The Negro League has a long, powerful history. No one can understand about baseball fully unless he or she studies the Negro Leagues. It was filled with African Americans at the time when African Americans were banned heavily from joining professional baseball for decades. Also, the Negro Leagues promoted teamwork, camaraderie, and excellence involving athletics and in society in general. The vast majority of the members of the Negro Leagues were African Americans and some Latino Americans. Seven major leagues were part of this system by 1920. The first black professional baseball team was the Cuban Giants. It was created in 1885. The first league was the National Colored Base Ball League. It was organized specifically as a minor league. It had low attendance, so it ended after only 2 weeks in 1887. The Negro American League of 1951 is viewed as the last major league season and the last professional club (called the Indianapolis Clowns) operated as a humorous sideshow rather than competitively from the mid-1960’s to the 1980’s. The first baseball game among black teams was held on November 15, 1859 in New York City. The Henson Base Ball Club of Jamaica, Queens defeated the Unknowns of Weeksville, Brooklyn 54 to 43. During Reconstruction or after the Civil War, a black baseball scene was created in the East and Mid-Atlantic states. Many of these teams were headed by ex-soldiers and promoted by some well-known black officers. There were black teams playing against each other like the Jamaica Monitor Club, Albany Bachelors, Philadelphia Excelsiors, and the Chicago Uniques. The civil rights activist of Philadelphia named Octavius Catto was a black baseball pioneer too.
By the end of the 1860’s, the black baseball mecca was in Philadelphia. Its African American population back then was 22,000. James H. Francis and Francis Wood (who were two former cricket players) created the Pythian Base Ball Club. They played in Camden, New Jersey at the landing of the Federal Street Ferry. The reason was that it was difficult to get permits for black baseball games in the city. Catto promoted the Pythians. He applied for memberships in the National Association of Base Ball Players. Tat the end of the 1867 season, "the National Association of Baseball Players voted to exclude any club with a black player.” In some ways Blackball thrived under segregation, with the few black teams of the day playing not only each other but against white teams as well. "Black teams earned the bulk of their income playing white independent 'semipro' clubs.” By the 1870’s, baseball was more professionalized. The first black professional player was Bud Fowler. He was in many games with a Chelsea, Massachusetts club in April 1878 and he pitched for the Lynn, Massachusetts team in the International Association.
Moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother, Welday Wilberforce Walker, were the first two black players in the major leagues. They both played for the 1884 Toledo Blue Stockings in the American Association. Then in 1886, second baseman Frank Grant joined the Buffalo Bisons of the International League, the strongest minor league, and hit .340, third highest in the league. Several other black American players joined the International League the following season, including pitchers George Stovey and Robert Higgins, but 1888 was the last season black people were permitted in that or any other high minor league. Black professional baseball teams came about in 1885. The Cuban Giants were formed by merging three clubs which were named: The Keystone Athletics of Philadelphia, the Orions of Philadelphia, and the Manhattans of Washington, D.C. The Cuban Giants were successful. Later, the National Colored Base Ball League was formed. They had six teams in 1887. They were: Baltimore Lord Baltimores, Boston Resolutes, Louisville Falls Citys, New York Gorhams, Philadelphia Pythians, and Pittsburgh Keystones.
Two more joined before the season but never played a game, the Cincinnati Browns and Washington Capital Cities. The league, led by Walter S. Brown of Pittsburgh, applied for and was granted official minor league status and thus "protection" under the major league-led National Agreement. This move prevented any team in organized baseball from signing any of the NCBBL players, which also locked the players to their particular teams within the league. The reserve clause would have tied the players to their clubs from season to season but the NCBBL failed. One month into the season, the Resolutes folded. A week later, only three teams were left Some black players on white minor league teams were victims of verbal and physical abuse form both competitors and fans. The International League banned African American players in 1890 which will last until 1946. By 1896, the Page Fence Giants and the Cuban Giants played in a national championship. The Page Fence Club won 10 out of 15 games.
