Field of Dreams and Memories

I was born in Cleveland in 1952 , a year in which the Tribe--as the Cleveland Indians were called--had the best starting rotation in baseball, three of whom would become future Hall of Famers. My parents must have been baseball fans because they named the four teddy bears in my crib after those four pitchers. my favorite being a black white bear with skinny arms and legs called Feller.

Bob Feller was a famous fireballer with a classic story of heart and heroism. His roots were middle America, a small town Southwest of Ames, Iowa.

Iowa is also where the film Field of Dreams takes place. The movie, starring Kevin Costner, was based on the novel Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella. 

* * * 

Recent events brought to mind this memory from the first year after we moved to Duluth in 1986. I'd landed my first full time job as a writer. My boss, himself an excellent writer, introduced me to another writer friend and the three of us--Terry, Art and I--attended several monthly readings by authors flown into town by a prof in the lit department of UMD. One of these notables was W.P. Kinsella.

Kinsella began by describing his childhood and how he came to be a writer. He said that his family lived in a remote area in Canada Northwest of here. It was so remote, in fact, the the nearest family with children was a hundred miles away and he was, if memory serves me well, an only child. This led to his developing the fertile imagination which produced his literary career as a storyteller.

You may recall that the lead character in Field of Dreams, played by Costner, is an Iowa farmer named Ray Kinsella. It's a character who is misunderstood, and in some ways a product of the Sixties, which left a lot of us misunderstood. The following conversation between Ray and his wife Annie (Amy Madigan) is part of the story's setup.

Ray Kinsella: I think I know what "If you build it, he will come" means.

Annie Kinsella: Ooh... why do I not think this is such a good thing?

Ray Kinsella: I think it means that if I build a baseball field out there that Shoeless Joe Jackson will get to come back and play ball again.

Annie Kinsella: [staring in disbelief] You're kidding.

Ray Kinsella: Huh-uh.

Annie Kinsella: Wow.

Ray Kinsella: Yeah.

Annie Kinsella: Ha. You're kidding.

James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta and Burt Lancaster, in his final screen performance, are also part of this saga that echoes the magical realism of Jorge Luis Borges, one of my all-time favorite authors.

All this is just an excuse to share some photos from the Field of Dreams location in Iowa that was created for this movie. And maybe an excuse to take a trip down memory lane.

Photos courtesy Gary Firstenburg

Here's a link to his website. Ye shall be impressed.

www.firstinphoto.smugmug.com

FWIW
My short volume of stories titled Unremembered Histories falls into this genre of supra-normal, magical realism. Subtitled Six Stories with a Supernatural Twist, you can find it here on Amazon.

TRIVIA: If I were ever to have my stories turned into an audio book, I would have James Earl Jones be the one to read it. I just love that deep baritone vibe. Thank you, Mr. Jones, for your contribution toward make this film a very special experience.

TRIVIA TWO: "Doc" Graham of Chisholm, whose full name was Archibald Wright "Moonlight" Graham, had the opportunity to play two innings of Major League Baseball, on June 29, 1905. Played by Burt Lancaster, he appeared in a single game for the New York Giants as a right fielder, entering in the bottom of the eighth inning during a game against Brooklyn, but he never got a chance to take a swing at the plate.

TRIVIA THREE: In Chisholm, MN there is more signage honoring Doc Graham than there is signage in Duluth, MN honoring the Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan who was born here.

Black History Month: 100th Anniversary of the Negro Leagues

When I was born, my baby crib included--besides me--four Teddy bears. The unique feature of these bears was not their looks, since they varied in color and size, but rather their names. My parents named my Teddy bears after the Cleveland Indians starting rotation, which include three pitchers who would later be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

One of these pitchers was fireballer Bob Feller. (The other three were Bob Lemon, Early Wynn and Mike Garcia.) Feller, who was my favorite, had a white torso with black arms, legs and head. I can still picture myself carrying him around by that skinny, black arm.

Feller was one of many great ballplayers who had their careers interrupted by doing service in the U.S. military in World War II. Despite three years lost during his prime, he was the winningest pitcher in Cleveland Indians history.

I mention all this because of his role in becoming a bridge toward the integration of Major League baseball.

