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Jul 10
0

Bird on One of His Rolls

By | Portfolio

By Ron Thomas

If deity could frown, ….. and fret collectively, then Boston must have been in a funk from June until December.

Favorite ………… ……………..

During ………………………….. . ………………………………..

“There was great concern,” said Bob Woolf, Bird’s agent, friend and next door neighbor. X-rays revealed foreign bodies in the elbow but rest was the prescribed cure. “The elbow is so delicate that if you…. In there (surgically) you could serve ………….” Woolf said.

Then during this preseason Bird – who will lead the Boston Celtics against the Warriors in tonight’s game at the Coliseum Arena (Channel 36, 7:30) – tried to play with recurring back pain that began during the offseason.

“One day I woke up with a minor pain that I thought was just like other injury – a bruise that will go away.” Bird said after yesterday’s practice. “A week later it started bothering me a little more. Two weeks later, I had some problems. A month later, I was in bed and this if from just shooting and playing ball. I waited too long to see a therapist that knew what he was doing.”

When training camp began, Bird says he was “struggling real bad.” Bird missed practice time and exhibition games. If he came out of a game for a few minutes, his back stiffens and sometimes he had to go to the locker room to stretch before he could play again.

When the regular session began, Bird could pass and rebounds as well as ever, but he lacked quick acceleration to the ……. …. Shot was off, he couldn’t …….. over to pick up the ball. ………….. …………

“I struggled for a month to two months,” Bird said, “When (the back pain) quit, my game just started coming.”

“All of a sudden,” B…… coach K.C. Jones said, “he was moving and fluid and he was the old Larry Bird. Everything was there. The flow on the shot, the cuts, the moves and the pass.”

That was mid-December and Bird’s game has soared ever since. ……. Even to new heights, which is not easy for someone who has won the NBA’s last two Most Valuable Player awards.

The past two months, he played as well as I’ve seen anyone play ……… Danny A……………. …………………

BIRD ON ONE OF THOSE ROLLS – UNSTOPPABLE

points, 14 rebounds and eight assists, even though he was ejected (with two technical fouls) with 10 minutes left to play in Monday’s loss in Phoenix.

The streak began with back-to-back ripple-double against Seattle and Portland. The latter was a dreamland performance that included 47 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists, 21 for 34 shooting, at least eight baskets with his left hand, the game-tying basket that forced over time and the game winning jumper with Trail Blasers hanging all over him for a one-point victory.

“He was awesome,” Ainge said that night. “On the last shot, I saw him go up and I said to myself, ‘No no,’ but he made it, I couldn’t believe it and I think he even got fouled on the play.”

“Three times,” Bird said. “I got fouled three times before I finally hit the shot.”

That was no surprise. “Bird is maybe the greatest clutch player that ever played the game,” said Portland coach Jack Ramsay, usually a master of understatement.

“There’s a lot of guys who can shoot it if they’re up by one or it’s a tie score,” Bird said. “There aren’t many guys in this league who are going to take the shot. If they’re down by one – especially the last second shot.

“That’s a tough shot to take. To tell you every time I would like to do that, that would be ridiculous.”

But Bird takes it – and makes it – again and again.

I shot so much, by the time you get the ball and start moving, when you go up for the shot you don’t think about being scared or missing,” he said.

“I just do what I always do. After it leaves my hand and I watch it, that’s when I start thinking about it.”

Has he ever played better than he is now?

“I don’t know,” said Bird, who has excelled despite feeling pain in his elbow again the past month. “Some days you go in Spurts and you wonder why you do so. Some day you struggle a little bit and you wonder why you struggle.

“I play the game the same way every night, and some nights, you’re a little better than others. It’s hard to say if I’m on top of my game.”

There are technical reasons why bird even betters himself sometimes. He doesn’t know why, but shooting a lot of free throws during a game seems to help his outside shot. And recently, his teammates have been looking for him near the basket more than usual.

“Usually, if I start out hitting my inside shots, my outside shots fall too,” Bird said. “In this past two weeks, everything inside and outside has been going.”