More all black teams existed. Frank Leland used Chicago’s black businessmen to fund the black amateur Union Base Ball Club. They played at a 5,000 seat facility at South Side Park. They became the pro team of the Chicago Unions. Andrew Foster talked about a revival of an all-black league during the early 20th century. He wanted these teams to be owned by black men. This put him in direct competition with Strong. After 1910, Foster renamed his team the Chicago American Giants to appeal to a larger fan base. During the same year, J. L. Wilkinson started the Nations traveling team. The All Nations team would eventually become one of the best-known and popular teams of the Negro leagues, called the Kansas City Monarchs.
The Negro Leagues as we know it was created after February talks came in 1920 (which was organized by Andrew Foster. He was the owner of the Chicago American Giants). The National association of Colored Professional Base Ball Clubs created the Negro National League. Their eight teams initially consisted of: Chicago American Giants, Chicago Giants, Cuban Stars, Dayton Marcos, Detroit Stars, Indianapolis ABC's, Kansas City Monarchs and St. Louis Giants. Foster was named league president and controlled every aspect of the league, including which players played on which teams, when and where teams played, and what equipment was used (all of which had to be purchased from Foster). Foster, as booking agent of the league, took a five percent cut of all gate receipts.
The golden age of the Negro Leagues lasted from 1920 to 1950. On May 2, 1920, the Indianapolis ABCs beat the Chicago American Giants (4–2) in the first game played in the inaugural season of the Negro National League, played at Washington Park in Indianapolis. But, because of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, the National Guard still occupied the Giants' home field, Schorling's Park (formerly South Side Park). This forced Foster to cancel the entire Giants' home games for almost a month and threatened to become a huge embarrassment for the league. On March 2, 1920 the Negro Southern League was founded in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1921, the Negro Southern League joined Foster's National Association of Colored Professional Base Ball Clubs. As a dues-paying member of the association, it received the same protection from raiding parties as any team in the Negro National League. In 1923, the Eastern Colored League is established by Ed Bolden, owner of the Hilldale Club, and Nat Strong, owner of the Brooklyn Royal Giants. The Eastern Colored League consists of the following six teams: Brooklyn Royal Giants, Hilldale Club, Bacharach Giants, Lincoln Giants, Baltimore Black Sox and the Cuban Stars. Foster and Bolden agreed to have an annual Negro League World Series starting in 1924. The St. Louis Stars played greatly in 1925.
They finished in second place during the second half of the year due in large part to their pitcher turned center fielder, Cool Papa Bell, and their shortstop, Willie Wells. A gas leak in his home nearly asphyxiated Rube Foster in 1926, and his increasingly erratic behavior led to him being committed to an asylum a year later. While Foster was out of the picture, the owners of the National League elected William C. Hueston as new league president. In 1927, Ed Bolden suffered a similar fate as Foster, by committing himself to a hospital because the pressure was too great. The Eastern League folded shortly after that, marking the end of the Negro League World Series between the NNL and the ECL. After the Eastern League folded following the 1927 season, a new eastern league, the American Negro League, was formed to replace it. The makeup of the new ANL was nearly the same as the Eastern League, the exception being that the Homestead Grays joined in place of the now-defunct Brooklyn Royal Giants. The ANL lasted just one season. In the face of harder economic times, the Negro National League folded after the 1931 season. Some of its teams joined the only Negro league then left, the Negro Southern League. On March 26, 1932,. the Chicago Defender announced the end of Negro National League.
Cumberland Posey and his Homestead Grays helped to revitalize the Negro League again. Posey, Charlie Walker, John Roesnik, George Rossiter, John Drew, Lloyd Thompson and L.R. Williams got together in January 1932 and founded the East-West League. Eight cities were included in the new league: "Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, Newark, New York, and Washington, D.C." By May 1932, the Detroit Wolves were about to collapse, and instead of letting the team go, Posey kept pumping money into it. By June, the Wolves had disintegrated and all the rest of the teams, except for the Grays, were beyond help, so Posey had to terminate the league. On August 6, 1931, Satchel Paige made his first appearance as a Crawford. With Paige on his team, Greenlee took a huge risk by investing $100,000 in a new ballpark to be called Greenlee Field. On opening day, April 30, 1932, the pitcher-catcher battery was made up of the two most marketable icons in all of blackball: Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson.
