Here & Now

A Wisconsin Tribute to Negro Leagues Baseball

Frederica Freyberg:

With this next story, a look back at some of the greats. The Milwaukee Brewers have been honoring Negro Leagues baseball players for more than 20 years, but for the first time in team history, the Madison Mallards collegiate team took to the field in unique uniforms of the day. “Here & Now” special projects journalist Murv Seymour goes to the ballpark and has more on a tribute to special era of baseball with strong roots in Wisconsin.

Ken Bartelt:

Baseball, it’s the American past time.

Murv Seymour:

It’s almost game time for the Madison Mallards baseball team.

Vern Stenman:

It’s our 21st season here in Madison. It’s all about fun at a Mallards game. From bobbleheads to fireworks to beers and hot dogs.

Drake Baldwin:

It’s a good environment coming here every day.

Murv Seymour:

For outfielder Cam Cratic, Drake Baldwin and the rest of this team, the game of baseball is something special.

Drake Baldwin:

I’ve been playing since I was three years old. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love it.

Murv Seymour:

Tonight’s game on the diamond will be a first.

Ken Bartelt:

You can trace a lot of the big moments in American history through baseball.

Murv Seymour:

A gem of a learning lesson where history is brought to life on the field.

Vern Stenman:

Tonight is our first ever Negro League tribute.

Murv Seymour:

And in the stands where fans wear jerseys, hats and shirts in tribute of the 3400 or so ballers that played in the Negro Leagues from 1920 to 1960.

Tim Bautch:

I got my Satchel Paige jersey tonight, who I consider one of the best pitchers all time in baseball so you know I think really the idea of understanding there are some great players that weren’t able to be in the major leagues because of the color of their skin and I’m glad finally, you know, baseball is seeing the importance of the players from the Negro Leagues and how they were just as important.

Murv Seymour:

Mallards players wear entire uniforms just like the ones worn by the Negro League’s Bears almost a hundred years ago.

Vern Stenman:

We got the opportunity to use some authentic — well, replica uniforms of the Milwaukee Bears.

Cam Cratic:

I’m excited to play in these, for sure. Definitely going to be a special experience. I feel like I’m in the 1940s, like, for sure.

Drake Baldwin:

Yeah, honestly, seeing Cam and I in these, it almost feels like we’re playing for the Milwaukee Bears.

Vern Stenman:

We’re actually giving out right now trading cards that are officially licensed by the Negro League Baseball Hall of Fame in Kansas City.

Cam Cratic:

There’s a lot of talented players back then that weren’t given the opportunity to play in the major league.

Murv Seymour:

The trading cards feature the stories and stats of some of the greatest players from the Negro Leagues. Guys like Willie “Cannonball” Jackman of the 1928 Philadelphia Giants and Grant “Home Run” Johnson, who smashed 60 out of the park while playing on an integrated minor league team in 1894. Then there was this guy, “Hammering” Hank Aaron, who played for the 1952 Indianapolis Clowns for 200 bucks a month. Later that year, he signed with the then-integrated major league Milwaukee Braves. Aaron went on to break Babe Ruth’s home run record.

Vern Stenman:

I can’t wait to see parents talking to their kids tonight about the team. I hope they’re going out and Googling it and learning a little bit more about the Negro Leagues. Satchel Paige played a lot of baseball here in the state of Wisconsin and that’s something that we need that story to be told. You know, Jesse Owens played baseball. Jesse Owens, the track star, played baseball at Breese Stevens Field here in downtown Madison in the 1930s after his run in the Olympics. And people don’t know all these stories. If we can prompt getting that dialogue going a little bit by telling that story here at a baseball game tonight, that’s what it’s all about.

Cam Cratic:

Hopefully some kids go home and they look up the Negro Leagues and they look up the Milwaukee Bears and they look to see what they did.

Drake Baldwin:

From wearing these uniforms, I’m definitely going to go home and look up some stuff to see how they played, see if I recognize any of the names.

Vern Stenman:

I didn’t really know the whole story of the Milwaukee Bears myself, and I’m a baseball fanatic.

Murv Seymour:

No one knows a lot about the 1923 Milwaukee Bears.

