THAT IS deRIGHT MOVE
Curtis: More needed to bring blacks to MLB
MIAMI — Every year around Jackie Robinson Day, people turn to Curtis Granderson, looking for him to make a statement. On the anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier in the major leagues, someone expects Granderson to say something about the dwindling number of African Americans in the game, civil rights or society in general.
He speaks carefully and purposefully, but he wonders about the effect of what he says.
“We can stand here and talk about these things and immediately, people are going to have a reaction. Some people are going to agree, some people are going to disagree, but everybody is going to react,” Granderson said. “I just wonder if we are really listening to what each other is saying.”
So Granderson prefers taking action to making these grand statements.
Saturday, on the 70th anniversary of Jackie Robinson stepping onto the field in Dodgers uniform to become the first African American player in the major leagues, a major impetus to the mainstreaming of the Civil Rights movement, many are wondering where baseball is in this new age of social and political discord. While players in the NFL and NBA have taken stands for movements like Black Lives Matter and in the heated divide over the 2016 Presidential campaign, baseball for the most part has been quiet.
The fact that the sport of Jackie Robinson has had little to say may seem like this generation is dropping the ball that Robinson and Branch Rickey handed to them.
Granderson and Sandy Alderson, however, disagree with that charge.
The Mets GM pointed to the Mets bringing in Billy Bean, the former big leaguer who is now the Ambassador for inclusion for MLB, every spring training. Bean, who is gay, not only talks about inclusion and how players can discuss social issues in the media if they choose to, but he spends the day on the field side-by-side with players. It’s a way Alderson and Bean think demonstrates how people of different backgrounds work and play together in baseball.
It’s an idea based on what started back in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers and continues in the clubhouse today.
“Jackie Robinson, Branch Rickey and certain Major
League teams were not leaders in the civil rights arena because of their political rhetoric or party affiliation. Rather, they were at the forefront because of the actions they took and the way they conducted themselves, which demonstrated their views on civil rights issues in a concrete way,” Alderson said. “That’s why Billy Bean was here (in spring training). Baseball has always led by doing, not debating.”
The 2016 Roberto Clemente award winner, Granderson donated $5 million towards construction of an indoor/outdoor baseball complex at his alma mater, the University of Illinois at Chicago. It is also used as one of baseball’s Urban Youth Academy, and also provides nearly 10,000 inner-city youth with a year-round safe environment.
The complex is also home to his semi-annual Grand Kids Foundation’s Youth Clinics.
Saturday, Granderson proudly talked about how that investment of money and his time is now helping bring baseball to his former Chicago neighborhood. When he played, the Little League in that neighborhood had about 180 kids playing. As the demographics of a once diverse neighborhood changed, becoming more African American, the Little League dwindled to just 33 kids last season.
By encouraging neighborhood kids to try baseball through clinics at the Curtis Granderson Stadium complex, however, that Little League is expecting 90 kids playing this summer.
“Not only are we bringing more African American kids to baseball, but they are coming to a college campus, getting to look around and see what opportunities are there for them,” Granderson said. “That’s exciting to me.”
Saturday, Granderson spoke about the meaning of Jackie Robinson Day to him. Then he did something meaningful. He put on his special New Balance cleats, commemorating the day. After the game, Granderson planned to auction off those shoes on his web site to benefit the Jackie Robinson Foundation.
For Granderson, it’s not about what is said through baseball, it’s about what the game can do.