In 1933, Greenlee, riding the popularity of his Crawfords, became the next man to start a Negro league. In February 1933, Greenlee and delegates from six other teams met at Greenlee's Crawford Grill to ratify the constitution of the National Organization of Professional Baseball Clubs. The name of the new league was the same as the old league Negro National League which had disbanded a year earlier in 1932. The members of the new league were the Pittsburgh Crawfords, Columbus Blue Birds, Indianapolis ABCs, Baltimore Black Sox, Brooklyn Royal Giants, Cole's American Giants (formerly the Chicago American Giants) and Nashville Elite Giants. Greenlee also came up with the idea to duplicate the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, except, unlike the big league method in which the sportswriters chose the players, the fans voted for the participants. The first game, known as the East-West All-Star Game, was held September 10, 1933, at Comiskey Park in Chicago before a crowd of 20,000.
By 1937, Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard help the Homestead Grays begin its nine-year streak as champions of the Negro National League.
Many Negro League players fought World War II overseas. While many players were over 30 and considered "too old" for service, Monte Irvin, Larry Doby and Leon Day of Newark; Ford Smith, Hank Thompson, Joe Greene, Willard Brown and Buck O'Neil of Kansas City; Lyman Bostock of Birmingham; and Lick Carlisle and Howard Easterling of Homestead all served. By this time, millions of African Americans supported the Negro Leagues. The Negro World Series came back in 1942. This time it was pitting the winners of the eastern Negro National League and Midwestern Negro American League. It continued through 1948 with the NNL winning four championships and the NAL three. In 1946, Saperstein partnered with Owens to form another Negro League, the West Coast Baseball Association (WCBA); Saperstein was league president and Owens was vice-president and the owner of the league's Portland (Oregon) Rosebuds franchise. The WCBA disbanded after only two months.
The end of the 1940’s saw the integration of major league baseball. This came in 1947 when Jackie Robinson played in the majors for the Brooklyn Dodgers. White majors planned this since March 1945 via their Major League Committee on Baseball Integration (with members like Joseph P. Rainey, Larry MacPhail, and Branch Rickey). Jackie Robinson once played for the Negro League team of the Kansas City Monarchs. He played 47 games as a shortstop and registered 13 stolen bases and hit .387 with five home runs. Satchel Paige played in the Negro Leagues too. He was one of the greatest pitchers in history. He was in the Mobile Tigers in 1924. He played for the Negro League team of the Chattanooga Black Lookouts in 1926. He played in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. Paige once described his technique as: "I got bloopers, loopers and droppers. I got a jump ball, a be ball, a screw ball, a wobbly ball, a whipsy-dipsy-do, a hurry-up ball, a nothin' ball and a bat dodger. My be ball is a be ball 'cause it 'be' right were I want it, high and inside. It wiggles like a worm. Some I throw with my knuckles, some with two fingers. My whips-dipsy-do is a special fork ball I throw underhand and sidearm that slithers and sinks. I keep my thumb off the ball and use three fingers. The middle finger sticks up high, like a bent fork." In between seasons, Paige organized the “Satchel Paige All-Stars.” New York Yankess player Joe DiMaggio once said that Paige was “the best and fastest pitcher I ever faced.”
