Honoring baseball, civil rights
Grant’s Torres, Simeon’s Day learn, then play
On Tuesday morning, Darius Day and Tino Torres soaked up some history about baseball and civil rights, among other things.
Then they went out and made a little history of their own.
Torres was the most valuable player in the sixth annual Double Duty Classic, which honors late Negro Leagues star Ted ‘‘Double Duty’’ Radcliffe, who became a fixture around U.S. Cellular Field in his final years. And Day, who was playing in the event for the third time, jump-started the decisive rally in the East’s 6-1 victory.
But both acknowledged this was more than just another game. That was the lesson from a forum earlier in the day, moderated by veteran broadcaster Richard Steele and featuring Dr. Timuel Black, a 94-year-old World War II veteran and adviser to Dr. Martin Luther King, and Sox executive vice president Ken Williams.
Black told of going to watch the White Sox play at Comiskey Park, then walking a few blocks south to the team’s former home — the long-gone South Side Park — to watch the Negro Leagues’ Chicago American Giants play.
‘‘It made my brother and I want to be like them,’’ Black said. ‘‘They gave me a picture of what you want to be. They inspired my brother and I to become athletes.’’
And Black — born in Birmingham, Ala., just after World War I and the grandson of slaves — in turn inspired Torres and Day.
‘‘I took away to never forget where you came from,’’ Day said. ‘‘Play hard because you never know what’s going to come for you. Know your history, too.’’
Torres realized: ‘‘There’s a lot of unfortunate people that don’t get to play this game, [so don’t] take any day for granted. . . . Not many people get to play on an actual professional field. I’m just trying to take advantage of my opportunity.’’
Torres, a rising senior at Grant, did that. His RBI triple to left-center in the fifth inning tied the score at 1, and his two-run double to left in the eighth broke open a close game. Two batters earlier, Clemente’s Anthony Justiniano singled home two runs to snap a 1-1 tie.
Torres was in the stands for the Cubs-Sox game Monday.
‘‘All I could think about was [Tuesday],’’ he said. ‘‘Got home, got a good rest, dreamed about it, came here — I just had myself a day.’’
That didn’t happen without some nervous moments, both about playing on a big stage and about the possibility of getting washed out. The rain did come, but it wasn’t hard enough to stop play and eventually stopped.
‘‘It’s typical Chicago,’’ Day said. ‘‘Weather’s always playing with you. Never know what you’re going to get.’’
Day, a rising senior at Simeon and an Arizona recruit, at least wasn’t in that situation regarding the game, which was his third Double Duty Classic.
‘‘My freshman year, every pitcher we saw, nobody was under 90 [mph],’’ Day said. ‘‘It was hard for me to see that. . . . Now it’s like it’s my playing field. I finally got a hit my third at-bat [starting the East’s five-run rally].
‘‘It’s been a blessing playing here three years in a row.’’