Ken Bartelt:

The Milwaukee Bears are one of those untold stories. Their manager on field was a guy named Pete Hill. He was actually inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Murv Seymour:

Historians believe this grainy, faded picture might be one of the only snapshots featuring a few Milwaukee Bears players. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee doctoral candidate Ken Bartelt loves talking baseball. When it comes to the Bears, he’s a step ahead of most. Part of his master’s thesis was on the Milwaukee team. History tells us they barely made it through one lone, partial season. But in those four short months, the Bears had an impact on the game.

Ken Bartelt:

The Milwaukee Bears actually have connections to some of the biggest figures and moments in baseball history. The Bears played in one of the first-ever games umpired by Black men.

Murv Seymour:

We met Ken on the baseball field at Rose Park in Milwaukee, which is now an historic landmark forever connected to the Bears, the Brewers, the Braves, and a lot of other big sporting events in Wisconsin.

Ken Bartelt:

We’re kind of on the site of the former Borchert Field. That was Milwaukee’s main sports venue up until 1953, when County Stadium was built. This was a community gathering space. The Milwaukee Brewers minor league team played here. Obviously the Milwaukee Bears, the Negro League played here. There were football games played here. A lot of people have heard about the Kansas City Monarchs. They’ve heard about Jackie Robinson, maybe the Chicago American Giants, those big teams but some the smaller teams that maybe didn’t do as well like the Milwaukee Bears, they’ve been kind of forgotten to history. By looking at those teams you’re going to get a more complete picture of what the Negro Leagues were like. It was challenging to try to set up a business like that in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the 1920s. The Black population in Milwaukee wasn’t very big yet so it was difficult to attract fans, especially in a market where you had a very popular minor league white team, the minor league Milwaukee Brewers. The Negro Leagues are such a great example of Black entrepreneurs building something in what was kind of a racist dual economy in the United States.

Dennis Biddle:

The Negro Baseball League is a part of Black history. It produced some of the greatest baseball players that ever played the game.

Murv Seymour:

Meet 86-year-old Dennis Biddle.

Dennis Biddle:

Homestead Braves, New York Eagles, Chicago American Giants, Baltimore. There was 72 teams that made up the Negro Leagues from 1920 to 1960.

Murv Seymour:

From the Senior Citizen Community Center at Rose Park, Biddle tells us about his time pitching for the 1953 and 1954 Negro Leagues’ Chicago American Giants. He had this quilt made right here at this community center in memory of the players who played in the league. He also lobbied to have a land marker placed at Rose Park as a permanent reminder to this community.

Dennis Biddle:

A lot of people go there and read it don’t even understand what it’s about. That this area was a part of that great history. Nothing was written down about Hank Aaron coming to the Negro League batting cross-handed. Ernie Banks coming in, he couldn’t stand the treatment that we were getting by the fans calling us all kinds of names and stuff. He wanted to go home.

Murv Seymour:

Dennis Biddle says when he sees today’s players in yesterday’s Negro leagues uniforms, it brings back memories.

Dennis Biddle:

And I can see some of those old men that were making outstanding plays, sometimes it brings tears to my eyes. Less than 40 players still living that played in the Negro Baseball League. It took 10 years before all of the teams had one. Think of all the great ball players that fell through the cracks that would have been if they had the opportunity. The Boston Braves had a farm team here called the Milwaukee Braves. And the Bears could only play in the park when they were out of town.

Ken Bartelt:

This is Black triumph, you know, in the face of the worst racism America had to offer. Even our national pastime was segregated. Black men could not play on the major league teams that we love and cheer for today. That’s a story we cannot forget.

Drake Baldwin:

I might not be in the situation that I am right now if the Negro Leagues were never here, so it’s pretty cool remembering them and kind of thanking them.

Murv Seymour:

It’s safe to say this one-game special tribute to history has been a big hit with players and fans to a league of pro athletes that haven’t been forgotten.

Tim Bautch:

I’m glad people are finally starting to give respect to those players who didn’t get the respect at the time.

Murv Seymour:

Instead, they’re being remembered.

Dennis Biddle:

They wrote about Jackie Robinson but he was the only one. He opened the door, and he did, but there was many, many more just as good, just as great, and never got the notoriety they deserved. So my job is to make sure I leave that information for them.

Frederica Freyberg:

That was Murv Seymour reporting.