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That's OurAmericanStories.com. They're some of our favorites. And we love to tell stories about faith whenever we can, and redemption. And this is one of our best redemption stories, brought to us by our very own Joey Cortez. Ron Brown grew up on the west side of Chicago. I grew up in a family where my uncles were drug dealers and pimps, and I saw that growing up as a kid.
It never appealed to me. I can remember as a kid seeing my uncles get shot and different things like that. And, you know, one guy tried to murder my uncle. And just seeing it and just being a kid like five, six, seven, eight, nine years old, growing up being like, this ain't the way it's supposed to be. I watch certain stories and kids say, growing up in the inner city, how they saw drug dealers, and that's the only people they saw.
And for them, they saw that as a means to an end to get out the ghetto. As a kid, I don't know what God blessed me with, but he blessed me with the ability to see that I was wrong. And that wasn't the way for me to go about my life. He was also blessed with a strong mother, who divorced his biological father when Ron was a kid. I can remember he was part of an accident fraud scheme. I remember being a kid telling him, I was like, hey, man, you're going to get in trouble. He'd say, son, you know what?
I'm making my living the best way I know how. And eventually he ended up going to prison for a few years for that. And I can remember being a kid and him writing me letters and saying, hey, you know, when I get out, things are going to be different. I'm going to spend more time with you.
I think it's important. And the thing was, he got out and nothing ever changed. He went back to what he knew. He ended up being in the streets for a few more years and he went to jail. My dad was like the real, you ever seen the movie Catch Me If You Can? He was like the real Catch Me If You Can.
You understand what I'm saying? When he came doing checks and stuff like that. And so I can remember having that example from a very young age and seeing all the cars and houses.
And I was like, it just never appealed to me. My mother was fortunate enough and I was fortunate enough. She got married when I was about three or four years old to a great man by the name of Lawrence Hunt. And he was my stepfather and he did everything in his power to just raise me the right way. And I'm so appreciative for the influence even right now as a 45 year old man. I think about the lessons in which he taught me and just different things about manhood and responsibility and all those things.
And so I think having a father made a drastic difference in my life. My mother was a pretty tough lady. She's about 6'2", 6'3". And she didn't play. And my stepfather was about 6'5".
He didn't play either. So I grew up in a home where my parents were really about education. I remember being a kid and saying, hey, you know, I want to be a professional athlete. I want to do this and do that. And my parents were always like, look, that's a great goal. But let me give you an amazing dream.
Whatever you can do with your mind instead of your body will facilitate you to have a very, very lengthy career. I can remember my father getting tickets to take me to go see the Chicago Bulls and I sit there watching them playing. And Michael Jordan was lighting them up that night.
The arena, everybody was yelling and screaming. And I'm eating my popcorn and I'm looking and I got pretzel in one hand and popcorn on the floor and drinking, drinking. I'm having my best time ever. And he taps me on the shoulders when the Bulls call a time out. And he says, son, let me ask you something. I said, what? He says, who has the greatest job in this whole arena? And I kind of looked at him because I thought it was a crazy question. And I was like, Michael Jordan. And he tapped me on the shoulder and he said, you see that box up there with those guys walking around eating those hot dogs? And I said, yeah. He says they have the best job in the building.
They're the ones who pay Michael Jordan. And so even though people may not be screaming for him, they're the reason why all this is going on. So I want you to learn the big picture approach to life.
And so that just really kind of got me thinking in life. They say, you know what? Mike's going to retire one day, but the Bulls are still going to be here. Mike's going to have an injury one day. But guess what?
The Bulls are still going to be here. And he's like, that's what I'm getting. I want to I want you to learn about life. Being the guy that's still there as transitions continue to happen through life. And that lesson really, really stayed with me all through life. My father. I'm going to tell you something.
It wasn't a good experience with him growing up, but those bad experiences with him made me, I think today, a much better father. So he would say, hey, I'm going to pick you up. You know, so get dressed. We're going to go. We're going to hang out for the day.
And so my mother would say, hey, look, don't don't make this kid promises. You know, I show up and I can remember one particular time getting dressed up. I mean, I had on my pants and my shirt and my tie, a page and he called me and said, hey, I'm ready.
