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Source:
Raymond Doswell, 816-221-1920, rdoswell@nlbm.com
News release prepared by: Keener A. Tippin II, 785-532-6415,
media@k-state.edu
Friday,
July 28, 2006
Shades
of Glory:
K-STATE STUDENT HELPS IN SELECTION OF NEGRO LEAGUES BASEBALL PLAYERS
TO BASEBALL HALL OF FAME
MANHATTAN
-- Raymond Doswell doesn't consider himself a baseball expert.
"I
study baseball, but I don't consider myself to be a baseball historian,"
said Doswell, a graduate student in education administration and
leadership at Kansas State University. "I don't necessarily
enjoy poring over stats and old newspapers and those kinds of things.
I'm more interested in the social history of it."
That
social history involves understanding the larger context of Negro
Leagues Baseball through American history.
Doswell,
Kansas City, Mo., said he has a great passion about the subject,
but maybe for different reason than others. His passion is fueled
by his work as the curator and education director of the Negro Leagues
Baseball Museum, also in Kansas City.
Doswell
was a member of a 12-person special committee chaired by former
Major League Baseball commissioner Fay Vincent and comprised of
Negro and pre-Negro Leagues baseball historians that selected 17
former Negro Leagues baseball players and executives to be inducted
into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., Sunday,
July 30.
The
committee reviewed the careers of 39 Negro and pre-Negro Leagues
candidates over a two-day meeting in Tampa, Fla., in February. The
list of 39 was pared from a roster of 94 candidates, narrowed by
a five-member screening committee in November 2005. Each of the
17 inductees received the necessary 75 percent of the 12-member
voting committee to earn election to the hall.
"I
feel very pleased to have been asked; that they trusted my expertise
enough," Doswell said. "I still consider myself to be
a budding student of the subject."
The
electees will join the 18 individuals from the Negro Leagues already
enshrined in Cooperstown. These hall-of-famers include Hilton Smith,
the grandfather of Sheri Smith, a K-State assistant professor of
landscape architecture and regional and community planning.
Of
the original roster of 94 candidates considered, only two are still
alive -- Minne Minoso and Kansas City's Buck O'Neil. Neither man
was elected to the hall.
According
to Doswell, a fear of some is that this may be the last opportunity
for Negro Leagues' players to be considered for the Baseball Hall
of Fame -- even though hall officials have not said that.
"There
is a fear that this is a one-shot deal," Doswell said. "I
hope that is not the case. I don't think the hall of fame wants
that to be the case. They have not said one way or another that
is going to be the case, but just like any subject in history, it
deserves re-examination over time and more questions should be continually
asked of the subject. If additional research comes up that allows
for players to be reconsidered, that should be done and done in
due fashion. In the meantime, we'll continue at the Negro Leagues
Baseball Museum to tell the stories of as many players as we can
get information on."
Doswell
said that as more players from the Negro Leagues die and the memories
of them fade, it will be even more difficult to get them into the
hall.
"We're
already there; it's been like that for several years," Doswell
said. "If you look at the list of nominees, only two are living.
Of those two, they may only remember half the guys on the list.
They are probably the only two who can talk about the other players
on the list because they played with or saw them.
"We're
already at that point where there are very few people around who
remember these people. That's why election this year is so critical,"
he said. "In many respects, we are in an era where there is
enough information available to really talk about these individuals
intelligently and not make them larger than life or less than what
they are. They are men and women who had the same problems as everyone
else, but found a way to enjoy the game of baseball and make an
impact on the game as well as American society."
Among
those with concerns that players for the Negro Leagues not be forgotten
is Jon Wefald, K-State president. Wefald has written a paper on
the Negro Leagues that has been developed into a script for a television
movie. Wefald also is good friends with O'Neil, the 94-year-old
former first baseman and manager for the Kansas City Monarchs who
recently became the oldest person to play in a professional baseball
game.
Wefald
said although he is disappointed that O'Neil was not selected for
the hall of fame, the story of the players who were selected is
a story about great people achieving great things in a segregated
society -- a society governed by the so-called separate-but-equal
Jim Crow laws of the first half of the 20th century.
"It's
a great story about America at its best and at its worst,"
Wefald said. "In my mind, these Negro League players were the
'players of hope.' I think the American people would be fascinated
by their story.
"They
loved playing baseball," Wefald said. "They aimed to be
the best. They strove for excellence. Deep down, they still believed
in America and I think they knew that someday, somehow, America
would become a land of opportunity for everyone."
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