Paying tribute to forgotten black ballplayers

NorthJersey.com ^ | 08.02.06 | LAWRENCE AARON

[Coleus]

FRANK GRANT never got a chance to stretch his talent as a baseball player as far as it could go. The reason is so simple that it needs no finessing. He was black. His color kept him out. In a gesture that goes a long way toward making up for past slights, professional baseball is stretching its hand out to honor the forgotten black men of baseball. Grant, buried in Clifton, is one of them. He and others bounced around among all black teams but also played on teams that integrated decades before the Brooklyn Dodgers hired Jackie Robinson, baseball historians now agree.

On Sunday, the Baseball Hall of Fame recognized Grant and 16 others, including a white woman from Newark, Effa Manley, who championed better salaries for black professional players in the 1930s and 1940s. Manley, the first woman inductee, was co-owner of the Newark Eagles. Designated to speak about the historic honor organized baseball gave black league players Sunday, Robinson's daughter Sharon Robinson reviewed black players' "tremendous contribution to professional baseball." "It is incumbent upon us to acknowledge and continue to struggle against the inequities in our society," Robinson said.

A step toward healing

It is impossible to make up for the kind of losses that go hand-in-hand with race-based exclusionary policies like the ones Frank Grant and the other black baseball players endured for decades and decades. The Hall of Fame recognition of so many this year is a step toward healing. "That's the best we can do now... but no, it doesn't make up for it," said James Overmyer, who has researched Grant for more than a decade. "It's good that they're honored, it's appropriate that they're honored. But there's nothing we can do to go back and remake history." Overmyer uncovered eyewitness and printed accounts about Grant's extraordinary talent that led him to be described by The Hall of Fame as the "greatest black ballplayer of the 19th century." Yesterday was the 141st anniversary of Grant's birth. He died in 1937, about a decade before Jackie Robinson officially broke Major League Baseball's color line.

The sport had been integrated since its invention in the early 1800s. But in the 1880s, Jim Crow imposed racial separation on all facets of life and sports. Teams refused to play black players and maliciously attacked them. Born Ulysses Franklin Grant on Aug. 1, 1865, in Pittsfield, Mass., Grant played more than 15 years in the minors and barnstorming black baseball teams, mostly as a second-baseman. He then went on to make a modest living in New York first as a waiter, then as a common laborer. Nobody made much money as an athlete back then.

So black athletes got neither big money nor broad recognition, and never got a chance to go as far as they could for the sport they loved. An unmarked grave in a Clifton's East Ridgelawn Cemetery is the final resting place of Grant, a man forced at times to pretend to be Spanish or something other than African-American so he could play on integrated teams. He was called "The Spaniard" when he played in Buffalo in the 1880s. The ethnic deception was a way to gain acceptability among baseball fans who didn't approve of someone -- even of Grant's caliber -- mixing with white players.

It was not uncommon for African-Americans playing on white minor league teams to be presented to the spectators and fans as Portuguese, Spanish or Arab -- anything but black. Overmyer found reports of hatred so intense that Grant's agility at second base was compromised by the crude wooden shin guards he had to wear because opposing players attacked the base with spikes especially sharpened to injure him. After African-American players were forced out of the minor leagues, Grant played for the Cuban Giants, an all-black team contracted to represent Trenton.

A pauper's burial

He ended up in a pauper's grave, sharing his space with possibly two other indigents. He had no family close by when he died in 1937 at the age of 71. His last 35 years were spent living on Minetta Lane in Manhattan's Greenwich Village and on West 17th Street. He'd had at least two wives, but died penniless and childless. Black players in all leagues never got their due. Grant ended up in the Clifton cemetery after dying of arteriosclerosis in Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital. In the end it was only him, too poor to get a decent burial. By then the cheering had long been silenced.

[Teacher317]

In 18 seasons, he broke .300 four times. That's very good, but not nearly elite. His career average was .288 which is not impressive (see below). No other stats (hits, HR's, steals, etc) are even mentioned anywhere that I can find, meaning that they were not very impressive, either.

There were only 12 teams left in the Negro League when he had 3 of his four great-hitting seasons... after baseball started integrating, taking the top talent out of the league.

Can you name one other scout in the HoF who is there for his scouting?

"First black coach" is the only credit you list that seems close to HOF-worthy consideration. Look at others who are on the outside, looking in:

Joe Torre (.297, 252 HR, 1185 RBI, NL MVP, 2-time AL Mgr of the Year, 5 seasons over .300, including a .363),
Keith Hernandez (.296, 1071 RBI, 5-time All-Star, NL MVP, 8 seasons over .300 including a .344),
Allen Trammell (.285, 1003 RBI, 6-time All-Star, World Series MVP, 5 seasons over .300 including a .343),
Minnie Minoso (.298, 1023 RBI, 7-time All-Star, 8 seasons over .300, and also from the Negro Leagues),
Albert Belle (.295, 381 HR, 1289 RBI, 5-time All-Star, MLB Player of the Year, 4 seasons over .300 including a .357),
Dale Murphy (.265, 398 HR, 1266 RBI, 7-time All-Star, 2-time NL MVP, 4 seasons over .295),
Andre Dawson (.279, 438 HR, 1591 RBI, 8-time All-Star, Rookie of the Year, NL MVP, 6 seasons over .299),
and Jim Rice (.298, 348 HR, 1451 RBI, 8 time All-Star, MLB MVP once, 7 seasons over .300)

(not to mention Pete Rose, of course).

You think Buck O'Neil's lower stats against lesser talent makes him worthy of the honor, when the above have been rejected? Once again, is the Hall of Fame for the best of the best, or is it for politically correct feel-good stories?

[Deut28]

Buck O'Neil helped change the game, you have to evaluate him for ALL his contributions, not just cherry pick and make arguements singularly. Saying "Can you name one other scout in the HoF who is there for his scouting?" is just poor logic, as no one is saying he should get in for his scouting alone. And there are literally dozens of HOFers that were elected for their contributions other than playing. Buck should be elected for this contributions as a player, scout, manager and executive.

How did Albert Belle change the game?

As for some of the others excluded, how did Robin Yount, a career .285 hitter that broke .320 only once, get in ahead of them? When you come up with the right answer to that question, you'll understand why Buck O'Neil deserves to be in the Hall.

Already people have forgotten who Albert Belle is, but for anyone that knows baseball, Buck O'Neil is still a major player. That's why he spoke at the last induction Ceremony. Consider how utterly ridiculous it would have been to see Keith Hernandez or Albert Belle speaking at a HOF ceremony.

Tell you what, name ONE person in the HOF that matches or suprasses Buck's contributions in EVERY category that he has contributed to: player, manager, scout, executive.

When you do that, I'll cede the point.