2/1/2010 11:38:00 PM
Multimedia artist brings Negro League history to life
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| Byron Motley/Courtesy photo
Negro Baseball League umpire Bob Motley makes a home plate call during a 1949 Monarchs game at the former Blues Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. Motley's son, Byron, discusses the history of the black baseball teams during a free multimedia show 7 p.m. Friday at Yavapai College Performance Hall.
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| Byron Motley/Courtesy photo
A black baseball team waits to take the field during a baseball game circa the 1940s.
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PRESCOTT - In a Kansas City ballpark in the spring of 1920, an African-American umpire stood at home plate, turned to the players and shouted, "Play ball." Those two words launched a 40-year era of America's all-black baseball leagues.
Bob Motley is the last living umpire from the Negro Baseball Leagues. His son, Byron, comes to Yavapai College Feb. 5 to discuss his father's career, the Negro leagues and how black baseball players confronted racism and influenced the civil rights movement.
Byron, 50, was born the year the Negro leagues shut down, but he grew up hearing his father's stories about the leagues.
"My dad always loved baseball and wanted to get involved," Motley said from his office in Los Angeles. "He was injured in World War II and discovered umpiring. He didn't think it was too difficult, and there weren't many black umpires then."
Blacks were not new to baseball. Throughout the 1800s, they played with and against white players, according to the Negro League Baseball Players Association website.
In 1867, the newly formed National Association of Base Ball Players banned blacks from playing with whites. However, the ban didn't stick and, by the 1870s, black ballplayers were playing in the minor leagues on white teams.
Baseball's International League Board of Directors did not like blacks and whites mixing, so in 1890 they banned black ballplayers.
In 1920, Andrew "Rube" Foster, known as the "father of black baseball," formed the Negro National League, and black baseball teams sprouted around the country.
That is not to say that white fans were finished with their prejudices.
"They could only play against white teams in exhibition games, and they usually won," Motley said. "Crowds would get rowdy and many times the black players were run out of town after games."
In 1947, along came a black second-baseman named Jackie Robinson. That year, Branch Rickey, general manager for the Brooklyn Dodgers, signed Robinson.
With the stroke of a pen, Rickey and Robinson broke the color barrier in professional baseball. Soon after that, Rickey signed other Negro league stars, including Roy Campanella.
However, integrating the major leagues had an unintended consequence.
"Integration started the demise of the Negro leagues," Motley said. "Black fans started losing interest in them and started going to watch the white teams that had black players."
Motley explains the title of his father's autobiography, "Ruling over Monarchs, Giants & Stars": "The Monarchs, Giants and Stars were the names of baseball teams he umpired for," he said. "The umpire rules a game. He is the forgotten man of the diamond."
In addition to being a baseball historian, Motley is an accomplished musician, singer, filmmaker, author and photographer. He incorporates his various talents into a multimedia show about the Negro Baseball Leagues.
"The show is a musical journey through time," he said. "It shows the relationship between the Negro leagues and jazz - how the musicians and players inspired each other."
"Hitmakers, Heroes and Homeruns - The Negro Baseball Leagues: An American Legacy," starts at 7 p.m. in the Yavapai College Performance Hall at the Prescott campus. The event is free and open to the public.
"Negro Baseball League history is draped in a fabric that mirrors America's culture," Motley wrote on his website, www.byronmotley.com. "From segregation to integration, the progression of America's race relation journey is literally reflected in events that unfolded in the Negro Baseball Leagues."
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Posted: Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Article comment by:
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This sounds really exciting. What a great part of American History! MMy folks are coming up for the weekend and it will be great free entertainment.
Posted: Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Article comment by:
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I agree. This sounds like a wonderful evening to learn about baseball and the Negro League, interwoven with jazz and visual arts. A great concept. We'll be there.
Posted: Tuesday, February 02, 2010
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Have also made history. I think it deserves.
http://www.all-auto.ro
Posted: Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Article comment by:
Appreciate you comming!
I appreciate you coming to our town, and talking to us about pivotal points in American History! Sounds great and I am looking forward to my children hearing this story! Count me in!
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