By 1942, Paige was the highest-paid African-American baseball player. Six years later, in 1948, Paige became the oldest rookie in Major League Baseball. Josh Gibson played in the Negro leagues and was one of the greatest power hitters and catchers in baseball history. Gibson made his debut in the Negro Baseball Leagues by playing for the Homestead Grays. Soon after, he played for the Pittsburgh Crawfords. He also played in the Dominican Republic for Ciudad Trujillo and the Mexican League for Rojos del Aguila de Veracruz. Gibson also served as the manager of the Santurce Crabbers, a team affiliated with the Puerto Rico Baseball League. In 1972, Gibson was the second player to be inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He passed away from a stroke in 1947. He was born in December 21, 1911 in Georgia. He moved with his family to Pittsburgh as a result of the Great Migration.
By 1948, the Dodgers, along with Veeck's Cleveland Indians had integrated. The Negro leagues also "integrated" around the same time, as Eddie Klep became the first white man to play for the Cleveland Buckeyes during the 1946 season. These moves came despite strong opposition from the owners; Rickey was the only one of the 16 owners to support integrating the sport in January 1947. Chandler's decision to overrule them may have been a factor in his ouster in 1951 in favor of Ford Frick. Some want the Negro League to merge into organize baseball as developmental leagues for black players. Later, that idea was ended. Many players came into MLB. Ironically, the Negro Leagues ended in part because of the growth of integration. After the 1948 season, the Negro national League ended. So the Negro American League was the only "major" Negro League operating in 1949. Within two years it had been reduced to minor league caliber and it played its last game in 1958. The last All-Star game was held in 1962, and by 1966 the Indianapolis Clowns were the last Negro league team still playing. The Clowns continued to play exhibition games into the 1980's, but as a humorous sideshow rather than a competitive sport. The Negro Leagues existed in eras. They grew and end in a specific time frame. For example, the Negro National League lasted from 1920 to 1931. The Eastern Colored League lasted from 1923 to 1928. The American Negro League was created in 1929 and lasted for one season. The East-West League lasted only in 1932. The Negro Southern League existed from 1931 to 1931 as a major league (it existed as a minor league from the year of 1920 to the 1940’s). The Negro National League again lasted from 1933 to 1948. The Negro American League lasted from 1937 to 1960.
Many Negro League players were inducted into the Hall of Fame too. In his Baseball Hall of Fame induction speech in 1966, Ted Williams made a strong plea for inclusion of Negro league stars in the Hall. After the publication of Robert Peterson's landmark book Only the Ball was White in 1970, the Hall of Fame found itself under renewed pressure to find a way to honor Negro league players who would have been in the Hall had they not been barred from the major leagues due to the color of their skin. Satchel Paige was inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971, followed by (in alphabetical order) Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston, Martín Dihigo, Josh Gibson, Monte Irvin, Judy Johnson, Buck Leonard and John Henry Lloyd. (Of the nine, only Irvin and Paige spent any time in the major leagues.) The Veterans Committee later selected Ray Dandridge, as well as choosing Rube Foster on the basis of meritorious service.
Other members of the Hall who played in both the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball are Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Roy Campanella, Larry Doby, Willie Mays, and Jackie Robinson. Except for Doby, their play in the Negro leagues was a minor factor in their selection: Aaron, Banks, and Mays played in Negro leagues only briefly and after the leagues had declined with the migration of many black players to the integrated minor leagues; Campanella (1969) and Robinson (1962) were selected before the Hall began considering performance in the Negro leagues. From 1995 to 2001, the Hall made a renewed effort to honor luminaries from the Negro leagues, one each year. There were seven selections: Leon Day, Bill Foster, Bullet Rogan, Hilton Smith, Turkey Stearnes, Willie Wells, and Smokey Joe Williams.
In February 2006, a committee of twelve baseball historians elected 17 more people from black baseball to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, twelve players and five executives. Hank Aaron was the last Negro league player to hold a regular position in Major League Baseball. On June 5, 2008, Major League Baseball held a special draft of the surviving Negro league players to acknowledge and rectify their exclusion from the major leagues on the basis of race. The idea of the special draft was conceived by Hall of Famer Dave Winfield. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is located in the 18th and Vine District in Kansas City, Missouri. On July 17, 2010, the U.S. Postal Service issued se-tenant pair of 44-cent U.S. commemorative postage, to honor the all-black professional baseball leagues that operated from 1920 to about 1960. The stamps were formally issued at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, during the celebration of the museum's twentieth anniversary. One of the stamps depicts Rube Foster.
