Sam Allen and Pedro Sierra | Former Negro Leaguers Tell Their Stories

Black Diamonds

SiriusXM

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

4.8 • 617 Ratings

🗓️ 3 August 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When they speak, we listen. Former Negro Leaguers Sam Allen and Pedro Sierra join Bob Kendrick at All-Star Week in Seattle to tell their stories of triumph over adversity, in front of a live audience. Hear stories of long bus rides and hot beef stew while Sam Allen traveled with the Memphis Red Sox. Hear Pedro Sierra's first reactions to prejudice in the United States, after leaving his native Cuba to play in the Negro Leagues. Hear about former Negro-Leaguer-turned-Country-Music icon Charley Pride, Dapper Dizzy Dismukes, Ted Rasberry, and a skinny Indianapolis Clown named Henry Aaron. And hear firsthand, how Jackie Robinson changed two lives forever in 1947. Do not miss this very special conversation, with two of the last remaining storytellers of an unforgettable generation.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	A guy named Silvio Garcia was a Cuban player to play all positions.
0:12.0	So went to talk to Silvio, to an interpreter, and said, what would you do if a white man's mock you in the face?
0:20.0	Silby said, I'll kill him.
0:22.7	He can't go to him.
0:27.8	When we started the Negro League's Baseball Museum way back in 1990, we knew then that it was literally going to be a race against time.
0:40.2	Those who helped make this incredible history,
0:44.4	it wasn't a matter of if,
0:46.4	but simply a matter of when they were all going to be gone.
0:51.9	Furthermore, those who saw them play were going to be gone. Furthermore, those who saw them play were going to be gone.
0:58.9	So it is indeed a race against time.
1:02.0	Every time we lose one of those players, we lose a piece of that history.
1:08.6	That window of opportunity closes just a little bit more. That's why it is so
1:15.8	significant that when we get the opportunity to sit down with the few remaining individuals who
1:24.7	call the Negro League's home, and there aren't very many of them.
1:30.2	The more majority of them that are still with us played after integration.
1:35.7	They are what some of the old Negro Leaguers would call the young Negro Leaguers,
1:40.7	but they are going to be in their late 80s.
1:45.0	And so it is important that we try and create every opportunity we can to celebrate the remaining few.
1:56.0	Well, for the second year, I had an opportunity while at the All-Star game, live from Playball Park,
2:05.0	to sit down with two of those surviving Negro League players to have them share their stories.
2:13.7	And their stories are not just the stories of hardship, but the stories of joy that they had against the backdrop of hardships in this country.
2:25.8	So to sit down once again for a wonderful, delightful conversation with my friends, Sam Allen and Pedro Sierra, both parts of this legacy that we document here at the Negro League's baseball museum.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from SiriusXM, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of SiriusXM and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.