Cito Gaston | Breaking Barriers as a Black Manager, and Life with Henry Aaron

Black Diamonds

SiriusXM

History, Baseball, Black History, Sports, Negro Leagues, Documentary, Equality, Society & Culture, Civil Rights

4.8 • 617 Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2023

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why was there a 45-year gap between the first Black man to play in a World Series, and the first Black man to manage in a World Series? Former Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston sits down with Bob Kendrick for a wide-ranging discussion about breaking barriers as the first Black manager to win a World Series (and doing it twice), the importance of his matchup against Frank Robinson in 1989 as the first two Black managers to go face-to-face, his friendship with Dave Roberts and Dusty Baker and the emotions of seeing them each raise a trophy, the current state of the game for Black leadership, the lessons he learned as Henry Aaron's roommate, his idolization of the greats of the Negro Leagues, and one of the greatest joys of any baseball conversation - Rickey Henderson stories.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Your face in history is certainly there as the first black manager.
0:11.1	And then Dave Roberts wins a World Series.
0:14.6	And then your good friend and my good friend, Dusty Baker, Brickston.
0:19.0	I'm getting goosebumps as you mentioned their names and what they have done.
0:23.0	I'm so proud of both of them.
0:24.8	And it opens up the door for hopefully other black guys, you know, other African Americans.
0:33.2	Well, this is absolutely very special for me because I get to sit down and chat with someone
0:38.7	who I haven't seen in a little while, but it's certainly no stranger to the Negro
0:43.8	League's Baseball Museum.
0:45.8	And that's former Major League managing great, former Major League as well.
0:50.6	Mr. Cito Gaston, Cito, welcome to Black Diamonds, man. How are you?
0:55.6	Thank you. I'm doing great, man. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. It is an absolute pleasure.
1:00.6	As I said, it's great to catch up with you again. It's been a while. But your first visit to the Negro Leaks Baseball Museum, we were honoring you with the Jackie Robinson Lifetime Achievement Award.
1:14.6	And I'll admit, it was one of the highlights for me and my involvement at the Negro
1:22.1	League Baseball Museum to have you here and to present that award name for Jackie Robinson and put that in your hands.
1:29.4	And we actually have a photograph now of you inside the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
1:35.0	So you got to come back now and see yourself inside the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
1:39.0	But take us back to your first visit here to the museum.
1:43.2	And what was that like for you?
1:45.6	It was amazing for me because I have never seen anything like that, you know,
1:50.3	as for us a, when you want to say black players or African American players or whatever.
1:56.8	It was so interesting to all the photos you had there.
	...

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