Here's to the Sea Lions and....

 6/8

San Francisco Sea Lions

With the Warriors still in the NBA Finals, I decided to stick with the Bay Area for my weekly hats off/hats on…

We’ve previously explored Negro League baseball team like the great Homestead Grays, Pittsburgh Crawfords, Kansas City Monarchs and New York Cubans. Today we head to the west coast and the little known San Francisco Sea Lions. They had one year, 1946.  And like many Negro League teams, had a name reminiscent of their white counterparts the

Pacific League San Francisco Seals.

But here’s the back story. In 2007, our family took a west coast college trip to look for a Schoo for our middle son. We flew to Seattle, made a stop in Portland and drove to San Francisco.  On August 16th, we went to the second most beautiful ballpark in the country, then known as Pac Bell, to see my hometown favorite Pittsburgh Pirates play the Giants. The shirt was a giveaway for African American Heritage night. The hat I had to track down later. 

This was also the summer of Barry Bonds pursuit of Hank Aaron’s home run record. This night, Bonds would hit a homer and the Pirates come back for 6 down in the 8th to win. Perfect in every way. Villainainized almost everywhere else because of his purported steroid use, Bonds was much loved in San Francisco. (“No surprise there” says Clyde.) With for memories of Bonds as a rising young star in Pittsburgh and the team that came within one out of the World Series, I still was a Bonds fan.

Some  local company  distributed cards for to be redeemed for a pin bearing a number when Bonds homered. So before heading to the airport we stoped to collect our “Bonds 758”  pins. One may still be in a box somewhere. He would end with 762. And I would love to see him in the Hall of Fame. 

So hats on for the San Francisco Sea Lions and hats off for Barry Bonds. And go Warriors….

Remembering the New York Cubans

 2/16

New York Cubans

This week for Black History month we’ve got the New York Cubans of the Negro Leagues. One of may favorite jerseys with classic Depression era graphics and adoption of the New York Giants cap logo. The Cubans were to the Giants as the Black Yankees were to the Bronx Bombers. And are one of the two teams the Mets throw back to, the other being the Brooklyn Royal Giants. 

The Cubans were born in 1899 as a barnstorming Hispanic team traveling cross country and playing mainly against Negro League teams. In 1905 they were invited to join organized Negro League baseball and played consistently through 1930 when they folded. Internal squabbles also led to a split between East and West traveling squads. 

The  Cubans were reborn in 1935 sharing Hinchcliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey with the Black Yankees. So for a time in the ’30’s, Paterson was at the epicenter of Black baseball. They would ultimately joint the Giants at the Polo Grounds. In 1941, Petrucho Cepeda, father of San Francisco Giant great Orlando Cepeda, became the first Puerto Rican to join the Cubans.

In 1947, with a roster with the likes of Luis Tiant Sr, Martin Dihigo and Minnie Minoso the Cubans won their only championship against the Cleveland Buckeyes. My jersey is number 17, Martin Dihigo’s number. Dihigo was nicknamed El Inmortal, the Immortal, and starred as both a hitter and a pitcher. He fled Cuba during the Batista era and returned after  the triumph of the revolution serving as Cuba’s Minister of Sport for decades. Dihigo is just one of two players to be inducted to the American, Cuban, Mexican, Dominican Republic and Venezuelan Baseball Halls of Fame.

I remember Minnie Minoso from my childhood. He was the first latino in the major leagues and the first Black player signed by the Chicago White Sox. He was to the Sox what Ernie Banks was to the Cubs and is honored by a statue at the White Sox stadium. He was the  third player to get a major league hit after age 50 and only the second to play in five decades making one last appearance in 1980. Minoso has been elected to the US, Mexican and Cuban baseball halls of fame.

So, today, hats off …and on…to the New York Cubans…

Black History Month 1: The New York Black Yankees

 

2/2

The Black Yankees

Well, even though yesterday was Ground Hog Day, I don’t really have anything to match up with that so for this week's meeting of my conversation group, I decide to honor Black History Month. And having covered other teams, today I want to look at the New York Black Yankees. 

