Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the Dodgers’ and Mets’ “statement” series and the awe and anxiety inspired by Jacob deGrom, follow up on Vin Scully’s musical taste, retractable mounds, and Justin Verlander vs. Max Scherzer, and discuss a recent Rockies pickup and promotion and a hazardous mound visit, followed (33:00) by a Past Blast from 1887. Then (46:52) they talk to 95-year-old Ron Teasley, one of four living former Negro Leaguers from the MLB-designated 1920-1948 “major league” period, about his amateur and professional baseball career in Detroit, in the Dodgers’ minor league system, and with the New York Cubans, his memories of Minnie Miñoso, Buck O’Neil, and other Negro Leagues legends, breaking color barriers, the MLB reclassification and what else the league should do for former Negro Leaguers, his decades as a coach, the declining African-American presence in MLB, and more. Finally (1:23:50), they bring on author, editor, and historian Gary Gillette to discuss the restoration of one of the last surviving Negro Leagues ballparks, Hamtramck Stadium, as well as the ongoing efforts to preserve and uncover information about pre-integration Black baseball.

Audio intro: J.J. Cale, “Slower Baby”
Audio interstitial 1: Dick Haymes, “Little White Lies”
Audio interstitial 2: Radiator Hospital, “Detroit Diamonds (Sacred Strays)”
Audio outro: The Kinks, “Preservation”

Link to Ben Clemens on deGrom
Link to fastest sliders spreadsheet
Link to Plaschke on Scully
Link to Globe Life Field site
Link to retractable mound image
Link to retractable mound video
Link to Verlander/Scherzer stat
Link to all-time strikeout leaders
Link to FG post on Lamet
Link to article about Rockies hire
Link to LinkedIn page
Link to article about Rockies firing
Link to Keith Law tweet
Link to article about Nationals hire
Link to pitching coach injury article
Link to Teasley’s first EW appearance
Link to Teasley bio
Link to more Teasley info
Link to 1945 article on Brown Dodgers
Link to 1948 article on Teasley
Link to second 1948 article on Teasley
Link to third 1948 article on Teasley
Link to 1989 article on Teasley
Link to 1991 article on Teasley
Link to 1999 article on Teasley
Link to 2021 article on Teasley
Link to info on the Mandak League
Link to column about reparations
Link to article about pensions
Link to video about Hamtramck
Link to video about Hamtramck unveiling
Link to other video about unveiling
Link to article on Hamtramck unveiling
Link to The Biographical Encyclopedia
Link to EW episode about 42 for 21
Link to Hamtramck website
Link to Richard Hershberger’s Strike Four
Link to 1887 story source

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