  Urbanoutdoors Member Username: Urbanoutdoors Post Number: 190 Registered: 11-2005 |
I have always been bothered by the lack of non-school organized sports within the inner-city. With all the great green space in the city there should be much more than just PAL and Rosedale grandmont. I think that Detroit has a chance to set a standard in sports using them to build stronger communities. What can be done to spur more inner city leagues? (Message edited by Urbanoutdoors on April 15, 2007) | ||
Urbanoutdoors Member Username: Urbanoutdoors Post Number: 191 Registered: 11-2005 |
I know you guys are gonna slam me for my misspelling of anniversary. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 1335 Registered: 01-2005 |
Not me. But capitalize the D in Detroit, will ya????  | ||
Urbanoutdoors Member Username: Urbanoutdoors Post Number: 192 Registered: 11-2005 |
Good call fixed it. | ||
Jelk Member Username: Jelk Post Number: 4327 Registered: 10-2003 |
Volunteer with Think Detroit/PAL or the Rosedale leagues. To speak to the title of this thread...the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut should provide everyone who claims to be interested in baseball another opportunity to learn about this extraordinary man and ball player. His memoir "I Never Had It Made" is a great place to start. Roger Kahn's chapter about Jackie Robinson in "Boys of Summer" is another excellent source. The integration of Major League Baseball is really the beginning point for the post-WWII activist civil rights movement. Brown and Montgomery would follow. I don't think it is at all an exaggeration to rank Jackie Robinson with Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King, Jr in importance to the changing of race relations. Let's not forget Jackie Robinson has a spectacular Major League career. He finished his playing days with an .873 OPS, an 84% stolen base success rate, 947 runs in 1382 games, and just 291 strike outs to 740 walks. That last number is remarkable for any ballplayer but especially so for Jackie Robinson because I doubt he got many close pitches called his way. Oh and and baseball was his weakest sport. He was far better at football, basketball, and track. Keith Olbermann was right when he declared Jackie Robinson the greatest athlete of the 20th century. Jackie Robinson legacy didn't end when he retired from baseball after 1956. He went on to become an executive with the Chock-Full-Of-Nuts lunch counter chain, he was a political adviser to Nelson Rockefeller, a national fund-raiser for the NAACP, and he helped found a community bank in Harlem. We should wear number 42 today. | ||
Patrick Member Username: Patrick Post Number: 4228 Registered: 10-2003 |
Too bad no one cares about Josh Gibson | ||
Urbanoutdoors Member Username: Urbanoutdoors Post Number: 193 Registered: 11-2005 |
Well Gibson and Roy Campenella are my two favorite players of all time but I may be a little bias since I was a catcher. | ||
Patrick Member Username: Patrick Post Number: 4230 Registered: 10-2003 |
Jimmie Foxx made a push to get Josh Gibson signed but it had no effect. | ||
Jelk Member Username: Jelk Post Number: 4328 Registered: 10-2003 |
I'm not sure how honoring Jackie Robinson is a sign that "no body" cares about Josh Gibson...or Satchel Paige...or Oscar Charleston...or Rube Foster...or Moses Fleetwood Walker...or Bud Fowler...or Cool Papa Bell...or Buck Leonard...or Turkey Stearnes. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 5220 Registered: 11-2003 |
Now Cool Papa Bell ran so fast that he could turn the switch and get into bed before the lights went off. The Negros Leagues Museum in Kansas City is well worth the time. It is a great little museum. Jackie Robinson felt tremendous bigotry towards him. Pause and think about how far we've come in pro and amateur sports. jjaba. | ||
Maxcarey Member Username: Maxcarey Post Number: 88 Registered: 07-2006 |
Now Cool Papa Bell ran so fast that he could turn the switch and get into bed before the lights went off. That's actually a true story. The way Satchel Paige (and later Buck O'Neill) told it was that there was a short in the light switch that allowed Bell to get into bed literally before the room got dark. I also like the one that said he was so fast that he was hit in the head rounding second on his own line drive up the middle. | ||
Eric_w Member Username: Eric_w Post Number: 112 Registered: 02-2007 |
Pretty cool some teams were allowed to have all they're players wear 42 in memory of the day. Seems these days baseball has fell way off in popularity in the inner-cities. I believe only 8% of major leaguers are American born black players-way down from before. It would be great to get kids into organized sports-it would give them an outlet and sports does teach a little about life. Growing up in the 60's & early 70's there were many great players-Aaron,,Mays Lou Brock ( glad he didn't slide in game 5 ) Ernie Banks,Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins,Bob Gibson,Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson-it's a long list. One former athletic club on Detroit's west side had a motto: "Boys in sports stay out of court!" | ||
The_rock Member Username: The_rock Post Number: 1704 Registered: 11-2003 |