Born in 1931as the Harlem Stars, one of their two main owners  was the great entertainer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. While they would ultimately follow their white namesakes to the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium, they played their home games at a number of other interesting places including the Dyckman Oval in northern Manhattan and Hinchcliff Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey.  Recently there has been a major fund drive to restore Hinchcliff as a landmark of the Negro Leagues era. In the waning years of the Negro Leagues, post integration, they played their final years at RedWings Stadium in Rochester. 

Their most intriguing home was the Hebrew Orphan Asylum on 138th and Amsterdam, across from the City College of New York, once known as the Harvard of the Working Class. In the early 20’s, a deal was struck whereby the New York Yankees would buy the Asylum to build their new stadium on the grounds and the  Asylum would move to the Bronx.  The deal however, fell through . The Yankees instead moved to the Bronx to create the House that Ruth built and the rest is history.  The Asylum closed in 1941.

Only once did the Black Yankees come close to winning a title losing to the Philadelphia Stars. Their most famous player was pitcher Satchel Paige who played for most of the famous Negro teams at one point or another. 

Their logo bore a striking similarity to the white Yankees logo, though with no flourishes.  The Brooklyn Eagles, playing at Ebbets Field, would oddly wear the same hat logo. The  hat is paired with a 1935 era Back Yankees “utility” shirt. 

So for todays, hats off and hats on to the New York Black Yankees.

Remembering Buck O'Neill and the Kansas City Monarchs

 1/18

Buck O'Neill and the Kansas City Monarchs

I wanted to have this week’s theme for hats on(off)  to reflect Martin Luther King Jr’s commemoration theme.  I first looked at how the NFL teams in last weekend’s playoffs wore pullover hats declaring JUSTICE EQUITY OPPORTUNITY. 

Steelers Cap

(I had tried to get a Steelers one but they were sold out…). I then related how MLK day has long been a special day for the NBA  with special day games and uniforms.  The Memphis Grizzlies, e.g. had a jersey with a font inspired by the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis whee King delivers his last speech. 

Grizzlies "I am a man" jersey

And the Atlanta Hawks have a jersey bearing Kings’ MLK initials. 

Hawks MLK jersey

Having none of these  available, I decided to honor Buck O’Neil and the Kansas City Monarchs of Negro League baseball fame. The Monarchs were the longest lasting Negro league team stretching from 1920-1965. They rosters included such legendary players as Satchel Paige snd Ernie Banks.  They were Jackie Robinson’s last team before the Dodgers and the Yankees’ first Black player, Elston Howard, had been a Monarch. In fact, following integration, the Monarchs were the  single greatest conduit from the Negro Leagues to Major League Baseball. And of course, the Monarchs were Buck O’ Neil’s team.

O’Neil spent his entire playing career with the Monarchs from  1938-1955. He would then go on to be baseball’s first Black coach with the Chicago Cubs and later serve the Cubs as  the first MLB Black scout. He was responsible for bringing Ernie (Let’s play two, Mr.Cub) Banks to the team from the Monarchs.

 On July 17, 2006, At age 94, Buck signed a one day contract with the independent American Association Kansas City (Kansas) T-Bones in an effort to be the oldest player to appear in a professional baseball game. He led off, drew an intentional walk and then “retired.” Later that year, following  his death, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  And in 2021, finally elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was instrumental in  the creation of Kansas City’s Negro  League Museum .

The T-Bones have now been renamed the Kansas City Monarchs in honor of the original Monarchs, 

Today’s hat’s off to the Kansas City Monarchs. The hat (on) is a 1945 Monarch hat (Jackie Robinson’s year) paired with a Buck O’Neill number 22 Monarch jersey. 

Living in cornavirusworld 149: Violence. Nonviolence. We've been here before

8/26

Convent Garden: an oasis

the Monarchs

Today I wear my Kansas City Monarchs hat. The last Negro league team Jackie Robinson played for before joining the Dodgers organization. It was also the team of Buck O’Neil, player and manager of the Monarchs from 1938 to 1955.  He even made a final  plate appearance for the Kansas City T-Bones of the Norrhern League in 2006 at age 94 years, 8 months and 5 days. And was the first African-American signed as a scout by the Chicago Cubs. It’s mainly  due to the Monarchs  (and Buck) that the Negro League Museum is in Kansas City.  In normal years, Major League baseball celebrates "Jackie Day" on April 15th, the anniversary of his debut.  But in coronavirusworld, they've moved it to August 28, the anniversary of Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech. 