Sometimes there is an extra special night when the game belongs to Larry Bird.

“I’ve been in a lot of games where I knew I had complete control of the game,” Bird said.

“It’s a cocky feeling. I had it (Monday) night. When the game started, I really thought I could have scored 50 points – easy.”

Bird scored 18 points against Phoenix in the first quarter, but sat out a few minutes in the second period, never regained his rhythm and finished with 24.

But the power to control a game is always there, and neither Bird not his opponent knows when it will surface.

For the Warriors, tonight may be one of those nights.

(Tomorrow: the Beginnings of Larry Bird)

 

Jun 25
0

Portfolio | A’s First Black Player Is Subject of Tribute

By | Portfolio

A’s first black player is subject of tribute

By Ron Thomas

Independent Journal reporter

Mention Jackie Robinson and even the most casual baseball fan will know that in 1947 he became the first black major leaguer in modern times. Not only did his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers change his sport, but it also had a dramatic impact upon all of Amari­ can society.

But mention Bob Trice, and even the most ardent baseball fan likely will draw a blank. Yet he, too, is an important figure in the integration of America’s most revered sport, for Trice was the first black player to perform in an Athletics’ uniform.

Trice, who died in 1988, and the overall integration of major league baseball will be honored tomorrow during the Oakland A’s annual FanFest. A variety of discussion sessions will be held in Jack London Square beginning at noon, including one about players such as Trice who were racial pioneers like Robinson, but whose stories largely are untold.

A 6-foot-3, 190-pound right­ handed pitcher, Trice broke into the majors on Sept. 13, 1953, when the A’s were located in Philadelphia and the owner was the famed Cornelius McGillicuddy, better known as Connie Mack. Trice pitched in Philadelphia in parts of the 1953 and ’54 seasons, then ac-

See Trice, page C3

 

INSIDE:

Complete schedule of events for tomorrow’s Oakland A’s FanFest at Jack London Square

 

 

 

Trice

From page C1

companied the franchise’s move to Kansas City in 1955, where he ended his big-league career with four appearances. The A’s moved to Oakland in 1968.

Altogether, Trice was 9-9 with a 5.80 ERA in 26 games with the A’s, 21 as a starter. Not an enviable record, but he certainly had legitimate excuses. Trice was playing for one of the worst teams in baseball, one that averaged 58 wins and 96 losses during his tenure. Plus, he had to deal with discrimination that became so aggravating in 1954 that he asked to return to the minor leagues because he enjoyed playing there more.

Trice was born in 1926 in Newton, Ga., and began playing baseball in Weirton, W. Va. Although he preferred football and basketball, he lucked into a professional baseball career in 1948. Trice’s son, a middle school teacher in Detroit also named Bob, said his father earned a roster spot on the Negro Leagues’ Homestead Grays after a friend bet the team’s owner that Trice could make the roster.

He was an infielder-outfielder at the time, playing for one of the most famous teams in Negro League history. Trice seldom played in his first two years, not with future Baseball Hall of Famers such as Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard on his team.

Instead, Trice told his son he was in charge of the duffle bag players put their wallet in during a game, passed a hat through the crowd to collect extra money from fans, and carried and packed the team’s bats and balls.

The Grays traveled by bus, and Trice recalled that, “Many nights, I slept on the equipment. When you’re a rookie, the veterans have grabbed the seats. What are you going to do – tell Josh Gibson you want his seat?”

The younger Trice isn’t sure when his dad was converted into a pitcher. But he knows Trice received tips from one of the best ever, the legendary Satchel Paige. They were teammates on barnstorming teams and Paige once told Trice: “You can call yourself a pitcher when you’ve got a full count on the batter, the bases are loaded, it’s the bottom of the ninth and you throw the man a changeup. Everybody in the ballpark, including the man at the plate, expects you to throw the heat.

“Basically, it’s a fool’s play. But it’s so foolish, it’s the best thing to do.”

