Tying Jumbo Shrimp opponent Trey Harris’ idea into Jacksonville alum Frank White’s start to baseball
The fun All-Time Jacksonville Team exercise feels meaningless amongst all the events of the last few weeks. And what more can be said about everything that has happened since George Floyd was murdered — and yet, how can we ignore that, even in our little baseball bubble?
I’m not an expert on race, racism, police brutality, public health, the economy, anything going on that simply is far more pressing than researching the best first baseman to play for Jacksonville. Like you, I strive to be the best person I possibly can every single day to every single person I come across. In fact, you and I probably have a lot in common, even if you’ve never met me; I have opinions on all of these issues, though it’s impossible to know for sure if they are right. And I’m sure, like you, I’ve been filled with so many emotions recently: sadness, anger, frustration, disappointment, exhaustion.
There is one more thing I have felt recently that maybe you have too: Hope.
There are so many people — white, black, brown, young, old — who seem to be motivated to create positive change, to make their mark on the world. Many impactful causes have seemingly sprung out of nowhere into the limelight because of it. In my own little baseball bubble, that has been a Black Play-by-Play Broadcaster Grant Initiative that has raised over $18,000 already and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum’s “Tip Your Cap to the Negro Leagues” campaign. Outside of my bubble, there are just so many causes that can make an impact literally right now.
A couple of weeks ago, I listened to an episode called “The Burdens of Being Black in Baseball on FanGraphs’ outstanding Effectively Wild podcast. The guest was Trey Harris, an outfielder in the Braves’ organization who played against the Jumbo Shrimp in 2019. Harris said many things that struck me, but one really stood out at the 21:21 mark:
“I want to be just candid. I just think it’s bullcrap that we have so many Dominican academies, and we don’t have them here. There is some, and it’s cool, but it’s never publicized. Everyone knows about these Dominican academies where these kids live there, eat there, get their schooling there, get taught English. Why is that option not allowed for any kid (here)? We could base it in the inner city, but if a kid needs it, and is financially needing to have an outlet like baseball, and be able to get their schooling and be able to grow as a man, why is that not an option for us, but we could go do it in any other country?
“That’s where I think we have to do better. We have to open these academies for kids whose parents can’t afford it. Let’s say the Braves take in 15 kids a year to live at this academy to start off with. That’s 15 lives we’ve made better, who can also touch 15 more lives, and we can keep growing from there. So I think that’s where I think my problem with the MLB is, is that we have all these Dominican academies that produce great players, and that’s why we have them, but we’re also missing a lot of great players right here in the inner cities that want to play this game too.”
The second baseman for the All-Jacksonville Team was going to be Frank White. He is a wonderful story, and maybe the answer to the quandary posed by thoughtful players like Harris; White did not play baseball because his high school program did not have a program. In fact, his only exposure to baseball was actually being on the construction crew that built the Kansas City Royals’ Kauffman Stadium. Nonetheless, thanks to a start at the Royals Baseball Academy, White ended up logging 18 seasons for the Royals, earning eight Gold Gloves, five All-Star appearances and a Silver Slugger award while being a key cog in Kansas City’s 1985 World Series championship season.
The Royals Academy, which ran from 1970–74, sought to identify talented athletes who were completely overlooked by baseball scouts or who, like White, had no experience playing the game. In other words, the Royals were looking for an extra edge in finding overlooked players the club could maybe groom into big leaguers.
The Academy paid for each of its students to take classes on nutrition, personal finance and public speaking at a local community college each morning. In trying to teach the game of baseball, the Academy was the first entity in baseball to test for eyesight in potential prospects. Workouts included resistance training in which the Academy cut out the insides of old tires, turned the rubber into elastic bands and used the resistance they created to strengthen their arms and upper bodies — NASA later sent employees to the Academy to copy this exact method so that their astronauts could exercise in space without traditional, bulky gym equipment.
The Royals, meanwhile, brought in legendary coaches like Charley Lau to teach hitting. Guest instructors included Ted Williams, who talked hitting, and Wes Santee, a former Olympic track star who taught running. When it finally came time to play, the Royals Academy lost their first game. They wound up winning their next 24 contests, with the first class of graduates posting a 162–79 (.672) record against other MLB affiliates featuring players who collected bonuses as large as $50,000 (Royals Academy players made $50 a month), college teams and, during a 10-day foreign tour, Latin American squads. The Royals Academy won the 1971 Gulf Coast League championship and wound up sending 14 different players to the major leagues, including White.
Perhaps the Royals Academy, which shuttered in 1974 due to funding issues, is a possible blueprint for what Harris envisions. It helped spark the careers of White and other big leaguers who baseball did not organically reach like U L Washington and Ron Washington.
Baseball is potentially facing a crisis far more serious than the recent bickering about how many games it might play in 2020. In the latest Gallup poll, only nine percent of all Americans listed baseball as their favorite sport, the lowest percentage in Gallup history.
The average age of the baseball fan is 57 — significantly older than the average fan of the NFL (50), NHL (49), NBA (42) and, particularly, MLS (40). Among people 54 and younger who listed their favorite sport, baseball at 7% ranks far behind football (35%), basketball (12%) and soccer (11%).
Moreover, there are no African-American general managers in the major leagues. There are just two African-American MLB managers. The sport’s rosters, especially the game’s population that fans would consider stars, have seen its African-American population crumble over the last couple of decades.
Let’s be honest: There are more important things happening than baseball right now. But that doesn’t mean baseball can’t make a lasting impact for generations to come — I have hope that it can be a part of the positive change we will hopefully see in the months and years to come. The same goes for you and me; all it takes is one person to step outside their bubble to spark something special. There’s no reason we can’t be next.