Buck

I also talk about my “happy hour” yesterday afternoon with former Oklahoma Senator Fred Harris who I was surprised to find was still live. Harris was the Bernie before Bernie.  Hard to realize that Oklahoma actually had a democratic socialist Senator as late as 1972.  I actually was a Harris delegate at the 1976 Oklahoma Democratic caucus. Harris campaigned across the country in a Winnebago and frequently stayed at the homes of farmers and union workers. He ultimately lost to Jimmy Carter but continued to champion Native American and working people’s rights throughout his career. The talk was hosted by Jim Hightower, his former campaign manager who joked, “I made Fred what he is today, a professor at eh University of New Mexico.” He came very close to being chosen as Hubert Humphry’s running mate in 1968. Often forgotten is Humphry’s roots in the old Minnesota Farm-Labor Party. Harris reminded us of the 1917 Green Corn rebellion when wobblies, unionists, blacks and farmers came together to oppose the draft and Word War !. Senator Harris’ point was the progressive uprising we see today has roots deep in the American soil that have been buried too long. The Bernie revolution is part of a long heritage of American class struggle. Later in the conversation, Senator Harris introduced us to Teresa Leon Fernandez, whose family roots go back to the 17th century as a Nuevo Mexicana, seeking to join the progressive left caucus in congress. 

Our conversation this morning focuses on contemplation and activism but quickly moves into violence vs. non-violence, the issue of discernment . How Dietrich Bobhoeffer returned to Germany to join in a plot to kill Hitler, saying violence was wrong except when necessary. Who defines necessary? Some of us agree with a traditional reformed “Just war” theory while others are absolutists. What about Gandhi? Gandhi was reported to have said non-violence would not have stopped Hitler. I recall how Archbishop Romero came to accept violence in defense of the innocent . And Franz Fanon’s argument that violence is necessary to free the Wretched of the Earth from colonialism.  But then Robespiere…John Brown….Lenin…Mao? 

And the problematic issue of those who truly believe that abortion is murder feeling called to enter clinics with guns. 

We recall that for Martin Luther King, Jr., non-violence was a strategy that works because it drew violence for the other side and exposed its nature. I say that non-violence elicits violent response because it presents itself as morally superior to which Joel responds because non-violence is morally superior.

Gandhi believed in satyagraha, soul force. That even in the midst of violence one must hold onto the spirit of peace. 

We are constantly faced with the question so what then is possible?

What to do with Jesus’ “not peace but a sword”? Without diving immediately into self-defensive metaphor argumentation. 

Steve P speaks of Brevard Childs’ canonical criticism where the Bible is taken seriously as is, interpreting one part by the others, replacing the entire historical critical method. Sigh.

I ponder how I can occasionally look at the world of turtles, egrets, squirrels and feel that everything in creation is perfect just the way it is and at the same time see the sacredness of the everflowing stream of the people’s struggle for justice. I live with this tension, this dichotomy. 

Sam says the Gita says God and self are the same. 

True belief vs. collective belief. Facts and truth are not the same. But intriguing, even passionate conversations aside, there is no question we are collectively facing a moment of truth…..

                                                                                                   ****

where Hamilton lived before he hit Broadway

Today I decide to do the Percy Sutton Harlem 5K course. Through Sugar Hill, the old ritzy part of Harlem. Convent Garden. Past Alexander Hamilton’s home, an untouched 1802 Federalist rural home in the midst of modern Harlem. I see students in line registering  for their charter schools, receiving their supplies. Along the southern edge of the City College of New York, once known as the Harvard of the working class when every citizen of New York City was guaranteed health, housing  work and education. Then back up St. Nicholas. Tim the trombone player somehow turns up at 136th street. It’s a reminder that we’ve been here before. 

Kenosha, Wisconsin is in flames in response to yet another point blank police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake.  Yesterday a 17 year old self-styled member of “the militia,” inspired by his president, drove 20 miles and with an AR15 assault rifle opened fire on innocent  protestors killing two, then walked calmly past the police. 