An encyclopedia of the Negro Leagues lists Trice as a pitcher­ outfielder with the Grays from 1948-50, before he joined integrated baseball in 1951 with Farnham in the Provincial League in Canada. In 1953, he was the Triple-A International League’s Rookie of the Year after compiling a 21-10 record with Ottawa.

The younger Trice doesn’t know how and why his father was signed by the A’s, but Philadelphia promoted him to the big leagues that September. According to his son, on Trice’s first day with the A’s, he was ignored by all of his new teammates except pitcher Bobby Shantz.

Trice put on his uniform in the locker room. “Not one person would speak to me,” he told his son. Then he ran to the outfield just to get a feel for his surroundings. Shantz later came out of the dugout, ran out to center field, introduced himself and said, “Trice, I’m glad that you’re here.”

More than 43 years have passed since then, yet Shantz still remembers that scene.

“I just went out and just talked to him a little,” said Shantz, now 71 and retired in suburban Philadelphia. “These other guys were trying to act indifferent. I didn’t want it to bother him, and I don’t think it did bother him.”

Trice lost his big-league debut, 5-2, against the St. Louis Browns (now the Baltimore Orioles) on Sept. 13, 1953, but Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Art Morrow praised his performance, writing “… he flashed a fastball and slider that promised brighter things to come.”

A week later, Trice picked up his first win, 13-9, over the Washington Senators (the current Minnesota Twins). He finished that season with a 2-1 record and a 5.48 ERA.

His teammates’ rude welcome was the first of many racially-based aggravations Trice had to tolerate.

The A’s added two more black players the next season, Joe Taylor and Vic Power, and true to the segregation customs of the South, they often were not allowed to stay at the team hotel during spring training. Instead, Trice lived with a black family in Florida.

“The only thing I remember about that prejudice crap was dropping them off in colored neighborhoods to change clothes,” Shantz said. “They’d take us (the white players) to the hotel, and when we’d go back to the ballpark they’d pick him up. And then after the game, drop him off again.

“I felt a little uncomfortable about it. I never said anything. Nothing I could not do about it.”

Restaurants also discriminated against black players, and once Trice became very upset about A’s management’s lack of sensitivity to his situation. The team bus had stopped at a restaurant in the South, and when they refused to let Trice enter, he went back to the bus by himself and read a book.”

“All of his team went in and had dinner,” the younger Trice said.

Afterwards, they brought Trice three hot dogs in a doggie bag. Trice merely put the bag on the floor of the bus and kept on reading, but inside he was seething.

“Nobody apologized for this,” his son said. “My father was so upset when he went in and spoke to management, and said in the future I’ll go to my side of town to eat. You                 will arrange for me to have enough        money to eat where I feel comfortable, and arrange for a cab so I can come back to the bus and sit there read my book.”

But there were good people and good times, too. That year another player, first baseman Lou Limmer, aIso befriended Trice. And Shantz laughed about the time when, “At the beginning of one of those seasons, we opened in New York and Bob and I and Vic Power were on the ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ (a top-rated television show) and we sang ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame.’

“I think they gave us $500 apiece. That was a lot of money; not like today. And none of us could sing.”

Trice was 7-8 in 19 games in 1954, a very good record considering that the A’s finished 51-103 that year, but in mid-season he asked to return to Ottawa in the minor leagues. In addition to the spring-training hassles, he had become convinced that the team had hired detectives to follow him.

Trice never confronted management about it, but eventually he asked to go back to the minor leagues “for more seasoning,” his son said. Shantz, who remembers Trice having good control and a good changeup, was shocked when Trice was demoted.

“He pitched three or four good ballgames,” Shantz said. “Then he had a couple when he couldn’t get anybody out, and next thing you know he was back in the minors and somebody said he asked Mr. Mack to send him back to work on some things. I couldn’t understand why.”

Shantz didn’t know about the frustrations trice had endured.

“My father explained that when he first got there, there was novelty to being in the major leagues,” said Trice’s son. “It was like an adrenaline rush, a surge, a moment of making it to the top of the mountain.”