Women in Baseball
Women have always played baseball for a long time. There were women baseball teams back during the 19th century too. Women colleges have women baseball teams in New York and New England back in the mid-nineteenth century. There were teams formed at Vassar College, Smith College, Wellesley College, and Mount Holyoke College. Women baseball teams started at Vassar College in 1866. Back in 1867, an African American women’s baseball team called the Philadelphia Dolly Vardens was created. There were many women’s barnstorming teams and many women played alongside major league players in exhibition games. By September 11, 1875, there was the first women’s baseball game for which fans were charged and women players were paid (between the Blondes and the Brunettes in Springfield, Illinois). The Resolutes, modeled after the Vassar College team, developed their own version of uniforms which included: long sleeved shirts with frilled high neckline, embroidered belts, wide floor length skirts, high button shoes and broad striped caps back in 1876. In 1898, Lizzie Arlington became the first woman to sign a professional baseball contract and she signed with the Philadelphia Reserves. The U.S. baseball national anthem, “Take me out to the ball game,” was inspired by and written about a young girl’s love of the game from 1908. In 1928, Mary Gisolo joined the nationwide American Legion Junior Baseball Program and she helped to lead Blanford Cubs to the Indiana state title. On April 2, 1931, 17-year-old Jackie Mitchell (originally known as "Virne Beatrice Mitchell Gilbert") of the Chattanooga Lookouts, struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game. Commissioner of Baseball Kenesaw Mountain Landis voided her contract as a result. The voiding of her contract is a total example of sexism. Olympic hero Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias pitched exhibition games for the Athletics, Cardinals, and Indians back in 1934. Eulalia Gonzales became the first Cuban woman to play baseball in U.S. She played with the Racine Belles in 1947.
In 1946, former player Edith Houghton became the first woman to work as an independent scout in Major League Baseball when she was hired by the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League. In 1989, NBC's Gayle Gardner became the first woman to regularly host Major League Baseball games for a major television network. In 2015, Jessica Mendoza was the first female analyst for a Major League Baseball game in the history of ESPN. Margaret Donahue was the first female front office executive in Major League Baseball who was not an owner. By the 1890’s more women played sports in America. There was the popularization of bicycles back then. The Boston Bloomer Girls baseball club was a successful women’s baseball group. The Bloomer Girls toured America in 1897. The press called them as the “champion women’s club of the world.” One pitcher form the team was Maud Nelson. She had great skill. Some of them included male players during 1907-1908. The Boston Bloomers were innovative. By the 1920’s, more women amateur and semi-pro baseball 'teams existed. Some played for all men teams. Perhaps the best known young woman playing baseball in the early 1920;s was Rhode Island's Lizzie Murphy.
As first baseman, she played for the Providence (RI) Independents, and was praised by newspaper reporters for her fielding skills. Sportswriters said she was every bit as talented as a player (who was a man), and noted that she was paid $300 a week, more than many minor league players of the 1920's received. Murphy, who had begun playing baseball when she was only ten, had dreams of becoming a major league player, but she was not able to achieve that goal. She was, however, able to have a long career in the semi-pro leagues, leading a touring team that played all over the eastern United States. According to newspaper accounts, she developed a loyal following, with numerous fans who came out to watch her and her team play. Lizzie Murphy's baseball career lasted from 1918 to 1935, and included one charity exhibition game in which she was part of a team of all-stars who played against the Boston Red Sox. While Murphy was perhaps the best-known woman playing for an all-male team in the 1920's, there was at least one other woman athlete whose abilities included playing baseball. Philadelphia's Betty Schenkel not only played baseball with the boys during high school, but she was said to be adept in other sports, including basketball, soccer, and cycling.
