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- [00:02]
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And switch up to four lines via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlocked device credit service ported 90 plus days with device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires.
- [00:29]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
In six months this episode contains offensive language that may not be suitable for all listeners. If there's one thing you should know about me, it's that I'm a big music fan. You can find almost every genre on my playlist. For me, what makes so many artists music special is the influence of jazz. Jazz is a genre of contradictions. It's flexible and structured, elevated and gritty, cerebral, and you feel it in your body. There's an inherent back and forth to it because jazz is best when at least two people are playing. It's call and response. The instruments are talking to each other. The best artists didn't find their sound alone. They found it collaboratively through jam sessions with other musicians where they could improvise and experiment with new styles. Jazz is a team sport. That's kind of what I love about baseball, too. A baseball team is like a jazz ensemble. Every player has a role to play. Sometimes they even have an instrument. In baseball, that instrument is a bat or a mitt, and they're always moving in response to one another. Pitchers are almost like soloists. At certain points, all the focus on the field zeroes in on them, because whether or not the batter hits or misses, the real action of the game begins when that baseball leaves the pitcher's hand. And from there the players set the game's tempo. Black baseball players like my grandfather Turkey Stearns set the tempo fast. Their style of play was quick, exciting to watch. It had to be, because this was a traveling roadshow. And when you're on tour, anything that jazzes up your act sells more tickets. And this style didn't just move tickets, it built careers. It was so unique and so unlike Major League Baseball at that time that it would deliver Negro League players like Grandpa Turkey the fame they always deserved as long as they were willing to travel around the world to get it. From ABC Audio this is reclaimed. The Forgotten League I'm Vanessa ivey Rose Episode 3 Call and Response Here's a reminder of where we are in the story of black baseball in the last episode you heard about what it takes to make a league. Rupe Foster, known as the father of black baseball, founded the Negro National League in 1920. It was the first organized black baseball league and it jump started the black baseball economy for team owners and managers. Players made money too. Black athletes were seeing annual paychecks ranging from $1,200 to $4,800 a year. That's 18,000 to $73,000 in today's money. They were earning much higher than the average American. But black players income was still only a fraction of what their white counterparts earned, regardless of talent. This was common in most career paths in America at so league players side hustled, playing games in off seasons and in between games. To supplement their income, they would travel within the United States and internationally playing freelance exhibition games against other traveling teams. This was called barnstorming. Barnstorming games featured that high tempo, hard hitting style of baseball that black players had developed before the negro leagues even existed as an official organization. Players hit hard, ran fast and played off of each other in a way that went beyond baseball into theater.
- [05:33]
Donald Spivey
It was a game of more daring, more base stealing, more fancy ball handling. Why would you throw somebody out with a straight throw when you can do it between your legs or behind your back? And fans love that.
- [05:49]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
That's Donald Spivey, a historian and distinguished professor at University of Miami.
- [05:55]
Donald Spivey
Players out back in the outfield would do the cakewalk and that sort of thing. Before games they played shadow ball, which is imaginary ball, there's no real ball there. You know, they would put on these kinds of stunts as we call them, to entertain the fans.
- [06:14]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
Imagine sitting in the stands, excited to see your team play. They come out and they're miming their pitches and hits, playing silly pretend games all for fun and show. Fans loved it. But the theatrics weren't the only thing that fans came for. Remember the gentleman's agreement was still in place. So a major draw of barnstorming games was that they were the only time black and white teams would face each other.
- [06:45]
Donald Spivey
And they played on the fact of color. The Negro League All Stars vs. The White Major league all stars, that kind of thing, which would, you know, bring blacks and whites into the stadiums and huge, huge numbers to see these showdowns.
- [07:03]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
There's not a lot of coverage of Negro league games in the archives. They weren't reported on much, if at all, on the radio, in local papers, or even in teams own records. And even when scores were recorded, they couldn't capture the energy of the games or how each point was earned. The story of barnstorming is like all the best ones. To know what really went down, you kind of just had to be there. Having a Super bowl party tomorrow, huh? Super bowl tomorrow.
- [07:36]
Donald Spivey
Oh, well.
- [07:36]
Ron Teasley
Oh, yeah. I'll be watching.
