The guardian. [volume] (Boston, Mass.) 1901-1960, 1954-07-10
BOSTON
BAKED
BY MABE KoUNTZE


Halle Selassie
ALL-STAR major league an
nuaI baseball tilt will be play
ed July IL, next week Tuesday,
at Cleveland. Twenty four years
ago when yours truly started
writing sports, there were no
recOgnized) American Big
League players. Next weeks
classic may carry rosters in
Guiding Robinson, Campanella,
Mays, MiMnOso and possibly
Dolby and Gillian.
BASEBALL is now heading
into the important pay-off last
half. In both Leagues, colored
players are contributing heavily
to the current top teams If
Cleveland can stand off the
Yankees, the Indians will owe
much to the improved play of
the versatile Al Smith and slug
ging Larry Dolby. Also the
brown Latin Rudy Regaldo,
utility player Dave Pope and
pitcher HoSkins.
N. Y. GIANTS, if they can
Stave off the Brooklyn Dodgers.
will also project colored players
into the 1854 World Series. In
fact, whether the Giants or
Dodgers win, this fact will re-
main true. Much fan sympathy
is for the Giants who feature
the surprising Willie Mays
Monte Irwin, Hank Thompson
and RUDE Gomez. Manager Leo
Dorocher has piloted both clubs
and has much to do with lower /
ing the Big League color bar.
FOOTBALL being only a few
months away, it is timely to
comment ON the possibility of
Tan Yanks performing for form
er paleface Dixie colleges with
IN the next decade. This col
umn has often made this pre-
dIctIOn, but last week the coach
of U. Maryland, the number l
football team of the Nation for
1853, spoke up and said he
would welcome sepia stars.
MARYLAND U, in a special
June meeting, voted to drop all
color bars, the Baltimore city
school system having set the
example. This is only the be-
ginning of the Dixie college
trend in this direction. Many
others will follow in spite of
the loud talk of few men of
ignorance. People of vision all
over the south are awakening
to the force of democracy.
COACH TATUM of Baltimore
once assisted Carl Snavely at
Cornell and helped coach the
great sepia All-American Brud |
Holland whom I saw play bril-
liaintly at Harvard Stadium.
Tatum and Brud still exchange
mail, and Tatum is very high on
colored players. Tatum says that
the color bar kept Maryland
from playing many northern
schools with sepia stars, such
as Michigan State. He is hap !
Ply that the color ban is now
over.
ST LOUIS Cardinals (the
Major League team deepest in
the SOuth) has already gone
ahead of the Boston Red Sox
in trying out cOlOred players.
The Cards now have a pitcher,
Brooks Lawrence and have
given a try to farm hand
pitcher Bill GreaSOn as well as
first baSeman Tom Aston.
Whom have the SOx tried? A
few years ago you would be
judged crazy if you said st.
Louis would try out cOlOred
players before a team in Bos-
ton, Massachusetts.
NAACP 45th Convention held
at Dallas, Texas, last week, re-
f1ected the hard work and the
advancementS of these times. In
sports, as in all phases of our
progress, the results have only
been achieved through blood,
sweat and tears" 1t did not
come on a silver platter. Nor
is the job but half finished.
Sepia citizens should remember
all this when asked to continue
their support of the NAACP.
The debt we owe is beyond
measure.