As time went on, however, Trice felt he was under too much scrutiny. The younger Trice said his father became “disgusted” with management “because other things dealing with race took precedence over the game.” He just felt that playing in the minor leagues was more fun, and the salary wasn’t appreciably less.

Trice played four more games with the A’s in 1955 and finished his career with the Mexico City Reds from 1956-58. After he retired from the game, he worked for a steel company in Weirton.

“I lost him in ’88, and I still miss that man,” Trice’s son said. “He is the only man’s man I know.”

 

FanFest schedule

The Oakland A’s FanFest is set for tomorrow at Jack London Square, with panel discussions about the integration of baseball held at Jackie Robinson Pavilion in the square. Topics include:

12 p.m.                   – Baseball prior to 1947

1 p.m. – Jackie Robinson and breaking the color line

2 p.m. – How the game was changed, both immediate and long term

3 p.m. – Minorities in sports reporting, barriers and breakthroughs

4 p.m. – Crossing the line: beyond Jackie Robinson

The FanFest includes a baseball memorabilia and card show

 

 

Jun 04
0

My Take On: Obama’s Emancipation Day

By | Politics

Image Caption: President Barack Obama spoke with unprecedented candor as he eulogized Rev. Clementa Pinckney/Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

By Ron Thomas

On Jan. 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves when he issued his Emancipation Proclamation.

One hundred and fifth-two years later, on June 26, 2015, President Barack Obama experienced his own Emancipation Day.

It was a day in which the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision declared same-sex marriage Constitutional, thus freeing millions of gay people to participate in that most revered of institutions. At the same time, the Court justified Obama’s contention that marriage should be legal for all Americans. No longer must the LGBT community fear being denied the opportunity to express their commitment to another person or fear crossing state lines and simultaneously morphing from a spouse into an untethered single person.

“Sometimes there are days like this, when that slow, steady effort is rewarded with justice that arrives like a thunderbolt,” the president said following the 5-4 court decision. “This morning the Supreme Court recognized that the Constitution guarantees marriage equality. In doing so, they have reaffirmed that all Americans are entitled to the equal protection of the laws, that all people should be treated equally, regardless of who they are or who they love.”

Blind to injustice no more

June 26th also was a day in which Obama himself was emancipated from his image as a coldly calculating politician who deftly rode the rail between frustrated conservatives and disappointed progressives – completely pleasing neither one.

As he delivered his eulogy for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney – one of nine black Americans who were shot to death on June 17 during a prayer meeting at their church in Charleston, S.C. – Obama shed the shackles of political practicality before a largely black audience.

With his voice and tempo sounding more like a pastor than the Constitutional law professor he was, Obama unmasked many examples of institutional racism’s repugnant trail.

“For too long we’ve been blind to the way past injustices continue to shape the present,” Obama declared. “ . . . Maybe, we now realize the way racial bias can infect us even when we don’t realize it, so that we’re guarding against not just racial slurs, but we’re also guarding against the subtle impulse to call Johnny back for a job interview, but not Jamal.”

Obama cloaked himself in the protection of God’s “Amazing Grace” as he led the singing of that powerful hymn written by a redeemed slave owner. Thus, Obama unashamedly revealed to the world that yes, this black president does indeed have soul.

Jun 04
0

My Take On: My Fellow Altar Boy, Newly Elected Leader of the Episcopal Church

By | Religion

Image Caption: Presiding Bishop Michael Curry (center), my brother Rev. Laughton “Denny” Thomas, and me/Photo by Charlene Clinton

By Ron Thomas

Many articles soon will be written about Bishop Michael Curry, who was overwhelmingly elected on June 27 as the first black presiding bishop of all Episcopal churches in the U.S. His priestly roots began as an altar boy at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Buffalo, and I’m proud to say that I knelt alongside him during many services there in the 1950s and ’60s. He will be installed as presiding bishop on Nov. 1.