He says, OK, I'll be there in a little while. And I can remember sitting in the window dressed up and waiting on my father to come. And waiting on him to come to the point that I fell asleep and my stepfather.
Picking me up and put me to bed and taking my shoes off and I kind of woke up as he was picking me up. I said, did he come? He said, no, he didn't come. He says, but you know what?
I'm here. And I always remember that memory, you know? And so for me, anything with my with my children.
I don't care if it's a basketball game or if it's a football game. If I tell them I'm coming, I'm coming. And so through the years, I never hated my father because he was my father, but I didn't understand. And so with that, I was able to find out how he grew up there. You know, his father one day said he was going out to the store to go get a pack of cigarettes. And he asked him and his brother, what do you want?
They said they wanted some candy. He said, OK, I'll be back. His father never came back. He may have been like six, five or six. He never saw his father again.
And so at that point, I kind of realized that my father didn't know how to be a father because he never had that example. So I grew up with those things. And I'll tell you something. Of course, they shape you. But I didn't let them break me.
And I think some of these situations in our lives, they break us and they turn us into broken people. And so from from that moment on in my life, as I went up, I had like I said, I had a great stepfather. I was just very determined that I would never do that to my kids. And so no child of mine can say, hey, I sit there on the doorstep and waited for my dad to come.
He didn't come. And that's important to me. And you're listening to Ron Brown and his real dad, his biological dad. Well, he was a character right out of Catch Me If You Can.
Mr. Black version, passing checks, living a bad life, making bad choices. He grew up, though, in a home that was all about education, a stepdad that really loved him right. He said those bad experiences with my biological father made me a better father. I never hated my father. I didn't understand him until I learned about how he grew up.
His father's father, when he was five or six years old, went to the corner store and never came back. When we come back, more of Ron Brown's story here on Our American Story. Go to our American stories dot com now and go to the donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American stories dot com. Soon, millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year, and UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices for those eligible. Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th. If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage.
It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit UHC Medicare health plans dot com to learn more. UnitedHealthcare, helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop, but for small business insurance, I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot and I stay cool and confident. See, they're small business owners, too, so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. Doing household chores can already be time consuming and tedious, and there's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done. I mean, that can be overwhelming for anyone. So if you want to get those larger laundry loads done right and get back to your life, try all free clear mega packs. All free clear mega packs are bigger packs with two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry. All free clear mega packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and they're gentle on skin, which is great for any family's sensitive skin needs. My family, we definitely have sensitive skin. So the next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is that's caused this big pile of dirty clothes, just know that all free clear mega packs, they have your back.
Purchase all free clear mega packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types. And we're back with our American stories and Ron Brown story. We left off with Ron describing his difficult relationship with his absent father and the lessons he learned from that.
Back to Ron with the rest of this story. The funny story about it is that he came to my high school graduation at Holy Trinity and he made a big deal about it. And he told me he was so proud of me for graduating high school. And I think I saw him a little bit over that summer and I never saw him again. I didn't see him again until 20 years later, which is really kind of crazy because he had a brother and his brother had died. And so I think I was living in Atlanta at the time and I got word that my father had died and I thought he had actually died. But it was kind of some confusion.
So for years I thought he was dead. A few summers after that, my wife sent some information in first to be on the Family Feud. And so we become contestants on the Family Feud with Steve Harvey and they tape it up in Atlanta and we go ahead and we have this this show and we lose by one question. And we're like, man, we came all the way up here.
We had a good time, but it would've been nice if we would've won. And so this is where I think about how everything happens for a reason. Well, fast forward years later, because after you do a Family Feud episode, they keep playing the episode over and over and over and over and over again.
And so it stays in rotation for years. And so I just started law school and I was making a trek from Atlanta to Birmingham three nights a week for school. And it was one particular night I was leaving criminal law class and I get a phone call from a number I had never seen before. I was like, who is this calling me this late?
It's about, I don't know, eight, thirty, nine o'clock at night. And I answer the phone and it's just something about your parents voice. You never forget it. And even though I hadn't heard my father's voice for 20 plus years. The phone rings and I answer it and he says, hello, son. And at that moment, I just broke down and cried.
