddies would come together at the BB&T stadium and the city would give them proclamations and people were exposed to other Negro Leaguers,” Dry-Burton said. “It was a big to-do. They would sign autographs and take pictures with the kids and families.”

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