I had a tour of Comerica Park last Wed night while the team was on the road, and the security guard pointed out that Robinson's number 42 is now posted on the wall with the numbers (and names) of Tiger legends. I thought he said that all the ball parks have agreed to honor him in this way. No name, just his number. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 5222 Registered: 11-2003 |
Yes, Rock. All MLB and minor league parks have a #42 on the wall somewhere. 200 MLB players on Sunday wore #42 honoring Robinson's 60th anniversary. Maxcarey, thanks for that great second Cool Papa Bell Story. Getting hit by your own batted ball rounding second base is pretty funny. That cat was fast, eh. jjaba, Tigers Fan. | ||
Patrick Member Username: Patrick Post Number: 4233 Registered: 10-2003 |
Or Smoky Joe Williams, or Double-Duty Radcliffe, or Jud Wilson or Hilton Smith…none of these guys get any recognition. Hell, they’ll honor Clark C. Griffith before these guys….oh yeah, they’ll have the token Negro League day where the teams all wear vintage uniforms. That’s about it. | ||
The_rock Member Username: The_rock Post Number: 1706 Registered: 11-2003 |
Hey jjaba---Who was the Tigers' first black ball player? Most say it was Larry Doby on a trade with Cleveland. I thought it was Coot Veal. I remember both. I'll stick with Coot. | ||
Jelk Member Username: Jelk Post Number: 4330 Registered: 10-2003 |
Patrick were you dead during last summer's induction ceremony at Cooperstown? | ||
65memories Member Username: 65memories Post Number: 384 Registered: 10-2003 |
The_rock: Ozzie Virgil http://info.detnews.com/histor y/story/index.cfm?id=53&catego ry=sports | ||
Patrick Member Username: Patrick Post Number: 4234 Registered: 10-2003 |
They still never get the full credit they deserve and it is a damn shame. | ||
Jelk Member Username: Jelk Post Number: 4331 Registered: 10-2003 |
They will never get the full credit they deserve because they were never allowed to play in the Major Leagues. Racism leaves a nasty legacy on all things it touches, thanks for sharing that brilliant insight Patrick. I don't exactly seeing Major League Baseball going out of it's way to remember Henie Manush or Sam Crawford either. Which brings us back to why any of that has to do with Jackie Robinson? Because of the extraordinary person that was Jackie Robinson baseball was integrated. Because of Jackie Robinson, Roy Campenella, Ernie Banks, Frank Robinson, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Reggie Jackson, Bob Gibson, etc, etc do receive the credit they deserve. I suppose a few other people could have done what Jackie Robinson did in 1947 but not many. Why diminish the greatest accomplishment of a man who made so many great accomplishments in a life that was far too short? Why do you object to celebrating Jackie Robinson? | ||
Janesback Member Username: Janesback Post Number: 310 Registered: 08-2006 |
Its great that sports now include black, asian, hispanic, jew, and every other nationality to be inclusive Hopefully we can get rid of homophobes like Tim Hardaway and his demeaning comments he made about gays and include them as well. Sports should be inclusive to everyone one, regardless of race, color , creed ,gender and sexual preference..... | ||
The_rock Member Username: The_rock Post Number: 1707 Registered: 11-2003 |
Thanks for the info '65. I guess I am splitting hairs, as I thought Coot signed with the Tigers' organization in the early 50's, though Ozzie actually beat him taking to the field in 1958. So in theory, at least, the Cooter was a Tiger before Virgil, but it appears he rode the bench for a while. | ||
Douglasm Member Username: Douglasm Post Number: 815 Registered: 10-2003 |
Coot's debut with the Tigers was July 30th, 1958. Ozzie beat him by almost 2 months, appearing on June 6th of the same year. Besides, I thought Coot was white.... | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 5223 Registered: 11-2003 |
jjaba confirming Ozzie Virgil, 1958. That's what the records say but racial designations are always tricky. Guys played who called themselves Cuban, or Puerto Rican. Although American segregation was nasty as hell, it wasn't exactly Apartheid around the Leagues. Minnie Minoso, the great Chicago White Sox player, was Cuban as example. The Detroit Tigers have a well-documented history of being the last to integrate on many levels. jjaba was recently in Dominican Republic. Almost all MLB teams have training centers there. 13% of MLB players hail from there. Without integration of baseball, this could never have happened. Kids are taught early to become free swingers, "Nobody ever walks off the island." jjaba. | ||
Jelk Member Username: Jelk Post Number: 4333 Registered: 10-2003 |
Second to last. The Red Sox were the slowest to integrate their roster. Interestingly the Celtics would be pioneers in hiring African-American coaches when Bill Russell replaced Red Auerbach on the Celtics bench. | ||
The_rock Member Username: The_rock Post Number: 1708 Registered: 11-2003 |
This week's TIME magazine has an article on Robinson , but the article goes on to discuss the vastly declining number of black baseball players now playing in the major leagues which they say is only 8%. Their explanation is that black Americans "don't want to"..and are no longer "attracted to the game". |