Curry’s dad, Father Kenneth Curry, became the priest at St. Philip’s in 1957, when Michael was 4. My older brother Denny and I both were acolytes there when little Michael began joining us on Sunday mornings. I was the “boat boy” who carried incense in a container shaped like an ancient sailors’ vessel; Michael carried the spoon. As he grew, he was given more important roles.

During Saturday morning altar boy practice, we all frustrated our instructor, Mr. Godfrey, with our short attention spans, and afterward we chased each other and wrestled on the parish hall floor. A summer highlight was the annual paper drive, when we would scramble onto a rickety truck and drive to parishioners’ homes to pick up their discarded newspapers (and occasional naughty Playboy magazines).

His career has soared like an angel

Michael got no special treatment from us; he was in the middle of all of the action and mischief. But eventually he was attracted to the priesthood. He earned his Master of Divinity degree from the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale in 1978, and his career has soared like an angel ever since. He had been the Bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina for 15 years when he was elected to head this nation’s Episcopal Church by two landslide votes: he received 121 of 174 votes cast by the House of Bishops, then the House of Deputies affirmed their judgment with a vote of 800-12. Known as a dynamic speaker and progressive thinker, in Curry the church’s leaders chose wisely.

Although St. Philip’s is a very small church in Buffalo, it has produced at least a half-dozen priests, including my brother, who retired in 2014 after 35 years of wearing the vestments. But our fellow altar boy, Bishop Michael Curry, has nine more years of work to do as the leader of the nation’s nearly two million Episcopalians.

Jun 04
0

My Take On: The Brains Behind Serena – Her Own

By | Sports

Image Captions: Serena Williams trailed 4-2 in her Wimbledon championship match against Garbine Muguruza, but solved the puzzle to become champion again./Photo by Julian Figgins/Getty Images

Serena Williams is such a dynamic, powerful, beautiful, black Superwoman athlete that everything she does and is hits society like an exploding firecracker. That’s five reasons why her fans – especially her black fans – are so protective of her.

That was obvious when the New York Times got beaten up so badly by its readers over focusing its article “Tennis’s Top Women Balance Body Image With Ambition” around Serena’s physique. Even the Times’ Public Editor, Margaret Sullivan, apologized for the article’s lack of depth.

As ESPN Wimbledon commentator LZ Granderson said, “So many different conversations come from the simple fact that this dark-skinned, impactful successful black woman is at the top of what has been known as a privileged white sport.”

Another hovering controversy about Serena was handled with much grace by ESPN analysts on July 12, the day after she won her sixth Wimbledon crown and 21st Grand Slam. Her detractors – some of whom clearly are racists or sexists – often dismiss her by claiming she merely bludgeons foes into defeat with her awesome power. It’s the classic “blacks win with brawn; whites win with brains” argument, but before the men’s final, ESPN’s tennis analysts – all exceptional pros in their day – struck blow after blow against that stereotype.

Early in the Wimbledon final, Serena seemed to be thinking, "Oh, oh. I'd better change my strategy."
Early in the Wimbledon final, Serena seemed to be thinking, “Oh, oh. I’d better change my strategy.”

Winning with head and heart

Chris Evert raved about her with the loyalty of a twin sister, praising Serena’s competitiveness that has left her within one title – the U.S. Open – of only the fourth calendar year Grand Slam in women’s tennis history, and the first since Steffi Graf achieved it in 1988.

Cliff Drysdale pointed out that Serena made a critical adjustment three years ago when she changed to the same kind of racket Roger Federer uses, thus gaining control over her sometimes erratic forehand.

Then Mary Joe Fernandez hit the “brains vs. brawn” bull’s-eye, buttressed by Granderson praising Serena’s problem-solving skills.

“What’s impressed me the most, LZ, about Serena throughout these Slams this season is the way she hasn’t panicked,” Fernandez said. “She hasn’t played her best. She’s been down a set and a break, two points from losing to Heather Watson here. And she figures things out.

“It’s not just about the serve; she got broken three times yesterday. She’s got other things to fall back on and she’s thinking out there. She’s finding ways to win.”