- [07:37]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
Okay. Okay. Who you cheering for? Who's the team? Eagles.
- [07:45]
Ron Teasley
I. I mean, whoever. I'm neutral, I guess.
- [07:48]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
There we go. Happy either way. Ron Teasley is 96 years old, a former Negro league outfielder and from the D, just like me. In early 2023, I met up with him and some of his family members at a senior living facility. Even though he mostly lives here now, he still spends time at the home where he raised his kids. That's in another part of Detroit. And it's filled to the brim with his photos and mementos. Here at the senior living facility, there's a mounted TV featuring a slideshow of photos from his Negro League days. You can hear me trying to get a Super Bowl 57 prediction out of him. I figured with the years of sports expertise he has, he might have a better guess than me.
- [08:38]
Ron Teasley
May the best team win.
- [08:40]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
All right. Can't go wrong. Two black quarterbacks, right? Happy about that?
- [08:46]
Donald Spivey
Exactly.
- [08:47]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
Ron started playing baseball young. The older players called him school Boy.
- [08:52]
Ron Teasley
I love talking about the Degree League. That's one of my favorite topics.
- [09:00]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
He grew up with the super fan of a dad, and his father would talk about the Negro leagues with so much admiration. It became a dream of Ron's to play in them someday. So Ron started showing up to his local stadium at a very young age.
- [09:14]
Ron Teasley
I started practicing with them. I think I was 12, 13 years old, I started practicing with them. And like, I was a bat boy, maybe a gopher, I go for things. And then pretty soon they'll say, well, play catch with you and we'll let you bat, and all that sort of thing.
- [09:31]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
He'd run the players bats, balls or anything they might need. When teams played a local game and a player didn't show, Ron got asked to sub in. Ron was there, like, there there when these games, the special style of play and barnstorming were all happening. I also wanted to speak with him because he knew my grandfather. All right, well, first I wanted to thank you for allowing me to talk with you because, you know, not having my grandfather here in the present day, every time I look at you, I think of him.
- [10:10]
Ron Teasley
Oh, God.
- [10:10]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
And it gives me an opportunity to actually have an opportunity to imagine what he would be like.
- [10:16]
Ron Teasley
Oh, yes. Well, I can tell you a Few things about him. He's quite a. He was an idol here in Detroit. Well loved, he was well respected. And growing up, we called him the Gobbler.
- [10:29]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
I like that. The Gobbler. Why did you call him the Gobbler?
- [10:32]
Ron Teasley
Well, I think he had a lot of quirky movements when he played. He batted, he got a quirky batting stance and we always thought his neck was a little long, but he walked in sort of an upright way, you know.
- [10:47]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
Ron was much younger than Turkey, but they barnstormed together on a semi professional team. Ron was at the start of his career while Turkey's was coming to an end. A barnstorming tour that Ron remembers in particular took them through the American South.
- [11:05]
Ron Teasley
And we were scheduled to play games in Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky. And so we traveled together, had a great time. We had a lot of fun together. There's a picture of her.
- [11:20]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
Look at that. Perfect timing. That's right. The slideshow on the TV just flipped to a photo of Turkey. He has a classic serious face on and he's looking directly into the camera, almost like he can hear us talking about him.
- [11:36]
Ron Teasley
It's just quiet but deadly.
- [11:38]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
Quiet but deadly. That's him. While barnstorming gave Negro league players opportunity to supplement their income, it also meant spending significant amounts of time in buses and cars, exposing them to racism on the road.
- [11:55]
Ron Teasley
We were playing a team called the Chicago Brown Bombers. One of the players on that team failed to say sir to an officer. And sure enough, they were beaten up pretty badly.
- [12:11]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
When Ron was 14 or 15, he took his first trip down south with a barnstorming team. His older teammates would tell him, when we get stopped, and it was always when, not if. You have to be very careful what you say.
- [12:27]
Ron Teasley
They were so concerned about me not saying the right thing that they said, well, what we'll do, we'll put him in the trunk of the car because he might say the wrong thing and we don't want to get beat up. Then they said, well, no, well, just, just you be careful what you say. If they say something to you, just shake your head.
