header image

header image

Monday, October 21, 2013

Finding the Negro Leagues



When encountering the Negro Leagues, it’s hard to know whether to embrace the talent of the players or lament the conditions they were made to endure.  Those are the feelings I grappled with while standing at the gravesite of Thomas Altson, the first black player on the St. Louis Cardinals.  You can still see the field where Altson played as a member of the Greensboro Red Wings.  In fact, you can see it about 100 feet from his grave - next to a church on a rural North Carolina road.  I grappled some more while listening to former player Levi “Champie” Drew talk about the Green Book, a segregation-era guidebook that informed black motorists, including baseball teams, of which hotels and restaurants would accommodate them – and which ones would not.  Perhaps the two sentiments are not mutually exclusive.  Maybe it’s the talent that existed despite the conditions that make the players’ stories so remarkable. 


Monday, October 7, 2013

Playing the Flag Pole at Forbes Field


Eighty-two.  In a 162-game season, a team needs eighty-two victories to ensure a winning record.  For two long decades, beginning in 1993, this proved to be too high a number for the hard-luck Pittsburgh Pirates to achieve.  Finally, in 2013, the Pirates broke through with 94 wins.  A generation of young Bucs fans saw their team head to the post season for the first time. But for more veteran fans, the 2013 season evoked memories of the great Pirates teams of the 60s and 70s.  Some of those fans may have even felt inspired to visit the University of Pittsburgh to see what remains of Forbes Field, home of three world-series champion teams - including the 1960 club who beat the heavily-favored Yankees in 7 games.