For an article that appreciates the totality of Serena’s achievements, read BBC Sport’s Tom Fordyce.http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/tennis/33484728

Jun 04
0

My Take On: Becky Hammon, Spurs Future Head Coach?

By | Sports

Image Caption: Becky Hammon and her players celebrate her coaching the Spurs to the Las Vegas Summer League championship, a historic basketball achievement. /Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images

By Ron Thomas

The scene looked so familiar to NBA fans. With only 2.5 seconds left in a tied postseason game, San Antonio inbounded the ball, a Spur dribbled toward the basket and then sank the winning 20-foot floater to stun Boston in a quarterfinal playoff game.

It looked like the Spurs’ iconic coach, Gregg Popovich, the winner of five NBA titles, had worked his magic again. Except that after the winning play a commentator said, “Just like coach Hammon drew it up.”

Who? He was referring to Becky Hammon, who on July 11 became the first woman to be the head coach of an NBA Summer League team. Saturday’s winning shot by her player, Shannon Scott, raised her team’s record in the Las Vegas Summer League to 4-1 and qualified them to face Atlanta in Sunday’s semifinal.

They overcame a 12-point deficit to win that game, and then squeezed past Phoenix 93-90 on Monday to win the Las Vegas Summer League championship in Hammon’s head-coaching debut. After losing her first game, Hammon led the Spurs to six straight victories.

Becky Hammon's encouragement helped Kyle Anderson become MVP of the Las Vegas Summer League.
Becky Hammon’s encouragement helped Kyle Anderson become MVP of the Las Vegas Summer League./Photo by Ronda Churchill/AP

Those last three games were perfect examples of  why Popovich hired her as the NBA’s first full-time female assistant coach last season. He has highly praised Hammon, a longtime WNBA star guard, while comparing her to three excellent NBA coaches he helped groom.

“She talks the game,” Popovich said. “She understands the game. So for all of those reasons, you really know she’s got that same sort of Avery Johnson, Steve Kerr, (Mike) Budenholzer type thing.”

Gregg Popovich talks wine at the Rex Hill Vineyards that produce his label./Photo by Karly Imus/The Oregonian
Gregg Popovich talks wine at the Rex Hill Vineyards that produce his label./Photo by Karly Imus/The Oregonian

At the age of 66, Popovich soon will start his 20th season as the Spurs’ head coach. He has said he will complete the remaining four years on his contract. Maybe by then, or before then, the noted wine connoisseur will be ready to retire to spend more time sipping his private wine label Rock & Hammer Pinot Noir.

Despite all of his championships, the boldest and most unique part of Popovich’s legacy would occur if he hands the head-coaching reins to Hammon.

Hammon is fortunate to have the strongest advocate she could ever wish for, a future Hall of Fame coach who commands so much respect that if any Spurs player balks at taking orders from a woman, he should just keep that thought to himself. As all of us who grew up with a strong father figure remember, there are some things you just don’t want “Pop” to know.

Jun 04
0

My Take On: Bill McMoore, Always Looking Out for His Brothers and Sisters

By | Sports

Image caption: Bill McMoore carried a menacing right hand when he entered the ring, just waiting for a jaw to be exposed. This falling San Jose State boxer felt McMoore’s power in their 1951 match. 

By Ron Thomas

(The following is the introduction I read before presenting McMoore with a Pioneer Award from the National Association of Black Journalists Sports Task Force on August 7.)

When Bill McMoore graduated from the University of Minnesota, Harry Truman was president, “I Love Lucy” had not debuted on TV yet, and the NBA still was playing without a shot clock.

It was 1951, and if Bill wanted to view the university’s black representation on the football and boxing teams, and in the Education Department, all he needed was a mirror. In all three cases, he was the entire brotherhood. Yet, he persevered.

As a boxer, succeeding was a breeze because his coach was so supportive. “He was more of a father-like coach, so I didn’t feel discriminated against,” McMoore, now 89, recalled. “Ray Chisholm was a very nice guy.”