- [12:48]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
For a car full of black men, a police stop gone wrong could potentially disrupt not only your barnstorming tour, but your life.
- [12:57]
Ron Teasley
It was sad. You know, some of the things that went on back in those days was that was a dark part of American history, you know, and sad. You know, I can recall once we were traveling and they stopped us and they would ask you, where's Satchel?
- [13:18]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
Satchel? As in Satchel Page? As players traveled far and wide, their Names did too. Satchel had become such a barnstorming legend that his name could protect players like Ron thousands of miles away.
- [13:34]
Ron Teasley
And we would say, oh, well, he's going to. We're going to meet him at the park. Even though that was not true. You know, we would say that, and sometimes they would give us an escort into the city.
- [13:46]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
If you've heard of one Negro League player, you've heard of Satchel.
- [13:52]
Donald Spivey
Satchel Page is by far the star of Stars of Negro League Baseball.
- [13:57]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
Donald Spivey wrote a biography on Satchel called if youf Were Only the Life of Leroy Satchel Page. Satchel pitched on and off for the Pittsburgh Crawfords during the early 1930s. You know, Crawford as in the Crawford Grill, that's Gus Greenlee's buzzing Pittsburgh bar we learned about in the last episode, the spot where all the Jazz greats played. On Satchel's days off from the Negro Leagues, he would barnstorm across the country. He wore his own solo uniform with his name sewn across the front. His appearance assured that small town teams would get a full house. His fee was up to $2,000, or over 20,000 in today's money. Tickets for games that Satchel was pitching in would sell like hotcakes. His name's presence in the lineup was reassuring for his teammates.
- [14:55]
Donald Spivey
Negro League baseball players I interviewed back in that era, they would say, we compliment Satchel Page. We all love Satchel Page because he helped us to meet the payroll. You know, we got paid.
- [15:09]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
Satchel played with my grandfather, Turkey Stearns. At one point, Satchel said Grandad was, quote, one of the greatest hitters we ever had. But what people said about Satchel was that he has style.
- [15:26]
Donald Spivey
He called his pitches, you know, the Bad Dodger, the Oopsie do pitch, and the Strikeout Ball. You know, he had a whole litany of names of pitches. And I think those are the kinds of things that made Satchel Page such a household name, because he had that ability to communicate with the public.
- [15:53]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
His pitching was refined and one of a kind, but where that style came from, it's bittersweet.
- [16:03]
Donald Spivey
When he was a child, he used to go hunting for birds with rocks. And he was able to knock sparrows out of the sky. Now you know how small a sparrow is. Good grief. And he had that kind of ability. And that was very necessary in his family of 12 for survival because he often made the difference in terms of them having meat that night. And he was able to do that from nine years old.
- [16:33]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
On hurling rocks, that arm would take him to some of the biggest black versus white baseball matchups in history. Like the 1934 exhibition game between the Rosenblooms and the Crawfords. Cleveland's Rosenblooms were all white, and the Crawfords, including Satchel, were a black team. This game would pit Satchel against famed white pitcher Dizzy Dean. Dizzy may have been good, but Satchel was better. The Crawfords beat the Rosenblums 4 to 1 again. This type of game wasn't sanctioned by baseball's white establishment or its commissioner, Kennesaw Landis, at all. The gentlemen's agreement, that unspoken rule to keep baseball segregated was very much intact.
- [17:33]
Donald Spivey
Dizzy Dean, he said it numerous times. He said, I don't understand why the majors keep these colored boys off of our rosters. And I quote him here, he says, if me and Satchel were on the same team, he said, we'd have to pin it one in early July and go fishing for the rest of the season until it's time for the World Series.
- [17:56]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
But for black Negro league players, the stakes were bigger than a World Series win. This was a matter of their physical safety. Would they get to the next stop on their tour safely or even alive? My grandmother Nettie Mae told me how KKK members would follow Negro leaguers from city to city on barnstorming tours. If players managed to make it to their destination without facing racist violence, they'd be met with the realities of segregation. After hours on the road, any white owned establishment that would even serve them a hot meal would make them enter through the back. And the beds that greeted them were infested with pests. Players covered their mattresses with newspapers and could hear the rustling of bed bugs moving underneath. Sleeping conditions were were so terrible that these athletes who probably had a game the next morning, would sleep sitting upright in a chair with the light on to keep the bugs at bay.