After the war, Feller came up with the idea of assembling a team of players for a barnstorming road tour in the off-season. Perhaps he was in it for the money, but the hunger for baseball was strong and if he could deliver an all-star show people would fill the stands to watch their heroes.

For opponents, he contacted the well-connected star pitcher of the Negro Leagues, Satchel Paige. Feller had seen Paige pitch back in the Thirties and knew he could muster up a team that would be competitive against the white pros of Major League Baseball. Feller chartered DC-3 planes to ferry the players to the 34 games he arranged. He also hired a doctor, a trainer, a lawyer and a publicity man.

Pittsburgh Crawfords. Satchell Paige third from left, back row. (Public domain)

While segregation was a shameful period in baseball history, the Negro Leagues were a resounding success and an immense source of pride for black America. Though Jackie Robinson is famous for having been first to cross the color barrier, I thought Satchel Paige was the coolest of the cool, and the Cleveland Indians became among the first to be peppered with black players from the Negro League.

I've not seen a lot written about it, but this year happens to be 100th Anniversary of the Negro Leagues. According to this story by Rob Ruck in the Chicago Reporter, on February 13, 1920,  "teams from eight cities formally created the Negro National League. Three decades of stellar play followed, as the league affirmed black competence and grace on the field, while forging a collective identity that brought together Northern-born blacks and their Southern brethren. And though Major League Baseball was segregated from the 1890s until 1947, these teams played countless interracial games in communities across the nation."

Ken Burns' fabulous documentary series on baseball was profoundly important because of the respect he showed for the Negro League and that other side of baseball history, some of it shameful, lest it be forgotten.

Larry Tye's 2010 story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer noted how those exhibitions featuring Bob Feller and Satchel Paige helped advance integration in baseball. No doubt this contributed to the Indians becoming leaders in welcoming people of color into the locker room.

Everyone remembers the name of Jackie Robinson, the first player to cross the color barrier, just as everyone remember Neil Armstrong, the first to walk on the moon, and George Washington, the first president. The second Negro League player to wear a Major League Baseball uniform was Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians. The year I was born he led the majors in runs scored and home runs.

Interestingly, my observation above (about being second means being forgotten) was first stated by Bob Feller himself.

Second black player to play in the Majors.

Of Doby, Bob Feller later said, "He was a great American, served the country in World War II, and he was a great ballplayer. He was kind of like Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, because he was the second African-American in the majors behind Jackie Robinson. He was just as good of a ballplayer, an exciting player, and a very good teammate."

The years after Larry Doby joined the team the Indians added more Black stars, Satchel Paige and Minnie Minoso. I remember seeing Minnie Minoso when I was a kid. Sometimes I liked players just because they had cool names. My grandfather used to take his grandsons (my brother Ron and I) to numerous Indians games in the 50s. There are baskets of memorable moments stored in our craniums.

I feel a measure of pride knowing that of the first 20 Negro League players to cross over into the Majors from 1947-1951, six were recruited by the Cleveland Indians. The New York Yankees did not recruit a black ballplayer until 1955, Elston Howard being their first.

I don't recall how old I was when I saw Elston Howard for the first time, but I remember him. I saw numerous Yankees-Indians double headers in the 1950s when the Indians were perennial also rans. (They did win the pennant in 1954,) What I remember was a game in which we had box seats directly behind home plate. Elston Howard was the Yankees catcher that day, and I remember observing how big he seemed.

He was also a powerful hitter, and in each game of that doubleheader he slammed a game-winning home run over the center field fence. They were impressive blasts, Cleveland having one of the longer center field fences.

These memories were all stirred when I saw the book at the top of this page on a shelf a Zenith Books last week. If you live here in Duluth, check it out.

Related Links
The Short Story of Satchel Paige
by Roman Mikhail on Medium

Satchel Paige Quotes

Major League Baseball: Some Things Have Changed, Some Haven't

More Memories of the Great American Pastime

Bob Feller dreamed up the idea of barnstorming with the Negro team during his long shifts manning anti-aircraft guns on the USS Alabama during World War II. He knew that getting other major-leaguers to join him would be easy, and he signed up the best. It was a unique time in baseball history, just before the color barrier came tumbling down. It would still be years before African Americans could live where they wanted. The Civil Rights Act outlawing discrimination wasn't passed until 1964.