McMoore responded to his support by becoming the No. 2-ranked lightheavyweight in NCAA rankings, back when boxing was a sanctioned sport.

“I had a good right hand,” Bill said. “You had to worry about that…. Straight right hand to the chops.”

However, McMoore seldom played in a football game. He believes that he was discriminated against, but he refused to quit the team. “That was just ingrained in me,” he said. “I didn’t want to give up in anything.”

A One-Man Employment Agency

Bill began his teaching career in 1958 at Minnesota South High from where he graduated, and in the early 1980s he became the district’s director of health, physical education and athletics. He used that authority to add color to the sidelines, including giving Sports Task Force member Charles Hallman his first coaching job.

Charles was teaching young kids basketball one day when a parent complimented him and asked if he coached high school ball. When Charles said no, the parent said he knew someone who could hire him. A few days later, Bill called and asked for his resume.

“I didn’t know he was the AD,” Charles recalled. “I just thought he was somebody working for the schools. I didn’t know he was THE MAN.”

That was in 1984, and soon Charles was an assistant coach. Today, he’s still coaching in Minneapolis schools and so are both of his sons – all part of McMoore’s legacy.

images-1

But Bill is most proud of how hard he fought to get women hired as coaches. “If a man could find benefits from coaching in sports, why shouldn’t women?” he said.

Bill retired from the school district in 1989 and became director of community relations for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, where he started an internship for minorities by recruiting from HBCUs. One of his finds was Terrell Battle from Winston-Salem State, who now is General Manager of Lifetime Fitness in Minneapolis.

So Bill, please come to the podium to accept our award for being a black pioneer in so many ways for so many people for so long.

Jun 04
0

My Take On: Tony Oliva, Baseball Star Who Owes His Career to Fidel Castro

By | Sports

Image caption: To honor his great career and his retired No. 6 jersey, the Minnesota Twins dedicated this statue to Tony Oliva in 2011 at Gate 6 at Target Field. 

By Ron Thomas

(The following is the introduction I read before presenting Oliva with a Pioneer Award from the National Association of Black Journalists Sports Task Force on August 7.)

If not for Fidel Castro, Tony Oliva probably would not be one of our honorees today.

One of the great hitters of the last half-century, Oliva was raised in rural Cuba, where baseball is revered. He played only on Sundays, and he learned how to hit as his brother pitched to him.

“I told him any time you strike me out you get a nickel, and he had to work hard to strike me out,” Tony said.

In 1959, Castro overthrew the dictatorial Cuban government. The next year, the Washington Senators signed Tony to a contract before moving to the Twin Cities, and in January of 1961, the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba. Using his brother’s documents to leave, Tony (whose real first name is Pedro Jr.) was allowed to fly first to Mexico and then to the States for a tryout with 21 other Cuban players. They were the last baseball players to leave Cuba without defecting.

The lucky break that made a career

At spring training in Fernandina Beach, Florida, Tony was cut presumably because of poor fielding, but he believes racism was the real reason. Only two minor-league teams were left in spring training when the Cubans had arrived. The Erie, Pa., team had already chosen one black player, and the other team from Florida didn’t want any, so Tony was supposed to be sent home. But because of the Castro-U.S. feud, there were no boat or plane rides to Cuba.

A minor-league manager named Phil Howser got a rave report on Tony so he paid Tony’s expenses until Howser found a team that would take him in Wytheville, Virginia. There he hit .410, and a stellar career was born.

Unlike many of today’s hitters who will get a three-ball count and then settle for a walk, Tony stayed aggressive at the plate. Regardless of the count, if a pitcher threw what he calls “a Cuban sandwich,” Tony tried to crush it.

Instant star

He made history by leading the American League in batting in his first two full major-league seasons, hitting .323 in 1964 and .321 in 1965. Despite a serious mid-career injury that resulted in eight surgeries and a replacement of his right knee, from 1962-76 Tony batted .304 with 220 home runs, 947 RBIs, 8 straight All-Star Game appearances and five finishes among the top 10 vote-getters for the MVP award.

