[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 24 (Wednesday, March 1, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1590-S1592]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




HONORING THE LEGENDARY STARS OF THE NEGRO LEAGUES AND PRE-NEGRO LEAGUES 
                                BASEBALL

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in the last few moments, we adopted a 
resolution which is historic in nature. It relates to the Negro Leagues 
and pre-Negro Leagues baseball in America. Anyone who loves baseball as 
I do and followed the great documentary prepared by Ken Burns on the 
history of baseball must have been struck by how much the history of 
baseball is associated with the resolution of the issue of race in 
America.
  For too long, baseball, similar to much of America, was segregated. 
Now that it has become an integrated sport, we have seen some 
tremendous athletes--Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, White 
Americans, those from other countries--coming together to make it a 
more exciting sport than it has ever been.
  I think we realize now what was lost for so many decades, while those 
who labored in Black baseball, the Negro Leagues, were relegated to 
second-class status despite the fact their talents were as good or 
sometimes better than those who played on all White baseball teams.
  Jerry Izenberg, a sports writer for the Newark Star Ledger, wrote of 
the stars of Negro Leagues Baseball:

       They took America's game and weaved a kind of magic with it 
     that most of America never bothered to see--not for lack of 
     talent and surely not because of the way they played it--with 
     a fire in the belly and joy in the skills that motivated 
     them.
       America loved baseball, but segregation turned America 
     blind. The psyche of the White men who owned Major League 
     Baseball and most of those who played the game couldn't get 
     past the matter of skin color.

  One of the greatest players ever, the legendary Satchel Paige, spent 
most of his career in the Negro Leagues. In his Hall of Fame induction 
speech in 1971 he said:

       Oh, we had men by the hundreds who could have made the big 
     leagues, by the hundreds, not by the fours, twos or threes.

  `` . . . Ain't no maybe so about it,'' Satchel Paige said.

[[Page S1591]]

  I did have the honor to meet him one day. He was in Springfield 
watching a baseball game. I still remember it. He was seated next to 
Minnie Minoso, whom I will refer to a little later in these remarks.
  Most of those players never got that chance. But now, 17 more players 
and 5 executives from the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues baseball 
are getting some long overdue recognition.
  This week, a special commission appointed by Major League Baseball 
acted to heal another of segregation's scars by voting to induct the 17 
into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
  I am pleased to join baseball fans around the world in congratulating 
these new Hall of Famers:
  Negro Leagues baseball players Ray Brown, Willard Brown, Andy Cooper, 
Biz Mackey, Mule Suttles, Cristobal Torriente, and Jud Wilson;
  Pre-Negro Leagues players Frank Grant, Pete Hill, Jose Mendez, Louis 
Santop, and Ben Taylor;
  Negro Leagues club owners Alex Pompez, Cum Posey, and J.L. Wilkinson;
  And pre-Negro Leagues team owner and baseball writer Sol White.
  Also among the new Hall of Famers is Effa Manley, co-owner with her 
husband of the Newark Eagles and the first woman to join the Hall of 
Fame. Effa Manly was White, but she married a Black man and chose to 
pass herself off as Black. She was active in the civil rights movement 
and promoted Anti-Lynching Day at Eagles games in the 1940s.
  Similar to many, I am surprised--I am really disappointed--that two 
names were not on the list I just read. Of the 39 Negro Leagues and 
pre-Negro Leagues stars considered for inclusion in the Hall of Fame 
this week, only two are still living: Mini Minoso and Buck O'Neil. I 
can't explain why neither one was selected.
  No matter how the committee voted, Minnie Minoso and Buck O'Neil will 
always be Hall of Famers to baseball fans in Chicago and around the 
world. Let me tell you about them.
  Saturnino Orestes Armas ``Minnie'' Minoso is one of the most popular 
players in Chicago White Sox history--a seven-time All-Star and three-
time Golden Glove winner.
  He was nicknamed ``the Cuban comet,'' the first Black Latino in the 
major leagues starting in 1949 with the Cleveland Indians. Two years 
later, he became the first White Sox to break the color line.
  He hit a home run in his first at-bat with the White Sox and went on 
to be named American League Rookie of the Year in 1951, leading the 
league in stolen bases and triples. Over his career, he led the league 
in being hit by pitches 10 different times--an indication, I am afraid, 
of how difficult it was to break the racial lines.
  In the words of Orlando Cepeda, who once played for the St. Louis 
Baseball Cardinals:

       Minnie Minoso is to Latin ballplayers what Jackie Robinson 
     is to Black ballplayers.