The image on the left shows the women's baseball league during World War II. The image of the right show the softball African American women team called the Owls (of the 1930's).
During World War II, many men baseball players were drafted like Ted Williams, Stan Musial, and Joe DiMaggio. Many wanted ideas to increase the players in the league since many players were gone off to war. The owner of the Chicago Cubs back then was Philip K. Wrigley. He created a committee to come up with ideas to keep baseball financially afloat during the war. The result of that committee was the organization of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which operated from 1943 to 1954. At the height of its popularity, it had teams in twelve cities. One of the most successful of the teams in the league was the Rockford (IL) Peaches, which won four championships. The Peaches, and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, were commemorated in a 1992 movie, "A League of Their Own," starring Geena Davis. In 1946, Sophie Kurys set the stolen base record for the AAGPBL with 201 stolen bases in 203 attempts; this record continues to be unequaled in baseball history, as Ricky Henderson is 2nd in stolen bases with 130 (1982). During the 1950’s, black women whose names are: Toni Stone, Connie Morgan, and Mamie “Peanuts” Johnson played on men’s professional teams in the Negro Leagues. Yet, they weren’t allowed to play in the AAGPBL because they are African Americans. That was wrong. By June 23, 1953, the major leagues banned women from playing in the minor leagues. The ban continues to this day unfortunately. Pam Postema umpired in Class A Florida State League from 1979 to 1980. In 1988, American Women’s Baseball Association (AWBA) founded in Chicago. That was the first organized women’s league since AAGPBL (1943-1954). Also, 6 players from the AWBA were extras in the movie “A League of Their Own.” Julie Croteau played semi-pro baseball for the Fredericksburg Giants of the Virginia Baseball League in 1988.
In 2008, Eri Yoshida, at 16 years old, became Japan's first professional girl teenager baseball player to play in a men's league by signing a professional contract with a new Japanese independent league. In April 2010, she signed a contract with the Chico Outlaws, becoming the first woman to play professionally in two countries. In 2009, Justine Siegal became the first female coach of a men's professional baseball team. In 2011, she was the first woman to throw batting practice to a MLB team, the Cleveland Indians at spring training. She also threw BP to the Oakland Athletics, Tampa Bay Rays, St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Astros, and New York Mets. In 2015, Justine Siegal became the Oakland Athletics guest instructor for their Instructional League Club, thus making her the first female coach in major league baseball history. For one day in May 2016, Jennie Finch was a guest manager for the Atlantic League's Bridgeport Bluefish, thus becoming the first woman to manage a professional baseball team. The team played and won one game on that day.
In 2008, Mamie "Peanut" Johnson was drafted (at age 72) by the Washington Nationals in a special Negro leagues honorary draft that preceded 2008 Major League Baseball draft, marking the first time a woman was draft in the MLB's yearly new player draft. NBC’s Gayle Gardner was the first woman to regularly host Major League Baseball games for a major TV network on 1989. Lesley Visser was the first woman to cover the World Series on 1990. By August 3, 1993, Gayle Gardner was the first woman to do television play by play for a Major League Baseball game. By 1995, Hannah Storm on NBC was the first woman to serve as solo host a World Series game and the first woman to preside over the World Series Trophy presentation. On August 24, 2015, Jessica Mendoza was the first female analyst for a Major League Baseball game in the history of ESPN, during a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Arizona Diamondbacks. John Kruk, Dan Shulman and Jessica Mendoza called the 2015 American League Wild Card Game on October 6, 2015, and Mendoza became the first female analyst in MLB postseason history. There is evidence that at least one woman, Amanda Clement, was umpiring semi-professional games as early as 1905. Also, women and people of every sex and color play softball to this very day as well. Softball include women in diverse leagues in our time as well.