Last year, Tony was deeply disappointed when he missed being selected for the Hall of Fame by one vote. But this year brought him joy when President Obama re-opened U.S. diplomatic relations with Cuba.

“Hopefully, more people will enjoy a chance to enjoy Cuba and see for themselves what kind of people Cuban people are – very nice, very friendly,” Tony said. “I have five brothers and sisters and I go back every year.

“Now I have two countries. I live 55 years in the United States and 21 in Cuba. I am very proud of both countries.”

Tony, please come to the podium for being one of the most lethal hitters of our time.

Morehouse's Ron Thomas, Jeffrey Washington '10, Jayson Overby and Thomas Scott '13 surround 2015 Pioneer Award winner Tony Oliva

Image caption: Tony Oliva with (L-R) me, Morehouse graduate Jeffrey Washington ’10, past Maroon Tiger Editor-in-Chief Jayson Overby and Thomas Scott ’13

Jun 04
0

My Take On: Briana Scurry, Greatest African-American Soccer Player Ever

By | Sports

Image caption: Briana Scurry, the goalkeeper on championship Women’s World Cup and Olympic teams, celebrated receiving her Pioneer Award  with Morehouse student Keion Grissom and co-host Ron Thomas on August 7 at the 2015 National Association of Black Journalists Convention in Minneapolis. 

By Ron Thomas

(The following is the introduction I read before presenting Scurry with her award from the NABJ Sports Task Force.)

The pitch has been Briana Scurry’s home since she started playing soccer on a boys’ team because there was no girls team. She was 12 in Dayton, Minnesota, and the coach made her goaltender to keep her out of harm’s way. Wrong concept.

Describing goaltending, she said, “The best analogy was one I heard when a pilot was doing a speech and said flying is absolutely hours and hours of monotony, coupled with instances of sheer terror.”

The shot stops here

The ball is away from a goaltender almost the entire game, “Then 21 people are trying to crash into your space,” Briana said. “It’s very difficult because of the pace, and people’s intuition is to avoid objects, people and knees coming at you, but as goaltender you have to go TO that stuff.”

Her daring led Briana to become the most successful African-American soccer player in history and to be named on U.S. Women’s Soccer’s all-time best team after participating in 133 victories (including 71 shutouts), only 12 losses and 14 ties.

Briana Scurry

The coming out that wasn’t

She also made social history in 1999 when Briana became one of the first high-profile athletes to come out publicly as a gay person. You don’t remember that? There’s a reason why.

Just as Abby Wambach ran to the stands to kiss her wife after America’s World Cup victory last month, Briana ran to her girlfriend after winning the 1999 championship in which she made a title-saving save. “But,” Briana recalled, “ABC cut away when they realized I was kissing another woman. So, that was my coming out.”

Fact is, Briana has never hidden being gay and speaks out frequently on diversity and LGBT issues.

Career-ending concussion

Her career ended in 2010 when an opponent accidentally kneed her in the side of the head. She completed the first half of the game, walked to the bench leaning to one side, and never played again.

The blow gave her a concussion that, according to Sports Illustrated, afflicted her with three years of severe headaches that made it very difficult for her to concentrate, socialize, write, walk or do soccer commentary. “After a while I started to get depressed,” she told SI. “My brain chemistry had changed. … My mind was broken.”

Her life was put back on track after neurologist Kevin Crutchfield figured out that a nerve that went from the spine to her neck to the back of her head had become intertwined with a muscle. A 2013 surgery removed the nerve, ended the headaches and started her path toward normalcy she’s still striving to achieve.

Protecting the future of women’s soccer

Especially because girls playing soccer are unusually susceptible to concussions, Briana has become an outspoken advocate for concussion awareness and criticizes soccer federations that underplay the problem.

She asked, “Can we please do something before parents think, like football, that soccer’s too dangerous?”

Soccer needs someone to save itself from ridicule. Who could be better for that task than Briana Scurry? For all that you’ve contributed to your sport and to our enjoyment, please come get your Pioneer Award.