I had to pull over to the side of the road of Highway 20. And I was like, dad? He was like, son, I've been looking for you. And I was like, I've been looking for you.
I was like, how did you get my number? And it was array of emotions. And I was crying and he was crying. He said, you know, I went there some time and I lost track of you when I got out and I didn't know where you were. He said, I always knew you. You always said you want to be in business.
You want to be a businessman. And I looked and looked and he says, I'm gonna tell you something. I actually was sitting down with my girlfriend the other night. We watch a Family Feud. He says, I never watch Family Feud.
It's her favorite show. And it came to you and you said your name. And he said, that's my son. And she said, that's not your son. He's like, no, that's my son.
That's what I've been looking for. That's my son. It's like she didn't believe me. He says, well, what he did was he listened to my mother-in-law, Don White. When you do that, the Family Feud.
They ask you, what do you do and where do you live and all that. And so at that moment in time, she was a senior VP for Coca-Cola. And she said that. And so his girlfriend and him called Coca-Cola. They got in contact with her and she did some vetting. I didn't even know this was going on, but she did some vetting to make sure who he said he was. And then they called my wife and they went on three way. And my wife was like, we thought you were dead.
He's like, no, that's my brother. And they gave him my number and we talked for about an hour. And I just told him, you know what, despite everything in the world, I still love you and you're my father.
You're the reason why I'm here. And that was very important to me because I lost my mother back when I was 27 years old. So him and I kind of reconnected when I was probably around 38. And so that was a powerful moment for me because as a man, even though I had a wife and the children I had, you still feel a level of loneliness because my parents felt that both my parents were going.
I would always ask myself, well, who buries me? You know, something happens to me, you know, I guess with him. But due to the fact that he was still alive, we went ahead and put our relationship back together that night. I actually end up flying to go see him two days later. And I spent my birthday with him.
But I can give you irony of that, though. My wife had had our our second son, Jackson. And so she said, what do you want to name him?
And we got some names. I said, we'll name him Jackson. I said, but his middle name is going to be Owen.
And so my wife was very surprised. She was like, why would you name him Owen? Your father and you guys didn't have the best relationship.
Why would you name him Owen? I said, you know what? Despite us not having the greatest relationship, I still love my father and I wanted him to be better. And at that time in his life, maybe he couldn't be.
I said, but you know what? I forgive him for everything that's happened in my life. I just forgive him and I can't hold on to it. And I say, you know, Jackson Owen Brown, you know, he'll make that name good. This kid will never go to the penitentiary. This kid will do something great with his life and we'll have his grandfather's name. And so my wife thought that was very powerful.
And she said, OK, his name will be Jackson Owen Brown. Well, the irony of that is that my son was born like about two weeks before my father came back in my life. So I don't know if people think about life and letting things go and getting right with God or getting right with who you are as an individual. But I actually believe in my heart that me making that decision to forgive my father for everything that happened in the past, every hurt, every hardship, every disappointment and giving my youngest son his name. I think for some way that opened the door and that allowed us to find each other.
And that's been seven years ago. And so now we talk every other day. That's my guy. He came to my law school graduation and he was very proud. And he looked and said, you know what, to see how I did everything wrong in life and to see that you did so much right. I'm just so proud of you. So that's a that's that's a big part of my journey.
So even though he didn't start off being the most amazing day in the world, years later, he's become a great, great, great, a great dad and a great grandfather. You know, something my parents would always see my mom always taught me was the importance of forgiveness. That nobody's perfect. Everyone does something wrong. She would always talk about, you know, when Jesus would say, who could throw the first stone?
And no one can throw the first stone. And even though he didn't get it right, I was open to allowing him to get it right. I was open. I think you have to be open sometimes.
And it's a big thing. You have to forgive because here you are carrying that around with you. I just really think that it just really, really erodes your spirit. It erodes everything in you because you're carrying around the baggage and the hurt of something that happened years and years and years ago. And when you can't get over it and you can't move past it, it keeps you locked in that place.
One of my good friends, he's a mentor of mine. He always said that anger is a wasted emotion. Anger will cost you a lot in your life.
