All you want to do as that 12-year-old boy is play baseball. It’s the game you love, the game that brings you a feeling of freedom, a game that provides you with an escape from the realities of life in a segregated South.
So, as that boy, you are with your teammates in a Little League tournament in the middle of the summer. The problem is no one wants to play you. At least not the white teams. They’d rather forfeit than be on the same field as you.
But one team from Orlando, a team sponsored by the Kiwanis, is willing to take the high road. It’s willing to give a Jaycees team of 12-year-old boys from Pensacola an opportunity to play.
It’s the semifinals of the tournament and both sides are wondering how this is all going to play out. Families of the Pensacola players are worried that their kids might not make it to Orlando safely.
The game plays out without any issues. Orlando dominates the game and wins 6-1. The loss was tough to take. No one ever enjoys losing. But the final score doesn’t matter as much as what the Pensacola team achieved that day in August 63 years ago.
That team broke the color barrier in Little League baseball in the South. That’s quite an achievement. And yes, at the time, the players didn’t realize the magnitude of the moment.
They understand the moment now. Players from both sides do. I listened to them recall their stories of that historic day a couple of weeks ago when they were in town promoting a documentary on the game titled “Long Time Coming.”
It says a lot about the mindset of our society at the time that it wasn’t until eight years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball that the color barrier in Little League ball in the South was broken.
Better late than never, I guess, but it’s sad that it took that long to begin with. I can’t even imagine what it’s like to not be treated as a human that truly matters. I can only imagine what those 12-year-olds from Pensacola were feeling growing up in America in the 1950s.
We’ve come a long way since 1955. Race relations aren’t perfect, but they are far better than what they were 60-plus years ago.
That team paved the way for children in the future, giving them opportunities the players on the 1955 team only dreamed of. And that’s a big deal.
Through the eyes of a 12-year-old, the game that day in 1955 was merely an opportunity to play baseball. Through the eyes of history, it was the day that changed the way things were in the South in 1955 and set an example for others to follow.
