Part 4 – Baseball Integration, National League Dominance, 2020
Part 4 – Baseball Integration, National League Dominance, 2020
- 1947 – 1980s – Why is the National League winning all the All-Star games? – re-integration of Major League baseball was very uneven. There was only one American League owner trying to sign black ballplayers, Bill Veeck, Cleveland Indians. In the National League, once the Brooklyn Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson, the New York Giants signed Hank Thompson. Over the next decade almost all the great black ballplayers were on National League teams. In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s the National League won 90% of the All-Star Games because they did a much better job of signing great black ballplayers!
- 2020 – the 100th anniversary of the Negro National League – I believe one of the best ways to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Negro National League would be to honor Andrew “Rube” Foster, the Father of the Negro Leagues with a full-length movie. I would love to go around the country sharing stories about this man!
- 2020 – Presidential Election – I hope by the time we enter the year 2020, our country will have toned down the rhetoric. We all need to do a better job of listening (especially our politicians). We need to respect one another. We need to work together to solve problems not create problems.
- Our divided nation – My prayer is we can become a great nation of listeners, strive for community, help one another, look for solutions and become a nation that restores its leadership in the world not by being a bully but by leading.
Bob “The Baseball Man” May
January 25, 2019
