[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 109 (Wednesday, June 23, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4732-S4733]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            REMEMBERING JAMES TIMOTHY ``MUDCAT'' GRANT, JR.

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, last week, America lost a baseball legend, 
a pioneer in civil rights, Jim ``Mudcat'' Grant.
  He joined the Cleveland Indians in 1958. He spent 14 years in the 
Major Leagues. I remember watching him play when I was a kid growing up 
in Cleveland in the 1960s.
  Cleveland has been, more than any other franchise, perhaps, a pioneer 
for change in baseball. Cleveland had the first Black player in the 
American League, Larry Doby, Hall of Famer. He came into the league 
only about 2 months after Jackie Robinson integrated the National 
League. Cleveland had the first Black manager, Hall of Famer Frank 
Robinson. Cleveland also had ``Mudcat'' Grant, who refused to be silent 
in the face of segregated hotels and racist slurs and discrimination 
from management.
  Grant was an accomplished singer with a beautiful voice. He organized 
the singing group ``Mudcat and the Kittens'' to make up the income he 
was denied that other players had, that White players had, in 
advertising and endorsements. Companies wouldn't hire a Black player. 
They toured the country during the off-season, performing with Johnny 
Carson and in places a little less known.
  I remember Grant in later years serving as an announcer for Cleveland 
Indian games with a southern drawl that was unmistakable.
  He didn't just use that voice, though, for entertainment or 
commentating on plays; he used it to speak out for civil rights.
  During the national anthem at one game, predating Colin Kaepernick, 
Mudcat Grant--in the 1960s, before civil rights and voting rights had 
passed this Congress, he said this during the national anthem. He said:

       This land is not free. I can't even go to Mississippi and 
     sit down at a lunch counter.

  A Major League Baseball player.
  In 1958, he and his White teammate Gary Bell roomed together for away 
games, becoming the first time--players, in those days, when they were 
paid less than management, charged less, whatever, players roomed 
together. Two players would room together. Gary Bell and Mudcat Grant 
were the first Black and White roommates in the major leagues in 1958.
  While running for President, Senator John F. Kennedy invited Mudcat 
Grant to breakfast. Grant didn't hold back. He talked openly with 
Senator Kennedy, with the future President, about the poverty he grew 
up in, the racism he endured every day--this was 1960--as a Major 
League Baseball player.
  Of course, it wasn't only his activism we remember Mudcat Grant for. 
We know his talent on the field. He was Minor League's Rookie of the 
Year in 1954, only 7 years after baseball was integrated.
  In 1965, he was the first Black player to win 20 games in the 
American League. He should have been the first, but listen to this: For 
years, major league managers conspired to prevent Black pitchers from 
becoming 20-game winners. That almost doesn't make sense.
  Well, Grant said some catchers would tell the hitters, the opposing 
hitters, while they were catching, what was coming because they didn't 
want you to do well as a pitcher.
  Other managers, when a player was reaching--a pitcher was getting 
close to 20 games, other managers sat the player down so he couldn't 
win 20 games as a Black man.
  After Black players pass away, we often hear about how they were 
among the underappreciated talents of the game. That is not a 
coincidence. In addition to being a singer, Grant was also a writer. He 
published a book in 2007 called ``The Black Aces.'' It is about the 
great African-American pitchers. Part of his project is to tell more 
stories about Black players and to teach

[[Page S4733]]

more people about the history of baseball integration.
  It is the kind of stories we need to tell more often. Our country is 
richer, as the Presiding Officer representing Arizona knows--the 
country is richer when we tell people's stories.
  Let's honor James Timothy Grant, Jr., by telling his story, by 
heeding his words. In his great poem ``Life,'' James Timothy Grant Jr. 
wrote:

       Life is like a game of baseball, you play it every day. It 
     isn't just the breaks you get, but the kind of game you play.

  James ``Mudcat'' Grant, rest in peace.
  I yield the floor.

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