Winfield’s brainchild thrills Negro Leaguers

Yahoo Sports ^ | 6/6/08 | Tim Brown

[Michael.SF.]

Emilio “Millito” Navarro boarded a jet in San Juan on Wednesday morning, three months before his 103rd birthday.

He was bound for Orlando, Fla., bound for Major League Baseball’s amateur draft, bound for the New York Yankees, his favorite team.

And Robinson Cano had better break out of that slump.

“Now that I’ve been drafted,” Navarro said, “I’m ready right now to play second base. I might take his job.”

In Memphis, somebody ought to fetch one of those low-hanging, welt-raising switches, because Joe B. Scott is fixing to be a ballplayer again.

He’s 87.

“I love baseball,” he said. “I used to get a whipping for playing it. My mother used to whip me on Thursdays and Sundays. Those were my whipping days because she knew I was on the ballfield. But I didn’t cry when she whipped me.”

He’ll be selected by the Milwaukee Brewers in the draft. Held, of course, on a Thursday.

In San Diego, Neale “Bobo” Henderson packed for Orlando. He’ll be 78 in three weeks. Sadly, his wife, Annie, is ill and won’t accompany him. But he’s waited the better part of a lifetime for this, to be draft-day eligible, draft-day worthy, draft-day remembered. So he’ll leave Annie behind for a few days, report for duty 60 years coming, dust himself off again and get on with it. He’ll be drafted by the Los Angeles Angels.

Rogers Hornsby, a minor league manager and occasional scout in the 1940s, watched Henderson play a few games. Henderson said the Hall-of-Fame second baseman called him “The California Comet.”

“I was known for my head-first slides,” he said. “Rogers Hornsby really liked my head-first slides.”

[Michael.SF.]

I have mixed thoughts on this:

It is great to recognize and honor these players. Hat's off to Dave Winfield for doing so.

However, when the color barrier in MLB was broken, that was the begining of the end of the 'Negro Leagues'. That was also the end of many jobs, a source of entertainment, a quality brand of baseball, a lively hood for many people. It is a shame that there could not have been a way to allow Blacks into MLB, while also keeping the 'Negro Leagues' alive in a revised form.

[beezdotcom]

Nice to see a positive baseball story today, instead of the negative ones currently making the rounds....

[PurpleMan]

Winfield was always a class act.

[Michael.SF.]

That he was. It is a shame that the number of known "class acts" over the years is a relatively short list:

Koufax, Aaron, Yaz, Ryan, Brooks Robinson, Kaline, Killebrew, Clemente, Ripkin, Banks are a few that come immediately to mind.

[Clint Lippo]

“Winfield was always a class act.”Not always. I had a Sports Illustrated” from the 70’s that had a picture of a bloodied Luke Witte of Ohio State on the cover.The story was about a racial incident started by the Univ. Of Minn. basketball team against the winning Ohio State team.Witte was down on the floor after a play and a Minn. player offered his hand to Witte and as he gripped it he was kneed in the face.Dave Winfield came off the bench and proceeded to kick a prostrate Witte and join in the mele.[Maybe he’s gotten religion since then, but I hope it’s not from The Trinity Church in Chicago.}