Recognition Well Deserved

If you never heard of the Negro Leagues you cannot call yourself a baseball fan.

In a recent announcement MLB (Major League Baseball) stated that they would recognize the League and the player's records from the old Negro League.

Most early black players played in the league and when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in MLB that opened the door for these great players to play where they belonged.

Players like Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Satchell Paige, Larry Doby and even Henry Aaron played in this league and made a name for themselves as great players even before some of them played Major League Baseball.

I did not know it at the time, but I walked and played where some of the Negro League greats walked and played. I strode to the mound at Hinchliffe Stadium where the New York Black Yankees played and perhaps stood the 60 feet 6 inches away looking at home plate just like Satchell Paige did in his heyday.

The first book I read besides Dick and Jane was the story of Satchell Paige and I always remembered his famous quotes: “Don’t look back, something may be gaining on you.” and “Don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.”

That biography caught my imagination, and I was hooked. When Satchell pitched three scoreless innings for the Kansas City Athletics in 1965 at the age of 60 something (They say 59 yrs. old but no one ever knew how old he was) everything I read came back to me. He was a magician with the baseball and once again my imagination ran wild. He always said, “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?”

Josh Gibson is rumored to be the only player ever to hit a Home Run completely out of Yankee Stadium onto the street. However, because no one really recorded the event it has become folklore.

Now Major League baseball finally will recognize the Negro League and its players’ records and list them right next to today’s players where they belong.

I suspect that there will be an asterisk next to all the names and their records, but I will look at the asterisk and consider it a star signifying the status that those players deserve.

If you have not yet, pick up a book about the Negro League and read it. You may just be taken back to a time when Satchel was on the mound and Josh Gibson was hitting balls out of the stadiums at a record pace.

Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey is being restored after years of neglect. Go there, and just stand on the field and I bet you can hear the crowd cheering and the chatter of the players on the field and in the dugout. They are all smiling and laughing now because they are finally getting the recognition they deserve.

I had a chance to play at Hinchliffe and it is a majestic stadium that seats about ten thousand. Of course, when I played there were a handful of high school fans and an occasional scout watch the game. I did not realize how lucky I was to have had that opportunity. Had I just listened in silence and read the history of the stadium I would have had a better appreciation of where I was and who walked there before me.

The players were no different than any other kid with a ball and a dream. Now their dream is fulfilled, and their names are in the record books of Major League Baseball.

Great move MLB. It is about time.