There are a lot of people sitting in the penitentiary right now because they were angry in a second. And they did something that if they could take back, they would. And so I just learned the importance of just you can't hold on to it. Sometimes you've got to move on and move past it, but you can't hold on to it because it keeps you stuck. So there's a line in the Bible where Jesus said, how many times should you forgive somebody?
And it's an enormous numbers like 60 times 60 times. You know, it's really kind of crazy that that's what the Lord and Savior says that you should. And I'll give you the greatest story of that is that Jesus knew that Judas was going to be Judas. You know, Jesus knew that he was going to be betrayed by Judas, but Jesus still continued the journey with him. And so it was all the fact that he knew he was going to betray him, but he still loved him.
And that's an important message right there. He still loved him. He knew he was going to do what he did, but he still loved him and he kept him around. If you read the Bible, you know, there was a point when, you know, they kind of felt that he was stealing. But Jesus was so in love with the man and the relationship that that didn't even matter. And that's pretty tough in this day and age for someone to still love someone, even though that's the way it is.
But you know what? I equate that to like a true father's love. You know, our kids don't always do what we want them to do. They don't always go the way we want them to go. But they're still our children and we still love them and we still desire relationships with them and we still wish them well. And I think that's how God looks at us on the throne, even though we get up in the morning and maybe we have great intentions and some people have bad intentions, but they go out here and they do things. But he's still in love with you.
He's still in love with who you are. And the door is always open for you to come back. There's nothing you've done that's been too enormous that God can't forgive. And I think that's the most powerful thing about the Christian faith is that the door is always open for you. And I'm nowhere near Jesus Christ.
I'm nowhere near God. But I've learned the importance of keeping the door open because people can change. People can change. What a message from Ron Brown. And when faith is a part of people's lives, we put it right out there. And his forgiveness, which came straight from his faith, well, it opened a door. And my goodness, what a door it opened.
And my goodness, what he did with his wife just weeks before wanting to name his son after the father that was never there with the middle name and the wife saying, what gives? And him walking through that he'd forgiven his own dad and teaching his wife the power of forgiveness. And two weeks later, that call comes. I've been looking for you.
Hello, son. And he said, I just cried. Some of us believe in coincidence. Some of us believe in fate and destiny. And some of us believe in God. And for believers, that's a God moment.
A God wink if ever there is one. Ron Brown's story, and we'd love to hear yours. Send your stories to OurAmericanStories.com. That's OurAmericanStories.com.
Ron Brown's story, a beauty, here on Our American Stories. Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year, and UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th. If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage.
It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit UHCMedicareHealthPlans.com to learn more. UnitedHealthcare, helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop, but for small business insurance, I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot, and I stay cool and confident. See, they're small business owners too, so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. Doing household chores can already be time consuming and tedious, and there's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done. I mean, that can be overwhelming for anyone. So, if you want to get those larger laundry loads done right and get back to your life, try all free clear mega packs. All free clear mega packs are bigger packs with two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry. All free clear mega packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and they're gentle on skin, which is great for any family's sensitive skin needs. Which my family, we definitely have sensitive skin. So, the next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is that's caused this big pile of dirty clothes, just know that all free clear mega packs, they have your back.
Purchase all free clear mega packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types. And we continue with our American stories and up next, we're going to hear from Donna Howard tell the story of her daughter Cassie, who was a teenager was met with a diagnosis that changed her life. You'll find out where that diagnosis has led Donna to today, to a place where she can help not only her daughter Cassie, but others under similar circumstances and all while shedding light on an illness that had kept them in the dark for so many years.
I was director of radiology at a hospital here in Mississippi for many, many years. I moved to Arkansas, got married, had three children. And in 1990, Cassie became ill on her 14th birthday.
It was a Sunday afternoon. I remember it very well. She came in the kitchen that day and said, the new kids on the block are singing Happy Birthday to me through the air conditioner.
And that was an aha moment. I began to think back and she had been telling me things and I had not paid attention. I say this and I don't think people really understand when I say she didn't sleep till she was five years old. And I think now was she hearing the voices and that was normal to her.
But there were many, many nights we didn't sleep. So I called the pediatrician and I said, we need to talk to you. And so we met him at the emergency room.