- [19:02]
Donald Spivey
This is one of the reasons that Satchel Page early on switched to driving his own automobile. It avoided him having to stay in those chinch ridden Jim Crow accommodations. He could sleep in his car.
- [19:18]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
In 1946, team owners bought Satchel a gift to help get him from game to game faster. A Cessna 142 seater plane tagged on both sides with Satchel Page in cursive script.
- [19:34]
Donald Spivey
These kinds of things were a way of circumventing the humiliation that not only the south, but much of the north as well, put up these barriers against black folk. You could fly above it, but sooner or later you had to land and the problems would start again.
- [19:56]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
After whatever night's sleep they could get in those conditions, black teens would make their way to rented baseball parks. They leased them from white owners at exorbitant prices on days that white teams weren't using them. Of course, stadiums like the iconic Rick Wood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, followed Jim Crow laws that required white announcers to emcee all games. One of those emcees was a man named Bull Connor, who later becomes the.
- [20:28]
Donald Spivey
Poster child for racism in the civil rights movement of the 60s. Most people don't realize that Bull Connor got his nickname Bull because he was a radio announcer, baseball announcer in particular.
- [20:44]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
Theophilus Eugene Bull Connor would go on to be the future commissioner of Public safety in Birmingham, Alabama. When the Freedom Writers, a group of civil rights activists, got off the bus In Birmingham in 1961, Bull Connor allowed Klansmen to beat the Freedom Riders with metal bars, pipes and bats for 15 minutes with no police intervention.
- [21:13]
Donald Spivey
Some of his announcements, I mean, quote unquote, look at that little nigger, Ron boy, just like monkeys. And this kind of derogatory epithet that he used constantly.
- [21:26]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
There were some places where players could barnstorm without facing this type of Jim Crow racism. Barnstorming wasn't just taking players around the United States or North America. Even barnstorming made black baseball international, though sometimes it did mean playing for a dictator.
- [21:56]
T-Mobile Representative
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- [22:33]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
In 1937, Satchel found himself in a rut. Despite being a huge star, he was struggling to get a raise from his team owner at the time, Time, Gus Greenly. Suddenly, it appeared that his luck turned around. One day in April, a representative from the Dominican Republic tracked Satchel down and made him a new offer with a big price tag. This was an invitation of sorts to jump teams, as Negro league players often did, and come play for a big spender. One who would pay Satchel the type of money he could never make in Pittsburgh. There was one catch, though. The invitation came from a dictator, Rafael Trujillo. And while it was an invitation. It was one most people don't refuse. So Satchel page accepted. By 1937, two things were true in the Dominican Republic. One, baseball was a national pastime. And two, Rafael Trujillo was firmly established as leader. He ruled the country with an iron fist, renamed the capital Ciudad Trujillo or Trujillo City. And his security forces were responsible for the killings of anyone who Trujillo considered his opponent. Ahead of his reelection campaign. And with baseball's popularity booming, Trujillo saw an opportunity to consolidate political power by dominating his opponents once again, this time on the ball field. Donald Spivey knows the story.
- [24:24]
Donald Spivey
This trio wants to maintain his dictatorial powers, et cetera. You want to show Matisse Mo. You want to show machoism. You did this by baseball, challengers would come at you with a baseball team. So Trujillo puts together a baseball team. Well, there's no rule in the Dominican Republic about who you can bring in or can't bring in. So he sent a representative up north to the United States to get Satchel Page and some of his folks. And Satchel Page was back then playing for the Crawfords. He abandons the Crawfords and takes Cool Papa Bell with him and a bunch of other players almost destroys the Negro Leagues. He got at least $30,000 to do this and to bring with him the players he saw fit, which would be a heck of a lot of money, certainly in that period.
- [25:23]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
$30,000 in 1937's currency is over 600,000 today. And not only was the money competitive, but the travel and accommodations were fit for, well, star athletes. That meant no more cramped bus rides on an empty stomach. No more riding in fear of a heavy handed police stop. No more sharing beds with pests. These offers were a barnstorming standard. Playing for a dictator, however, was not.