Beginning with the Milwaukee Bucks, the NBA players, in compete despair and frustration, refuse to play their games. The WNBA, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer soon follow. They are not just athletes, entertainers, they  are adult people with consciences.  Of course the President and his ghostly son-in-law Jared mock the players. Why is so hard to see? Moment of truth….

I finish the night by watching Anna Deveare Smith’s one-woman tour de force Twilight: Los Angeles 1992. Her docudrama exploration of the Rodney King savage police beating and subsequent rebellions. Yes, we’ve been here before. Far too many times. 

Living in coronavirusworld 132: Play ball

8/5

beauty along the way

the Crawfords

Today’s history  lesson for the Underground starts with the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Negro Baseball Leagues. Today I wear a shirt and hat from the Pittsburgh Crawfords, and tell the story of Gus Greenlee. Gus made his money in the numbers “racket,” but within the black community, known as one who paid scholarships to send students to colleges and provided money for people to buy homes when denied by banks. He became the owner of the Crawford Grill, Pittsburgh’s equivalent of the Lennox Lounge where the best in black entertainers like Billie Holiday and Louie Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald would perform. (In later years, Martin Luther King,Jr would stop by when he was in town.) Negro league ballplayers would stop by the Crawford as well. Greenlee was incensed to learn that while the famous Homestead Grays could play their games at the Pirates’ Forbes Field, they were not permitted to use the showers. So Greenlee decided to build his own stadium….and his own team. Greenlee Field was the first black built stadium.  It even had lights.  He quickly gathered the best players like Josh Gibson (the Black Babe Ruth), the only man to ever hit a ball out of Yankee Stadium, arguably better than Ruth, the great pitcher Satchel Paige…Soon between the Grays and Crawfords, Pittsburgh was home to the best in baseball of any color. After seven years, a major hit in the numbers business took Greenlee out of baseball.

But there was one more chapter…1n 1954 Branch Rickey took Greenlee on as a partner to create the United Staes Baseball League, essentially a fiction to get a contract with Jackie Robinson and keep him away from anyone else until Rickey could get him into the Dodgers. Greenlee assumed the partnership  would continue after Robinson went to Brooklyn. It did not. For Greenlee, it was back to the Crawford Grill.   Gus Greenlee was but one example of the entrepreneurs who created the Negro League.  People like Effa Manley, first woman to own and direct a team, the Newark Eagles “as important to black Newark as the Dodgers are Brooklyn” she said. Newark would be the team of Larry Doby, the first Black player in the American League.  As baseball integrated, it meant the end of the Negro Leagues and the dynamic business people who created them.  The best Black ball players would become part of Major League Baseball. But those who built and kept a dynamic and exciting  league together would be lost to baseball.  Integration brought with it loss as well as gain. 

115th street 

We spend some time stalking about conspiracy  theories and how they’re growing on the left as wells right. They seem to be a way to manage a world of pain. 

And we talk about HOPE. Which is truly only HOPE f unseen. I share the Jim Wallis (Sojourners) definition:Hope is continuing to have faith in spite of the evidence and working to make the evidence change. 

A woman is quoted a saying “I would die for Jesus but I would not give up my house!”

after the storm

We also talk about how we are not required to find the solution, but only find that one thing we can do. We talk of mental illness.  Of how “melancholia” was more accepted in the day of Lincoln than depression now. How it was seeing slavery as a call not a political problem that enabled Lincoln to move beyond depression. How Freud said the definite of a good life is non-neurotic love and work.  And we talk of the importance of agency, over transaction. As Freire said, that we might become the subjects of our own history.

The New York City General Assembly commissioners finally meet. I realize how unique my experience of being actively engaged was among us. The rest felt isolated and unsure how to connect. No time to absorb or think.”Just one more ZOOM meeting."We plan our report to Presbytery and continue to recommitted to working on the reconvening of Assembly.

Our Presbyterian Health Educational and Welfare Association will be reaching out to the Black Women and Girls Task Force to seek collaboration. Our Disabilities Concerns network feels that experience of BWaG in the world of disability has not yet  been attended to. We decide to extend an invitation to a new Mental Health Network to join . New stream lined by laws are on their way as the continued rebirth of PHEWA takes place. In the current pandemic and social crisis, the work  has taken on renewed relevance and urgency. It feels good to be part of it, to having helped bring it about.