And after about an hour of him and her talking, he came out and he said, she's got some serious, serious issues. She was in and out of hospitals. Then it took a long time to get a diagnosis because a lot of doctors didn't know a lot about schizophrenia.
It took us a year. We went out to UCLA, to the Neuropsychiatric Institute, and that's where we got our diagnosis of chronic paranoid schizophrenia at age 15. She was having such a hard time that year that I don't think it really resonated with her what chronic paranoid schizophrenia was.
She just knew she was hearing these voices that were very real to her. It was very scary for her. It was hard to find anybody to treat her. It was just a nightmare because I couldn't get any help and I couldn't find any peace for her. And I also had two other children at home. She went to school until she was in the 10th grade. And I finally took her out because here she was, a quiet, shy little girl sitting over in the corner crying. So after six months of them calling me every day, you know, we don't know what to do with her.
I finally took her out of school. So I had to stay home and take care of her and educate myself on what to expect and how to handle what we were going through. It was extremely difficult time because you didn't talk about it.
My family wouldn't talk to me about it. They didn't really understand it. And that's when we decided she needed to get a job that might help. And we tried many jobs and I even paid one place to let her work there.
I paid them just to let her come in and clean their equipment just so she'd have something to do. Then she got a job and worked at this grocery store, but the people were not kind to her. They didn't understand her. She was 20 years old. She looked like she should be able to act like a grown woman and make decisions and she couldn't.
And every day she would come home. I hate my job. I hate my job.
You know, I don't want to do this. So I was in Nashville shopping with my sister-in-law and we went into a thrift store and we got to talking to the owner and he had opened it to give his daughter a job because she had autism. And we walked out the door and my sister-in-law looked at me and said, you're going to do that, aren't you?
It took me four years. I retired, then I put what retirement money I had into it and I opened the store here in Oxford. To employ persons living with mental illness in a safe work environment in hopes of helping them achieve independence and self-respect. Cassie was thrilled. She was very excited that she wasn't going to have to work at the grocery store anymore. We started out with two employees. I had started getting donations before I opened the store and so we had a few things, not a lot. But the first day we opened, a lady stole from me.
The very first day. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I hadn't thought about that. Everything we sell is donated. We don't buy anything. We have to depend on the people in the community to donate. There were lots of paydays on Thursday night.
I'd say, Lord, please put the money in the bank because payday's tomorrow and I don't have it. And we always managed to make payroll. I always didn't get paid, but we always managed to pay the employees. It was a real learning process. We really just struggled financially just to get by and keep our doors open.
But when the pandemic hit, people were home cleaning out their closets and their attics and their garages. Cassie and I and my niece worked at the store every day just to keep the donations out of the parking lot because people were bringing them in like crazy. Not only did we get all the donations, people learned about us that didn't know about us before. And since then, we're doing really well. Today we have about 15 employees.
It's very rewarding. Most of my employees have been there a long time. I have one young man that's worked with me ever since we opened. He and Cassie were friends when we opened and they love working there. They do a good job.
But it's like a new day every day because just because you told somebody that those go in the floral section one day, the next day you have to tell them again. Sometimes my customers will mistake my employees for being rude and I'll pull them aside and I'll explain the situation. You know, here's our brochure.
This is what we're about. And most of the time they're very understanding and then they're apologetic. But we do have people that are just downright rude. And I just say we are here to give these people a safe work environment where they can feel comfortable.
And it's not tolerated because all we want is to be loved, to be treated with kindness. That's it. They work very hard. Several of them I have to say, OK, you need to sit down and take a break because they work hard. The joke around the store is some days when we would be overwhelmed, my niece, who has helped me from the beginning, she would say, would you please quit praying for furniture? Because God always supplies. I knew when I walked out that door in Nashville that that's what he wanted me to do.
I didn't have any idea how I was going to do it. I had been through so much with Cassie being sick and not being able to work at times. But we never went hungry and we never did without. So I have a pretty strong faith. And I knew that through this he would provide.
And he he has. It's pretty awesome. A dream is open more stores and more cities to help more people. Because, I mean, I don't know what Cassie would do and I don't know what the other kids and I call them kids. They're not kids. They're young adults.
