| NASHVILLE RBI NEWS
Mayor Purcell says "RBI is a great thing for baseball"
"It's advancing baseball, but it's also advancing our park system."
Thursday, 07/27/06
Baseball's for real for kids here, but it could use help
By DWIGHT LEWIS
Like the award-winning poet Nikki Giovanni, I always enjoy saluting Knoxville's Cal Johnson Park, too. But for a different reason.
In her book of poems and not quite poems, "Quilting The Black-Eyed Pea," Giovanni writes of Cal Johnson Park as being a guide to her grandparents home at 400 Mulvaney St.
For me, Cal Johnson Park was where I played Little League baseball as a youngster growing up in Knoxville. In fact, for a long period of time, it was the only park in Knoxville where black youngsters could play Little League baseball, except when we traveled over to Chilhowee Park or out to Fountain City or down to Bearden to play white teams in All-Star games.
The memories of Cal Johnson Park are so great. I remember opening day of the baseball season when I was 10 years old. I played with the Indians, and we got beat 26-0.
But when I was 12, I remember pitching the championship game against the Pirates, and we won.
Memories, wonderful memories. Memories such as our coach, Willie Calhoun, throwing the ball back out to an outfielder in pre-game warm-ups if the outfielder had thrown the ball back into the infield on a rainbow instead of on a line.
And memories such as fans sometimes giving you a quarter or perhaps even a dollar bill if you had played a spectacular game.
Even though the main recreation building at Cal Johnson Park still exists, the baseball field there was replaced more than 30 years ago by an interstate highway.
I thought about Cal Johnson Park yesterday and all the fun youngsters such as myself had there back in the '50s and '60s as I stood on Looby Field at Nashville's Buena Vista Park.
They were celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Nashville chapter of Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities.
Mayor Bill Purcell was there. Reggie Whittemore, who came out of Nashville's public housing projects to star in baseball at David Lipscomb University before going on to play professionally, was there as the local program's executive director.
Also present was 80-year-old Clinton "Butch'' McCord, who grew up here and went on to star in the old Negro Leagues before being signed to play in the minor leagues.
The list goes on, but the most important people present were some of the almost 1,000 boys and girls who are getting a chance to play baseball or softball thanks to the RBI program.
"We started with about 60 children,'' Whittemore told those who had gathered around the pitcher's mound at Looby Field for a morning press conference. "Today, we're at about 1,000.
"This is a great day for RBI. It's a wonderful day for the program. We had no idea what this would look like when we started. We still need more volunteers and corporate sponsorship.''
The need sponsorhips such as that provided by the restaurant firm O'Charley's, which has provided many of the uniforms worn by the youngsters.
And partnerships, too. Partnerships such as that which came about two years ago with the Metro Board of Parks and Recreation.
"RBI is a great thing for baseball,'' Purcell told the audience. "It's advancing baseball, but it's also advancing our park system.''
But most of all, the mayor said, "It's great for kids. It's great for young people.''
A number of youngsters in various places around the nation have lost hope, Purcell told those standing in the hot sun with the temperature around 85 degrees, but that's "not true here.''
"RBI teaches about life, about the game and about the future.''
The mayor's right. But like Reggie Whittemore said, more volunteers and corporate sponsors are needed to make sure Nashville's RBI program keeps going.
Believe me, it can be a life-saver for so many youngsters. If you want to volunteer, just give the Metro Board of Parks and Recreation a call at (615) 862-8400.
It will certainly be appreciated. |
