KEEPER OF THE FLAME : SCV RESIDENT REKINDLES NEGRO LEAGUES LORE.Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer It has been 50 years since Jackie Robinson Noun 1. Jackie Robinson - United States baseball player; first Black to play in the major leagues (1919-1972) Jack Roosevelt Robinson, Robinson broke the color barrier in professional sports The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. , a milestone the Dodgers and Major League Baseball "MLB" and "Major Leagues" redirect here. For other uses, see MLB (disambiguation) and Major Leagues (disambiguation). Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. will commemorate during the 1997 season. Long before Black History Month gained wide observance and Albert Belle Associations of teams of black baseball players active largely between 1920 and the late 1940s. The principal leagues were the Negro National League, originally organized by Rube Foster in 1920, and the Negro American League, organized in 1937. . Dick Simpson Simpson, 58, recently loaned items from his collection to a Negro Leagues exhibit at the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame, adjacent to Anaheim Stadium. Many of the pictures, gloves, bats, balls, uniforms, pennants, programs and posters on display came from the Santa Clarita resident's garage. This week at Dodger Stadium, several of the ballplayers will gather to launch a Black History Month tribute, ``Negro League Baseball
The Negro Leagues were American professional baseball leagues comprising predominantly African-American teams. - Their Legacy Still Hits Home.'' On hand for the celebration - sponsored by the Los Angeles Dodgers "Dodgers" and "Brooklyn Dodgers" redirect here. For the American football team, see Brooklyn Dodgers (football). For the Eastern Basketball Association team, see Brooklyn Dodgers (basketball). , the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo., and the Coors Brewing Co. - will be league alumni John ``Buck'' O'Neil, Sammie Haynes, Lonnie ``Carl'' Summers, Luther Branharn, Ross Davis, Francis Matthews, Andrew Porter, Albert ``Buster'' Haywood and Merle merle a pattern of coat color pigmentation with dark, irregular blotches on a lighter background. Seen in some Collies and Welsh corgis. In shorthaired dogs, e.g. Great Danes and Dachshunds, the similar pattern is called dapple. Porter. Simpson said his father, Richard ``Chalkdaddy'' Simpson, didn't talk much about his playing days with the Memphis Red Sox The Memphis Red Sox were a professional Negro League baseball team based in Memphis, Tennessee from the 1920s until the end of segregated baseball. The Red Sox played in the Negro National League for most of the League's existence, although they also played independently, and the East St. Louis Colts. When Chalkdaddy died in 1974, with him went one of Simpson's closest links to a bygone era, one he said has been overlooked by modern-day fans and ballplayers alike. In an era of black studies courses on college campuses and Kwanzaa joining Hanukkah and Christmas as widely observed winter holidays, Simpson said he finds it disheartening dis·heart·en tr.v. dis·heart·ened, dis·heart·en·ing, dis·heart·ens To shake or destroy the courage or resolution of; dispirit. See Synonyms at discourage. that ``most young people today have very little interest in the Negro Leagues.'' He compared it to trying to interest young people in the music of Count Basie or Ella Fitzgerald when they'd rather listen to rap and hip-hop. Simpson, who teaches English and filmmaking at Hollenbeck Middle School in Boyle Heights, said a little-known legacy of the Negro Leagues is that much of the equipment and practices in widespread use today were either invented or popularized by those segregated ballplayers. Simpson listed shin guards, batting helmets, the feet-first slide, the umpire's chest protector, and the ``donut'' weight that players slip over their bat while taking practice swings in the on-deck circle, as having their origins in the Negro Leagues. So did night games and the All-Star game, Simpson said. The first piece of Negro League memorabilia Simpson obtained was a 1924 photograph of the two teams that played in the first Colored World Series. In 1947, Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers played an exciting seven-game World Series against the New York Yankees  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. . ``Once Jackie Robinson was signed by Branch Rickey, for all intents and purposes Adv. 1. for all intents and purposes - in every practical sense; "to all intents and purposes the case is closed"; "the rest are for all practical purposes useless" for all practical purposes, to all intents and purposes , that was the beginning of the end for the Negro Leagues,'' Simpson said. Robinson opened the door for the other major-league teams to sign the best African-American ballplayers. Although their talent pool was diluted in the post-integration era, the Negro Leagues continued for another decade. ``The heyday had passed,'' Simpson said. ``The league was just a shadow of its old self.'' Simpson nonetheless remembers the pride he felt when Negro Leagues pitching legend Satchell Paige broke into the major leagues with his hometown team, the St. Louis Browns. His father ``never had any rancor or bitterness'' about missed opportunities as a professional athlete, Simpson said, but he had a few regrets about his Negro League teammates and opponents. ``I know that he always used to lament the fact that (many of) these guys never made the major leagues,'' Simpson said. ``He realized it was unfair, but it was something that happened. He took that as a part of life and went on.'' But Chalkdaddy did want to impress upon his only child one lesson - that Negro Leaguers' talent and persistence in the face of discrimination won over their detractors, knocking down barriers for generations of African-Americans who followed. ``He said: `Now you have an opportunity. Remember the people who made it possible,' '' Simpson said. THE FACTS WHAT: Negro Leagues baseball memorabilia exhibit, featuring items from the collection of Santa Clarita resident Dick Simpson. WHEN: The exhibit is open to the public 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. WHERE: Orange County Sports Hall of Fame, adjacent to Anaheim Stadium COST: Admission is $2 for adults and $1 for children. CAPTION(S): Photo, Box Photo: (color in SAC edition only) Dick Simpson shows off some of the Negro Leagues memorabilia he loaned to the exhibit. Hans Gutknecht/Daily News Box: THE FACTS (see text) |
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