But I don't know what they would do if they didn't have a place to go to. I have a young man that came to me at the time he couldn't count change and his confidence just grew and grew as he worked for me. And now he has moved out of his mother's home, has moved to Nashville and is working at a store. And he's assistant manager. And it just thrills me because look what he's done.
And had he sat at home and not done anything, it would have been such a waste. And it's great to be a part of that. I take no credit for this at all. It's a God thing.
He's just using me. And I just I tell Cassie, I said, some good has come from all the heartache and pain that Cassie's had to go through. And a great job on that piece by Madison and a special thanks to Donna Howard, the founder of Holding Hands Resale Shop right here in Oxford, Mississippi. And we tell stories from all around the country. And every once in a while, you'll hear stories from right where we live, too.
Oxford is a beautiful small town about an hour south of Memphis, Tennessee. And well, like all communities, we come together when we need to. And my goodness, finding out that your daughter at the age of 14 is diagnosed with chronic paranoid schizophrenia.
That's a tough one. And what do you do about it? Well, Donna, well, she taught us all what to do about it. And she learned about it from someone else in Nashville who taught her what to do about it. A beautiful mother daughter story. Donna Howard's story. Her daughter Cassie's story, too.
Here on Our American Stories. Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year. And UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th. If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage.
It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit UHCmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more. UnitedHealthcare.
Helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop. But for small business insurance, I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot.
And I stay cool and confident. See, they're small business owners, too, so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
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Take it away, Bob. I think the work that we've done over the last 30 plus years, people now come to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum expecting to meet some pretty good baseball players. And of course, you're going to leave not being disappointed. You're going to meet some of the greatest athletes to ever put on a baseball uniform.
But by the time our guests walk away from this experience, I think they truly walk away with a much deeper, richer appreciation for just how great this country really is. Because the story of the Negro Leagues could have only happened in America. Yes, it is anchored against the ugliness of American segregation, a horrible chapter in this country's history. But out of segregation rose this wonderful story of triumph and conquest, and it's all based on one small, simple principle. You won't let me play with you in the major leagues?
OK, I'll create my own league. And they never believed that they were inferior because they were playing in the Negro Leagues or that the white athlete was superior because they were playing in the major leagues. But everybody else did. And so they knew how good they were and they knew how good their league was.
And you know what? The major leaguers knew how good they were. Yeah, because they had competed with and against each other in countless exhibition games.
And when we went to those Spanish speaking countries, there was no separation. They were all playing together, which is one of the reasons why I think Ted Williams, upon his own induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966, stood there and boldly used his platform to advocate for the induction of Negro League stars into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He would go on to say that he hoped someday the likes of Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson would be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as symbols of those great black stars who had never been given an opportunity.
That was 1966. Five years later, Satchel Paige becomes the first from the Negro Leagues to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Or I should say the first for his Negro Leagues career. He joins the Cleveland Indians in 1948 as a supposedly 42 year old rookie. Only God knows how old he really was. Cleveland would win the World Series. My Cleveland fans get tired of hearing me say this, but it was the last time that Cleveland won the World Series was 1948 with Satchel Paige and Larry Doby. Many thought Satchel should have been named Rookie of the Year.
He goes 6 and 1 with a 2.4 ERA. His rookie season at age 42, which means he was likely closer to 52. He never told his real age. And quite frankly, I'm not convinced that Satchel knew his real age. And that's not far fetched, because there were a lot of folks, particularly black folks born in the Deep South, who didn't know how old they were. Now baseball says that Satchel was born July 7, 1906, which I absolutely do not believe.
The man that died here in 1982 had likely seen 76 a long time ago. Satchel, I believe, was born sometime in the early to mid 1890s in Mobile, Alabama. And like virtually every one of that era, you're not born in a hospital, you're born at home to a midwife. And that birth record was typically kept in the back page of the family Bible.
Now according to Satchel, the goat ate that page out the Bible. So he didn't know. But as Satchel would whimsically pose the question, how old would you be if you didn't know how old you are? Or that age is simply mind over matter.