  He paved the way for generations of Latin superstars, from Roberto 
Clemente to Juan Marichal to Sammy Sosa.
  In 1983, the White Sox retired Minnie Minoso's No. 9 uniform, and in 
2004, he was honored with a life-sized sculpture at U.S. Cellular 
Field, home of the world champion Chicago White Sox. At the unveiling 
ceremony, he said:

       If God takes me tomorrow, I'm happy because my statue is 
     here. How many people in the Hall of Fame have statues in the 
     ball parks?

  John ``Buck'' O'Neil should be a familiar name to those who remember 
the Ken Burns documentary. Buck O'Neil was the Black baseball player 
they went to time and time again to talk about life in the Negro 
Leagues. He was the unofficial ambassador for Negro Leagues baseball in 
the Ken Burns documentaries.
  He was a standout first baseman and successful manager for the Kansas 
City Monarchs from 1937 to 1955. Years later, as a scout for the 
Chicago Cubs, Buck O'Neil signed future Hall of Famers Ernie Banks and 
Lou Brock to their first major league contracts.
  Think about that. Buck O'Neil from the Negro Leagues signed Ernie 
Banks, Mr. Cub, to the Chicago Cubs. My message to the Tribune 
publishing company, which owns the Chicago Cubs, is: Can you think of a 
better batter to throw out a pitch for a game in Wrigley Field than 
Buck O'Neil, the only surviving baseball player from the Negro Leagues, 
and his man that he scouted for that team, Ernie Banks? It just doesn't 
get any better.

  With the Cubs, Buck O'Neil also became the first African-American 
coach in the Major Leagues. At age 94, he is the driving force in 
preserving Negro League history--94 years old. He is the cofounder and 
chairman of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, which he 
and a handful of other Negro Leaguers started in a $200-a-month room in 
1990.
  Buck O'Neil has probably done more than anyone to see that the 
stories of great Black ball players before Jackie Robinson are not 
forgotten. Without his tireless efforts, it is unlikely a special 
committee would have ever started to right the wrong of segregated 
baseball. So it strikes many of us as ironic that Buck wasn't chosen to 
enter Cooperstown. He greeted the news with typical Buck O'Neil grace 
and optimism when he said:

       Before I wouldn't even have had a chance but this time I 
     had that chance. . . . I was on the ballot, man.

  Isn't that a great quote, from a man 94 years of age, who could have 
been given that moment in history to be the only surviving member of 
the Negro Leagues to actually physically be there as he was admitted to 
the Cooperstown Hall of Fame?
  He added something. He said:

       You think about this. Here I am, the grandson of a slave. 
     And here the whole world was excited about whether I was 
     going in the Hall of Fame or not. We've come a long, long 
     ways. Before, we never even thought about anything like that. 
     America, you've really grown, and you're still growing.