The first woman to umpire a professional game was Bernice Gera. A former Little League coach and a passionate fan of baseball, she entered umpiring school in 1967 (the first woman ever to attend the Fort Lauderdale Baseball School). After a lengthy court battle with major league baseball, she finally won the right to umpire. Her first pro game was in the minor leagues in June 1972—a game between the Auburn Phillies and Geneva Rangers in the New York-Penn League, but after several disputed calls, she decided to resign and never umpired another professional game. The first woman to own a baseball team was Helene Hathaway Britton, who owned the St. Louis Cardinals National League baseball team from 1911 through 1916. On 2003, Women’s baseball became an official sport (39th) of the AAU. This marks the first time in U.S. history that a U.S. national organization began sanctioning and supporting women’s baseball. USA Baseball sanctioned the first official national women’s baseball team. The women's baseball team competed in the 2004 WWS (in Japan) and in the 2004 Women’s World Cup of Baseball from 2004. Tiffany Brooks becomes the first woman in the U.S. to sign a pro baseball contract in the 21st Century. She signed with the Big Bend Cowboys of the independent Continental Baseball League on 2010. Margaret Donahue was the first female front office executive in Major League Baseball who was not an owner. She worked for the Chicago Cubs from 1919 to 1958 and introduced marketing concepts such as the season ticket and reduced prices for children under 12, both still used in the 2000's.
Since then, many women have held executive positions in business and financial areas of Major League Baseball. One woman who has a position in player personnel at the Major League level is Kim Ng. She first worked for the Chicago White Sox, where she successfully presented an arbitration case. After working for the American League as director of waivers and records, she was hired as Assistant GM by the New York Yankees. When she left the Yankees in 2001 for the same position with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Yankees hired another woman to replace her, Jean Afterman. Afterman still holds the same position as of July 2015. Kim Ng has since moved on to work for Major League Baseball as Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations.
Hall of Fame Legends
Hall of Fame Baseball Legends are very numerous. Hank Aaron was one Hall of Fame legend. Hank Aaron won more home runs than any player in American history. Hank Aaron played for years in the MLB and in the Negro League. He was born in Mobile, Alabama. He played as a right fielder. He played for the Atlanta Braves and the Milwaukee Brewers. He was a 25 time All-Star. He was a MLB World Series champion in 1957. He was a 2 time NL batting champion and he was a 4 time NL RBI leader. He had 755 home runs and runs batted in by the number of 2,297. Aaron received death threats before he broke Babe Ruth’s previous records, but Hank Aaron broke it courageously. Recently, Hank Aaron has expressed support for Kaepernick's cause of fighting racial injustice and the evil of police brutality.
Another Hall of Fame baseball legend was Babe Ruth who lived from 1895 to 1948. He was one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. He was a slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees and then played as a left handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He played first for the Boston Red Sox, then for the NY Yankees from 1920-1934, and ended with the Boston Braves in 1935. He was one of the first five people to be part of the Baseball Hall of Fame just one year after he retired on 1936. He was a 2 time All-Star. He won the World Series seven times (in 1915, 1916, 1918, 1923, 1927, 1928, and 1932). He was an AL batting champion in 1924. He was a 12 time home run leader and he was part of the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. He had 714 home runs, 2,873 hits, and a batting average of .342 which was excellent especially back then. He supported American efforts to defeat the Nazis during World War II and he passed away of esophageal cancer. Babe Ruth was an early American superstar athlete.
Willie Mays was one of the greatest players in baseball history. Today, he is 87 year old. He was born in Westfield, Alabama. When he was in high school, he played football and basketball as well. Willie Mays played in the Negro Leagues before he came into the MLB. He played for both the San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets too in his later career. By 1954, he won the World Series. Mays is known as a man who traveled the world, is a people person, and has a blessed life. He continues to motivate others and inspire present and future generations. He is a Hall of Famer and a man whose accomplishments always make the point that baseball is a game with monumental reach.