If you don't mind, it don't matter. And that is how he led his life. Now in his prime, they clocked his fastball at 105 miles per hour. But what really made Satchel so special, and I can tell you right now, 105, pretty doggone special. But what really made Satchel so special was 105 with pinpoint control.
He could put it exactly where he wanted to put it. And I am not talking about just throwing strikes. Uh-uh, the catcher sat the target, he hit the target.
He didn't miss. You see, he didn't warm up in the bullpen like most pitchers do, throwing to the catcher across home plate. You know what Satchel would use? A stick of foil chewing gum wrapper.
Honest God's truth. The catcher would sit the chewing gum wrapper on top of home plate. And wherever the catcher moved the chewing gum wrapper, Satchel right over the top of that chewing gum wrapper. He was absolutely uncanny. I tell my guests all the time, there will never, ever, ever be another Leroy Satchel Page. Not someone who combines the longevity. By his estimation, he pitched in over 2,600 games. Recorded some 55 no-hitters.
And only God knows how many strikeouts. And the charisma. He could sell it. Yeah, he could sell it.
But he could also back it up. And so Satchel had names for his pitches. So he didn't have fastball, curveball, changeup.
No, not Satchel. Satchel had what he called his midnight creeper. He had the two humper. He had the bat dodger. He had the hesitation pitch. He had the long time, the short time, the jump ball, the trouble ball, the radio ball, the wobbly ball, the dipsy do. And he also had a pitch that he called his b-ball. You know why he called it the b-ball?
Because Satchel says, it bees where I want it to be when I want it to be there. And so I tell all my young major league pitchers when they come into the museum, they better develop themselves a b-ball. And so he was so amazing. One of my favorite stories relative to Satchel, they were playing in the Denver Post tournament. Satchel Paige All-Stars versus an all-white semi-pro team from the Coors Brewing Company. And Buck O'Neill is playing first base for Satchel and his All-Stars. And he says the first kid from the Coors team gets into the batter's box.
He digs in. Satchel throws him a fastball. Kid swung as hard as he could, topped it, dribbled it down the third base line.
It stays fair. He beats it out and gets an infield hit. Well, Buck says about that time, one of the kids from the Coors dugout steps out on top of the dugout steps. And he yells out, let's beat him.
He ain't nothing but an overrated darkie. Well, Satchel's nickname, and he had a nickname for everybody, his nickname famously for Buck O'Neill was Nancy. Now that's a whole other story.
We ain't got time to tell that story. But anyway, Satchel looks over at first base. He says, Nancy, did you hear that? Buck said, yes, Satchel, I heard him. He said, Nancy, bring him in. So Buck is at first base, he turns, and he motions for the outfield to take a couple of steps in. Satchel says, no, Nancy, bring him all the way in.
Honest to God, it's true. There were seven guys kneeling around the mound. Satchel Paige and the catcher. And Satchel strikes out the side on nine straight pitches. He looks into the coolest dugout and says, overrated darkie, hey. And of course, the kid that said this, he was embarrassed, and all the guys came out to apologize to Satchel and his teammates. But Buck O'Neill swore to the day he died, if he had one game to win and any choice of any pitcher from any era, it would be the legendary Leroy Satchel Paige. He said, you might beat him when he was out there messing around.
But when he was locked and loaded, forget about it. But as Satchel would say, there were a lot of Satchel Paige's that played in this league known as the Negro Leagues. And it is so very fitting that we now have a place where their contributions not only to our sport are being remembered, but their contributions to our society. And again, it is at a time when there's only a handful of these legendary athletes still with us. They're like World War II vets. Many of them were World War II vets. So what stood at risk was that this story was going to die when that last Negro Leaguer left the face of this earth. We cannot allow that to happen. I tell my guests all the time, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum doesn't need to survive.
It has to survive. And great job, as always, by Monty Montgomery on the production. A special thanks also to Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. Out of segregation, Bob said, rose triumph. And indeed, the African-American rebuttal to the Major League Baseball's refusal to let African-Americans play was start our own league. And nobody more perfectly represented that league and the talents than Leroy Satchel Paige. 2,600 wins, 105 mile an hour fastball. The story of Leroy Satchel Paige on Our American Story.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-02-16 13:57:16 / 2023-02-16 14:16:05 / 19
