MLK

Hot Stove #66 – Baseball Integration – A Triumph of Journalism (Martin Luther King Jr. Day – 2018)

~ Lonnie Shalton

This message is a combination of my annual MLK message (since 2002) and the newest Hot Stove post.

 

The theme for this message started percolating in 2015 when I saw an exhibit at the Kansas City Public Library. The exhibit honored Lucile Bluford as a civil rights activist and for her influential career as a journalist with Kansas City’s premier African American newspaper, the Call. The exhibit chronicled her “separate but equal” litigation with Missouri University when she was denied admission in 1939. Her case and others seeking fairness in education helped lay the foundation for Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.  Continue reading →

Hot Stove #40 – Wild About Harry – Oh What a Night

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~ Lonnie Shalton ~ 1 Comment

Events have again caused a break in my normal Hot Stove posting. There is a baseball twist, but this post is mostly about how sometimes you just get lucky.

Wild About Harry Dinner: When I got the “save the date” card in the mail, I knew I had to be there. The Truman Library Institute was having its annual “Wild About Harry” dinner on April 20, and the theme was the Truman civil rights legacy. One of the honorees was Congressman John Lewis and the keynote speaker was Calvin Trillin. I had personal reasons to see both of them.

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Hot Stove #31 – Martin Jackie and Roberto (Martin Luther King Jr. Day – 2017)

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~ Lonnie Shalton ~ 1 Comment

Since 2002, I have circulated an annual message to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This year, I am combining the message with a baseball story and sending it out to my Hot Stove subscribers plus friends who have received prior MLK posts. The holiday is two weeks away, but I need to send this out early because Rita and I leave Friday for a 10-day cruise out of LA. Rita will be traveling a little lighter – her appendix was removed last week. We will sail down the Baja and into the Sea of Cortez with the hope of seeing some whales and enjoying pleasant weather. [Note to those not on the Hot Stove list: If you are a baseball fan, especially of the nerd variety, and want some nostalgia and trivia on an irregular basis, you are welcome to sign up]

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Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – 2016 “Everybody Deserves a Shot” – Alexander Hamilton and Sam Phillips

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~ Lonnie Shalton

Another year, another MLK Day. My 15th annual message is attached below. The ideas for this year’s message came from unexpected sources.

My beach read on a December vacation was the new Peter Guralnick biography Sam Phillips: The Man who Invented Rock ‘N’ Roll.  I was intrigued by Guralnick’s conclusion that Phillips had three major passions: civil rights, baseball and the music form that became rock ‘n’ roll. Those of you who have read my musings on these three subjects will not be surprised that this makes Sam my soul brother.

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Martin Luther King Jr. Day (2013) – Bill Veeck and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

When Cleveland's Larry Doby and Satchel Paige became the first African-Americans to win a World Series
~ Lonnie Shalton

As the MLK holiday approaches, I submit for your consideration the name of baseball maverick Bill Veeck. Those of you who are not big baseball fans (or too young) might not know of this colorful and visionary team owner who shook up the establishment with his stunts, fan promotions, exploding scoreboards and so much more. For good or bad, he is probably most remembered for sending 3-foot-7-inch Eddie Gaedel to the plate in a major league game (Eddie wore uniform number 1/8 and walked on 4 pitches). But here is another fact: Veeck marched (on his one good leg and a wooden one) in Martin Luther King’s funeral procession in Atlanta in 1968. This is a story of why that march was in character for this man and why he has a key role in the history arc covered by Kansas City’s Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Continue reading →