Roberto Clemente was one of the most influential baseball Hall of Famers in history. He was born in Puerto Rico and was an inspiration to baseball fans. He was an American Afro-Latino who was in the Marines too. He was a famous right fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973, becoming the first Latin American and Caribbean player to be enshrined. Clemente was an All-Star for twelve seasons, playing in fifteen All-Star Games. He was the NL Most Valuable Player in 1966, the NL batting leader in 1961, 1964, 1965, and 1967, and a Gold Glove Award winner for twelve consecutive seasons from 1961 through 1972. His batting average was over .300 for thirteen seasons and he had 3,000 hits during his major league career. He also played in two World Series championships. Clemente is the first Latin American and Caribbean player to help win a World Series as a starter (1960), to receive an NL MVP Award (1966), and to receive a World Series MVP Award (1971). Clemente was married in 1964. Later, he and his wife had three children. He was involved in charity work in Latin American and Caribbean countries during the off-seasons, often delivering baseball equipment and food to those in need. He experienced racism and he always stood up heroically for humanity. On December 31, 1972, he died in a plane crash while en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. He was 38 years old. Roberto Clemente was not only a baseball player. He was an activist too. He will always be remembered.
Cultural Influence
The cultural impact of baseball in America and worldwide is huge. Baseball has grown large in America. Parks, playgrounds, and other stadiums harbor strong representations of baseball activities. Cuba, Japan, and the Dominican Republic have a powerful baseball culture too. The city of San Pedro de Macoris has been the major leagues’ large source of talent from the Dominican Republic from the 1980's. In 2017, 83 of the 868 players on MLB Opening Day rosters (and disabled lists) were from the country of the Dominican Republic. Among other Caribbean countries and territories, a combined 97 MLB players were born in Venezuela, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Hall-of-Famer Roberto Clemente remains one of the greatest national heroes in Puerto Rico's history. While baseball has long been the island's primary athletic pastime, its once well-attended professional winter league has declined in popularity since 1990, when young Puerto Rican players began to be included in the major leagues' annual first-year player draft. In Asia, baseball is among the most popular sports in Japan and South Korea. Today, many blue collar Americans love baseball. Attendance of baseball games is very high. In 2008, Major League Baseball set a revenue record of $6.5 billion, matching the NFL's revenue for the first time in decades. A new MLB revenue record of more than $10 billion was set in 2017. Baseball cards existed since the late 19th century and they continue today. When I was child during the 1990’s, I had baseball cards. Fantasy baseball has been played by adults in America and worldwide too. Movies, plays, and commercial readily feature baseball players or the culture of baseball in general.
Conclusion
For over 150 years, baseball has captivated the consciousness of people internationally. Constant evolution, stories, and other aspects of society relate to it. Its roots stretch for centuries and its modern manifestation has garnered wide spread acclaim. Baseball readily includes magnificent legends from Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, and to Hank Aaron. Jackie Robinson used courage to not only break down the color barrier, but to defend civil rights in public. Hank Aaron has more home runs than any baseball player in history and advances the cause of social justice as well in our time. It is a sport about the powerful competition that is thoroughly found in action packed stadiums worldwide. So, baseball is a game on the move. Not to mention that baseball has been played by human beings of every race, color, creed, sex, and background. Women have had a very important role in baseball as players and other contributors to the greatness of the game. Youth constantly enjoy baseball in fields, backyards, school playgrounds, and near recreation centers all of the time. African Americans additionally have played the game of baseball from the Negro Leagues to the MLB. Many black people (back then and currently) have experienced racism and other pernicious obstacles, but those repugnant evils never stifled glorious black excellence in any dimension.
Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson transcended the sport in numerous ways including Toni Stone plus Mamie Johnson. The power of black human resiliency is always inspiring and purely exquisite. The Latinx community (as found all over America, and Latin America) have always have a special, intimate bond with baseball socially and culturally from Alex Rodriquez, Albert Pujols, and to other people. RBIs, batting averages, and home runs define the game in many quantitative ways. Yet, baseball encompasses all of the grit of play, an athletic journey for victory, and the incredible power of its legendary influence. During this time of the year, the baseball season is in full swing and the same creed of human liberation is what we adhere to wholeheartedly.
By Timothy
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