- [25:59]
Donald Spivey
They go down there to the Dominican Republic and it's not as easy as one would think, right? In fact, it's pretty well tied up because the other groups bring in ringers from some of the great Latin American ball players.
- [26:15]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
Satchel writes in his autobiography that Trujillo's soldiers were stationed around the field with long knives and guns in their belts. Satchel and his entire team could see their weapons. And before he walked out onto the mound, his manager told him, take my advice and win.
- [26:37]
Donald Spivey
It's no exaggeration in terms of the pressure put on him and others, when in fact, representatives from dictator Rafael Drill told Paige that El Presidente didn't bring you down here to lose. El Presidente brought you down here to win.
- [26:57]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
Even in these most dangerous of circumstances. Barnstorming outside the US Gave black players freedom they didn't experience within its borders. After the game was won, Satchel and his teammates returned to the best stores, restaurants and bars in the capital city. None of them had any whites only signs in their windows. There's power in going only where you are celebrated. For so many black ballplayers, that was Latin America and the Caribbean. I've heard my grandfather barnstormed in Cuba and Canada, although I don't have too many details about what his travels were like or what he thought of those spaces. He was very introverted, so I like to think mostly he played ball and came straight home. Other players didn't want to come home so fast, though, and I can't blame them. When Josh Gibson, another Negro league great who barnstormed with Satchel Page, went to Cuba, he wanted to stay. His team manager threatened to seize his house to get him to return to the United States. Then there was Willie Wells, a black player who barnstormed in Mexico and Cuba. He wrote about his experiences abroad and said, I found democracy here. Donald Spivey, again, player after player, told me this.
- [28:33]
Donald Spivey
Well, you go and you play in a place like Cuba. And they would stay at the National Hotel. And I must have interviewed, I don't know, 60 Negro League players. They told me that, in fact you were treated like a human being. There was no Jim Crow ism that you had to deal with. You didn't have to go into the back area to eat. There was no discrimination in terms of what room you could have. These were great, great havens.
- [29:04]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
Now, it definitely was not a perfect haven. Racism was alive and well in Latin America and the Caribbean. But for star black athletes who were insulated from racism by being American celebrities, I can see how it would feel like paradise. Especially coming from the wintry United States where no amount of money could protect a black person from segregation. I keep trying to imagine what it must have been like for these athletes who for the first time were being celebrated for who they were. What could it feel like to return home after an experience like that? How could Negro League players, black men, truly call any space in America home? But for them, America was home. Through the Negro National League, they had learned to operate within the system of segregation. Through barnstorming, they managed to play and even thrive during the off season. But that would all change. Black ball, that special world famous style of play that had opened unimaginable doors for black players like my grandfather was about to become a relic of the past.
- [30:31]
Ron Teasley
All of a sudden they come along and say, well, we're going to start taking your star players.
- [30:36]
Donald Spivey
You have people spit on you and call you names and spit on your wife when she's sitting in the stand just watching the game.
- [30:44]
Vanessa Ivey Rose
It took until I believe, 1959 for every team that was a part of the league at that time to integrate Reclaimed. The Forgotten League is an original production of ABC Audio, hosted by me, Vanessa Ivey Rose. This episode was written by IRU Ekpenobe. The series was produced by Madeline Wood, Cameron Chertavian, IRU Akpanobi, Camille Peterson and Amira Williams. Our senior producers on this project were Susie Liu and Lakia Brown. Music and scoring by Evan Viola. A big shout out to our ABC Audio team. Liz Alessi, Josh Cohan, Ariel Chester, Sasha Aslanian, Marwa Mawak, Audrey Mostek and Erin Farrer. Special thanks to Chris Donovan, Rick Klein, Eric Fayel, Anthony Fanek, Mara Bush and of course my mom, Joyce Stearns Thompson and my aunt Rosalind Stearns Brown. Laura Mayer is our executive producer.
- [32:07]
T-Mobile Representative
After investing billions to light up our network, T Mobile is America's largest 5G network. Plus right now you can switch keep your phone and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan vs Verizon and at&t@t mobile.com Keep.
- [32:23]
And switch up to four lines via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlock device credit service ported 90 plus days with device ineligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months.