News Release - “They Stepped up to the Plate

City of Rochester

News Release

(Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017) – Mayor Lovely A. Warren is proud to present a special program “They Stepped up to the Plate: Stories of Inspiration from Segregated Baseball,” to be broadcast during Black Heritage Month on City 12 TV. The program will air at 8 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 12 and again at 7 p.m. on Sunday, March 11.                                      

The video documents an event hosted in the summer of 2015 by father-daughter team Jeff and Makayla Klein as part of an ongoing community service project to honor baseball players from what was known as the “Negro League.” Although many African-American athletes played baseball with whites in the nineteenth century, black players were not allowed to compete with whites when Major League Baseball was created in the 1890s. The players formed their own leagues, so they could continue playing a sport they loved. The Negro League had its highest level of success in the 1940s, and the last team disbanded in 1961.

Bill “Youngblood” McCrary, Dennis “Bose” Biddle, Ray “Boo Boy” Knox, and Isaac “Ike” Walker shared their inspirational stories, signed autographs and were honored by Mayor Warren and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter at the event. This interactive presentation, held at the City’s Thomas P. Ryan R-Center, was filmed and edited by Vaughn Taylor and donated to the City for broadcast.

“We were excited and honored to celebrate the lives and legacies of four great athletes from the Negro Leagues and we are thankful that these inspirational stories will live on through this documentary,” said Mayor Warren. “Both young and old were moved to tears by the honesty and bravery of these athletes as they told their stories of perseverance, integrity and triumph in the face of adversity. Their stories resonate with all of us as we continue to create safer more vibrant neighborhoods, more jobs and better educational opportunities for our children.”

“For baseball, specifically, there was so much great talent in the Negro Leagues that went largely unnoticed by the American public for decades,” said Jeff Klein. “‘They Stepped up to the Plate’ focuses on the players who continued to play segregated baseball after Jackie Robinson “broke the color barrier” in 1947. I think these players living among us--largely in anonymity deserve recognition.”

Klein and his family are also working on a corresponding book and planning more community events to honor players.

City 12 TV—Rochester’s information and entertainment channel for urban lifestyles, careers and pastimes—is programmed and managed at WXXI-TV’s studios on State Street, and is the nation’s first collaboration between local government and a public broadcasting station. City 12 can be viewed from any TV set inside city limits connected to the Time Warner Cable system. More information about City 12 may be found at www.cityofrochester.gov/city12.

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News Media: For more information, contact Deputy Dir. of Communications Donald Starver, 428-7135.