Talkin' Baseball

In the 1930's, 40's and '50's blue collar-industrial East St. Louis, the sports of football and baseball were co-kings. Today, the socio-economic depressed Mississippi River City experiences one high school successful pride in football and basketball with periodic chest pounding in track & field.

Several, years ago, a long time professional Major League Baseball scout was my guest at the highly talent rich Decatur Boys' Thanksgiving basketball tournament. The eight team tournament showcases some of Illinois' very best college basketball prospects. My baseball-scout friend later lamented that he was blown away by the quickness and athleticism of the players. He also said that he could now offer Jim 'Mudcat' Grant an answer to Grant's earlier question, "Where's the great African-American baseball players in your home state of Illinois?" My scout friend surmised: "Most of the Illinois talented Black athletes spend developmental playground hours honing basketball skills but if some spent that amount of time on baseball fields, we have more Ozzie Smiths in the Major Leagues."

East St. Louis high school baseball these days is an embarrassment. The once proud diamond gems  no longer string consecutive conference titles together or advance deep in State Playoffs. The late Ellsworth Brown, long time baseball scout once told a college baseball coach that in the 1940's and 1950's, he need not travel outside the metropolitan areas of St. Louis and East St. Louis to find enough MLB talent from his assigned territory.

I'm not versed enough on current circumstances in East St. Louis to intelligently address the cause for baseball demise. I can point to staples that fed the success of the aforementioned era. The East St. Louis little leagues (Jaycee Baseball) and summer American Legion Baseball was nurtured by baseball men with strong playing backgrounds, a love for teaching the game and not just coaching their own kids. They were baseball guys!

Those Jaycee Leagues offered intense competition for kids 10-to-17 years old. You bet scores were kept and reported to newspapers for print! Everybody in the city who cared a lick about baseball knew what kids played the game. The proud environment fed the ongoing success.

Soon the American baseball diamonds will become a beehive of activity. Hopefully the players have fun, develop their respective potentials and ignore their parents until the game is over.

    (Touch)
Talkin Baseball