  The story of Black baseball is amazing. During its golden years, 
Negro Leagues Baseball was the Nation's third-largest Black-owned 
business.
  The leagues included such storied franchises as the Chicago American 
Giants, the Kansas City Monarchs, the Homestead Grays, the Atlanta 
Black Crackers, the Newark Eagles, and the New York Black Yankees.
  Among its stars were the legendary Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, called 
``the black Babe Ruth'', William ``Buck'' Leonard, the ``black Lou 
Gehrig,'' the acrobatic William ``Judy'' Johnson, and James ``Cool 
Papa'' Bell. Cool Papa Bell was so fast, it was said that he could turn 
off the light and be in bed before the room got dark. Even Jesse Owens 
declined to race against him.
  The roots of black baseball stretch back to 1867. That year--2 years 
after the Civil War ended--the National Baseball Players Association 
was created. The new league banned any team that included even one 
Black player.
  In 1887, the first Black baseball team, the Cuban Giants, was formed 
to give talented black players in New York a chance to play ball. Their 
success inspired other Black teams to form.
  Many of the teams were hugely popular. One Sunday in 1911, the 
Chicago Cubs drew 6,000 paying fans, the White Sox had 9,000 fans, 
while the black team, the Chicago American Giants, drew 11,000 fans.
  In 1920, the owner of the Chicago American Giants, Rube Foster, and 
other team owners met in Kansas City to form the Negro National League.
  Foster hoped that the victor in the Negro championship would one day 
play the major league winner and that the color line in baseball would 
eventually be erased entirely.
  That dream was crushed in 1919, with the appointment of Major League 
Baseball's first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who forbade 
White ball clubs from playing against Black clubs, even in exhibition 
games.
  Negro Leagues players were paid little. They suffered long bus rides, 
exhausting schedules, and second-and third-rate motels. Other times, 
they relied or Black churches and fans' homes for a place to sleep. 
They played year round. When it got cold in the states, they headed 
south to play in Cuba or the Dominican Republic.
  The color line was nearly broken in 1943 when Chicago Cubs owner Bill 
Veeck planned to buy the Philadelphia Phillies and hire Satchel Paige, 
Josh Gibson and other Negro League stars, but Landis learned of the 
plan first and sold the team to someone else.
  The following year, Landis died. The new commissioner, former 
Kentucky Governor Happy Chandler, famously declared: ``I'm for the Four 
Freedoms.

[[Page S1592]]

If a Black . . . can make it on Okinawa and Guadalcanal . . . he can 
make it in baseball.'' But the Major League owners disagreed and voted 
against integration 15-to-1.
  In 1945, Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branche Rickey signed a shortstop 
from the Kansas City Monarchs to play for the Dodgers' farm club. As a 
lieutenant in the Army, Jack Roosevelt Robinson risked a court-martial 
by refusing to sit in the back of a military bus. In 1947, he was 
called up to play for the Dodgers. Baseball's color line was finally 
erased.
  Soon after, the Negro Leagues began to falter financially as they 
lost more and more of their best players to the majors. The league 
folded in 1960.
  Before the vote this week, only 18 of the Negro League's more than 
2,600 players had been voted into the Hall of Fame.
  Among those pushing for recognition of other deserving Negro Leaguers 
was former Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent. Vincent's interest in 
Negro Leagues ball was heightened after he met Alfred ``Slick'' 
Surratt, a Negro Leaguer who served in World War II and was wounded at 
the Battle of Guadalcanal, and then barred from playing Major League 
baseball when he returned home.
  In 1991, at the urging of former St. Louis Cardinals catcher and 
baseball broadcaster Joe Garagiola, Vincent arranged a trip to 
Cooperstown for 75 Negro League players. At a formal dinner, he 
apologized to the players for the way baseball had snubbed them. He 
later told a reporter from USA Today: ``I really thought I was 
repeating an old line, but it turned out that it was the first time 
that someone--from Major League Baseball--had done that.'' When he 
handed out a commemorative medallion of the event, he said, ``about a 
third of [the players] were crying.''
  In 2000, Major League Baseball commissioned a $250,000 study of 
African- American players from 1860 to 1960. The result is the most 
thorough statistical record of the Negro Leagues ever compiled. It 
includes statistics culled from Black-owned newspapers as well as stats 
from games that matched barnstorming White players--including Babe Ruth 
and Dizzy Dean--against Negro Leaguers.
  The league then appointed a special commission of 12 historians and 
scholars to sift through the record and select players who should be 
considered for the Hall of Fame. The first list included 39 names. From 
those 39 players, the committee this week selected the 17 new Hall of 
Famers.
  It wasn't just on the field that Negro Leagues Baseball differed from 
White baseball. At Major League games Black and White fans were 
separated by chicken-wire fences--``one of the powerful symbols of 
racism,'' in Buck O'Neil's words. But during Negro League games, Blacks 
and Whites sat side by side.
  In July, when the Hall of Fame's class of 2006 is formally inducted, 
more of the legends of Black baseball will finally take their rightful 
place at Cooperstown, to be honored side by side with the rest of the 
best who ever played America's game. As Buck O'Neil said, ``America is 
growing.''
  We congratulate the families of all of the new Hall of Famers, and we 
remain hopeful that Buck O'Neil and Minnie Minoso will soon join them 
in Cooperstown.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________