April 23, 2007
Bringing Baseball to the Inner City
A trio of retired African American players decided to try to bring baseball back to urban areas:
Count Dennis ''Oil Can'' Boyd, Marquis Grissom, and Delino DeShields among those taking a proactive approach to reviving baseball in the inner cities. They're doing this not only through their barnstorming tour -- ''Oil Can Boyd's Traveling All-Stars'' -- which starts May 16 vs. the Brockton Rox and continues through the US and Canada, but through their newly formed Urban Baseball League, which will start in 2008.
Independent pro baseball will be marketed in predominantly African-American cities (the hope is prominent African-Americans will purchase franchises), and inner-city kids will be taught the game Boyd, Grissom, and DeShields so love.
''I'm sick of the rhetoric,'' DeShields said from Charlotte, N.C., where his 14-year-old son was playing in a baseball tournament. ''If we want more black kids playing baseball, if we want more black people in the stands, if we want more black people running baseball teams and in positions of power, then we have to go after it ourselves. We have to do something about it, and not just talk about it. Oil Can, Marquis, and I are going after it. We're trying to change things as businessmen and as baseball players.''
It's one of those ideas that stop and make you think. In a way, it seems to be going back to the days of the Negro Leagues and segregation (although the article makes it clear Boyd's barnstorming team is diverse). But if you want to bring the game to black fans, what better way than putting a team in the middle of the community? I wish them lots of luck and hope Springfield, MA gets a franchise.
Hm! This could be cool if it brings in more African-Americans to baseball. I remember as a kid a lot of the most exciting, flashiest players were black (two words: Rickey Henderson) but now kids look to the NBA for that.
This is the right way to address the "problem" of young black men having sporting choices. As for the NBA, I don't want a damn thing they have to offer. As a Met fan I stuck up ofr Milledge when he ignored the unwritten rules of the game last year. But I appreciated the team's efforts, from Willie on thru the veterans to school him. He's a better man, and baseball is the better game, for it.
Good to hear that Oil Can Boyd is still around. Not that anyone ever really explained why he was named "Oil Can"
Oil Can is another name for a can of beer. Dennis liked cans of beer.
Which reminds me, David -
Whatever happened to the great baseball nicknames of old? "Oil Can" is one that was actually used as part of a player's given name (like "Catfish" Hunter - blame Charlie Finley - or "Three Fingers" Brown), but what about The Ryan Express? The Yankee Clipper? The Donora Greyhound (my favorite). Of modern nicknames, only the delightfully blunt & descriptive "Pronk" really does much for me. Otherwise it's just a bunch of unimaginative name-based knockoff: A-Rod, K-Rod, etc.
Sorry, this really is pretty OT.
There's a few good ones today, but they're mostly just ordinary nicknames: Boof Bonser, Stubby Clapp, Coco Crisp, etc. But yeah, there's no "Three-Finger" or , heck, people forget that "Yogi" was a nickname.
We could sure a strong RBI program in Milwaukee, WI. That is for sure!