Recognition for Negro Leagues' baseball stars stirs memories of Alberta barnstorming tours
Famous players like Satchel Paige and Cool Papa Bell came through Western Canada
Leroy (Satchel) Paige found himself pitching in front of thousands of fans in central Alberta for Ponoka's first annual baseball tournament in 1959.
Before making his mark on Major League Baseball (MLB), the Hall of Fame pitcher was a name to watch for in the Negro Leagues — and was involved in a number of firsts for baseball in Western Canada.
Now Paige and other baseball greats like Cool Papa Bell who played in Alberta will be in the MLB's official book after the league announced it is absorbing the available Negro Leagues numbers.
After the decision was announced last week, the move was stirring local memories of a time when barnstorming Black baseball greats drew huge crowds to exhibition games in Alberta.
The Negro Leagues were made up of African American players in the United States who were excluded from playing in the majors due to their race.
The leagues began at a national level in the 1920s but faded after Jackie Robinson became MLB's first Black player when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
"In Canada, you couldn't necessarily see Major League Baseball players come up here unless you had a minor league team," Ian Wilson, co-founder of Alberta Dugout Stories, a baseball blog and podcast, said in an interview on CBC's Calgary Eyeopener.
Until 1971, none of the players who predominantly played in the Negro Leagues were inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame.
That changed when Paige joined their ranks that year.
Barnstorming in 'Berta
Alberta's connection to baseball's history runs deep into the archives.
With a lot of Negro League teams and their affiliated players unable to draw large crowds in the U.S. — and some games even being protested — they often travelled north of the border, staging exhibition games in front of fans who otherwise wouldn't get the opportunity to see top-level talent.
Playing in Canada was often a better experience for the players, Wilson said, and a win for those on the diamond, in the dugout and in the stands
"From all the newspaper accounts that I've seen, the players seemed to enjoy Canada more,… It doesn't mean that there wasn't racism. I think there were some racist experiences, but there were less," he said.
"To get a chance to see a Satchel Paige, a Cool Papa Bell … what a real treat."
LISTEN | Ian Wilson talks about the baseball players who came through Alberta decades ago:
Regarded by many as the fastest man in the sport's history, James (Cool Papa) Bell gave Albertans a preview of what the Negro Leagues had to offer when he came through Edmonton in June of 1948 with the Kansas City Monarchs.
The once-blazing centre fielder was a player-manager at the time, with his career winding down, but he still gave fans a show, according to Wilson.
Bell made stops in Medicine Hat, Sylvan Lake, Camrose, Crowsnest Pass and Lethbridge.
Absorbing numbers 'enhances baseball history'
With statistics from the Negro Leagues now officially recorded, there's a chance for people to get into the game in a way they haven't before.
Ferguson Jenkins, the first Canadian MLB player inducted into the Hall of Fame, hopes the move will lead fans to learn more about the sport, its history and the Negro Leagues players.
"What it's done is it's going to enhance baseball history," he said in a CBC News Network interview.
"Youngsters who really don't know that much about baseball will get the opportunity to maybe read about some players that they just heard of but never seen."
Jenkins, whose father played for an all-Black baseball team in Chatham, Ont., in the 1930s, said he's hoping for more Canadian recognition now that the record books have been updated.
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from the Calgary Eyeopener and Chris Iorfida