Dusty Baker | The Story of Vicious Vic Harris

Black Diamonds

SiriusXM

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

4.8 • 617 Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2023

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is the greatest manager in baseball history STILL not in the Hall of Fame? Bob Kendrick takes a look at "Vicious" Vic Harris, and the greatest minds of the Negro Leagues. Then Astros Manager Dusty Baker joins Bob to talk about his journey "from carrying Satchel Paige's fishing poles to lifting up a championship trophy", joining Dave Roberts and Cito Gaston as the only Black managers to win a World Series, the hunger to tie Cito with trophy number two, why he wasn't allowed to play quarterback in high school, Willie Stargell, Henry Aaron, and why Yordan Alvarez is the modern-day Mule Suttles.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I don't think about it until, you know, until you bring it up to tell you the truth.
0:11.9	But, yeah, I've been around a long time.
0:14.6	I've seen some great players, and hopefully, I've had a positive effect on most, hopefully.
0:24.6	Yeah, no, that's pretty cool from Karen Satchel Pages, fishing poles to lifting up a championship trophy.
0:26.6	That's pretty doggone special, man.
0:33.6	One of the oftentimes overlooked aspect of the Negro Leagues was the brilliance of those who managed and who led Negro League franchises.
0:49.6	The focus has oftentimes been on the field, and quite frankly, that was Major League Baseball's focus.
0:57.8	It was bringing in as much of that star talent out of the Negro Leagues to play the game.
1:04.8	But those who understood the game, those who managed the game, they really did not get the same opportunity.
1:16.6	And let me tell you, there were great baseball minds in the Negro Leagues. They understood the game. They understood how to relate to their players. And ultimately, they brought
1:31.6	out the very best in their players and, of course, in retrospect, their teams. Sadly, they did not
1:40.6	transition. That has been part of the issue at hand as we continue to try and make sure that baseball
1:49.7	is as represented in all aspects of his operations.
1:55.0	And while a big focus has been on the field even today, let us not forget about the great minds who could have impacted this
2:02.8	game in ways in which we saw happen on the field. I go back and I think about the fact that
2:12.5	Buckle Neal will become the major's first black coach in 1962.
2:21.7	Fifteen years after Jackie Robinson breaks the color barrier, the majors get their first
2:28.7	black coach in Buck O'Neill.
2:31.3	And as I've said on this program, Buck O'Neill. And as I've said on this program,
2:42.4	Buck O'Neill was extremely proud of being the first. But as Buck would say, he wish he had been the 999,000 black man to be a coach in Major League Baseball. Indeed.
2:51.6	In 1962, the Chicago Cubs hired Buck O'Neill to their coaching staff.
2:56.6	But despite eight seasons at the helm of the Kansas City Monarchs and three league championships,
	...

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