History of Black Baseball in America

The concludes Part One, which has appeared the past two weeks, entitled “Baseball Hall of Fame’s Henry Aaron’s Connection to Buffalo, New York.” You can find these stories online at www.thebuffalocriterion.com. Part Two is entitled The National Baseball Hall of Fame’s newest exhibit, “The Souls of the Game: The Voices of Black Baseball” and Part Three is entitled Inner City Baseball in Buffalo.

Henry Aaron Meets and Talks with “Homeplate Dancers” In War Memorial Stadium in 1985

By Michael J. Billoni

Continued from last week.

Henry Aaron

COOPERSTOWN, NY.” Henry Aaron is a player whose off-the-field legacy has only grown more powerful since his incredible playing career ended almost 50 years ago,” explained Jane Forbes Clark, the National Baseball of Fame and Museum’s Chair of its Board of Directors. Her grandfather Stephen Carlton Clark founded the Baseball Hall of Fame here in 1939. Mrs. Clark knew Aaron well and was with his bride, Billye, at the unveiling of the Henry Aaron statue inside the Hall last month.

“Henry Aaron is a player whose off-the-field legacy has only grown more powerful since his incredible playing career ended almost 50 years ago,” she added.

Fergie Jenkins, the Hall of Fame pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, remembers Aaron as “One of the most dangerous hitters I faced. I had a lot of respect for him because he always swung for strikes. He was not at the plate looking for a walk. He was the type of ballplayer who knew exactly what he was doing at the plate, and he had a lot of power. Yeah, he hit a couple out of the park on me,” he said with a laugh before the opening of the Hall of Fame’s new The Souls of the Game exhibit about the history of Black baseball in America.

“Everyone in the game idolized Henry Aaron,” con tinued Jenkins, who wore a “14” lapel pin in honor of his late teammate, Ernie Banks. “Henry’s contribu tions to the game, to the city of Atlanta, and a lot of or ganizations, was outstand ing. He is an individual who donated a lot of his time and money. He was an out standing individual.”

Aaron enjoyed a stellar career on the field, retiring in 1976 as baseball’s all-time home run leader with 755. I was fortunate to hear the challenges he faced both on and off the field only be cause of his skin color.

I joined the Bisons in 1983 when Bob Rich, Jr. of Rich Products Corp. saved professional baseball in Buffalo. The team played at War Memorial Stadium, and I soon became close friends with a group of knowledgeable and fun fans who would sit behind home plate. We referred to them as “The Home Plate Dancers” because they al ways stood up and danced when Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” was played. Many of those fans were elderly African Americans who told me about Aretha’s Buffalo connection as well as seeing Aaron play in Offermann Stadium some 30 years earlier.

When Aaron came to Buffalo for the Old-Timers’ game in 1985 at War Memorial Stadium, I introduced him to this group that included an always well-dressed former Negro League player, and others with nicknames such as “Meathead,” “Old Pete,” “Ruby,” and “Ruby’s Mom.”

My only regret is not au dio or video taping the meeting as the humble, classy Aaron was open and honest with the frank ness of his words to these fans. He reminisced about his brief time playing in Buffalo, the challenges a young Black ballplayer had back then playing professional baseball and chasing Babe Ruth’s home record in 1973 and eventually breaking it early in the 1974 season.

He talked about getting paid $10 a game to hit and field for Mobile’s top Black team when he was sixteen and how he climbed a tree to watch his idol, Jackie Robinson when the Brooklyn Dodgers played an exhibition game in Mobile.

Aaron idolized Robin son, who is referred to as “the first Black ballplayer to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball.” A few years ago, a friend, Dr. Toni L. Gaiter Vazquez, EdD., an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and co-founder of G-Health Enterprises with her husband, Dr. Raul Vazquez, MD., corrected me on the terminology.

Quoting Robin DiAngelo in her book, White Fragility, Dr. Toni Vazquez, EdD. told me: “Imagine, if in stead, the story went some thing like this: ‘Jackie Robinson, the first Black man Whites allowed to play major-league base ball.’” I told Dr. Vazquez I agreed with Ms. DiAngelo’s comment, but I would add one word, owners, and change it to read: “The first Black man White owners allowed to play major-league base ball.”

Aaron spoke bluntly, but not bitterly, about growing up in poverty, the segregation of his youth, and the racism he experienced throughout his career, including numerous death threats he and his family endured during the pursuit of Ruth’s record.

On April 8, 1974, in Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium, Aaron broke the most cherished record in baseball history when he hit home run Number 715 off Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Al Dowling. This is what Vincent Ed ward Scully, the Dodgers legendary radio broad caster and considered by many to be the greatest broadcaster of all-time, told his listeners, “What a mar velous moment for base ball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia, our coun try, and our world. A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking the record of an all-time baseball idol. And it is a great moment for all of us, particularly for Hank Aaron, who is being mobbed by his teammates and was just met on the field by his father and his mother and to whom he gave big hugs.”

A humble Aaron then took the microphone and simply said, “I thank God it is over with.”

Upon his retirement as a player in 1976, Aaron re joined the Braves as an executive and on August 1, 1982 he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, having received votes on 97.8 percent of the ballots, second only to Ty Cobb, who had received votes on 98.2 percent of the ballot in the inaugural 1936 Hall of Fame election.

Not outspoken, Aaron was actively engaged in racial justice advocacy through the National As sociation for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Several years after Barack Obama be came the country’s first Black president, Aaron said, “A lot of things have happened in this country, but we have so far to go. There is not a whole lot that has changed.”

When he was here in 1985, he was never hesitant about talking about the issues of the day, whether it was the lack of Black people in Sports management, to joining with civil rights leaders during the COVID-19 pan demic to encourage people to receive the vaccine. No matter the topic, he always presented himself with class and dignity.

Upon his death in 2021 at age 86, legendary sportscaster Bob Costas and a close friend of Aaron, talked eloquently about him during a video message played during his funeral service, which included comments from former President Bill Clinton, former MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and Ambassador Andrew Young.

(To Be Continued)