We Are the Ship: Second Half

Just down the road from Greenlee field.

To honor Gibson's life, a little league field was built in the same neighborhood as Greenlee Field was in. (Extra but non-baseball info: August Wilson was born just down the street from here!)

Gibson's grave. See the tiny sign to the left of the tree.

Up-close of Gibson's grave. Not very fancy.

For comparison purposes, here is Babe Ruth's grave. Small difference ... (photo not mine)

Photo of Jackie Robinson in the KC Royals Hall of Fame/Museum.

Satchel Page pitching for the Monarchs. KC Hall of Fame/Museum.



Photos from Roberto Clemente Museum. What do you see in this photo? Clemente made his MLB debut in 1955 and played out his career for the Pirates. He was the first Latin American inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1973, a year after he died.



More of Roberto Clemente



Clemente's San Juan jersey from his team in Puerto Rico.

Another one of Clemente's jerseys.

Clemente and his family at Family Day.

Clemente's Golden Glove; he won 12! He was only in the MLB for 18 seasons. Not bad. 

Clemente's Silver Bat from 1961. He won this four times in his career.

Brain time

So many of the negro leaguers had nicknames. There was Cool Papa Bell, Leroy "Satchel" Paige, Norman "Turkey" Stearnes, George "Mule" Suttles, Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe and more. Now is the time for you to think of your nickname. If you are/were a baseball/softball player, what would your nickname be? If you'd like to think of a nickname in other realms if sports do not apply to you, awesome. But, you have to come up with a nickname and a reasoning behind it.

Here's mine:

Mary "Sneezy" Hueston. When I played in the summer league in my hometown I was bumped up one division because they needed a stronger catcher. I had worked with my brother at honing my crouched throw to second, and the hard work hard paid off. I was ready to play in the older league as a catcher, but I wasn't mentally ready to face stronger pitchers. So, every time I approached the plate, I would pretend to have a sneezing fit. I would kick up the dirt with my cleats, dig my feet into the batter's box, stare down the pitcher, and then start to sneeze. My mom thinks this was some sort of involuntary nervous reaction, my way to delay the inevitable (the pitch), but most of the time I wasn't conscience of actually doing this. It's just what I did. So my coach started to call me Sneezy. Which when shouted sometimes sounded like he was calling me sleazy. Always got a laugh from the parents.

Discussion ideas

1. How would you describe the tone of this book? Ground your answer specifically to the text.

2. Did a certain negro league player stand out to you? Why?

Some bonus reading about baseball issues in Puerto Rico today.