"I was a once a young boy growing up in Macon, Georgia, and then I was playing baseball before 40,000 in Yankee Stadium," Scott told an audience of about 200 students at St. Dominic Academy in Jersey City last week. "You never thought that was possible."
However, Scott never got the chance to pitch in the real major leagues. He wasn't actually a member of the New York Yankees.
Scott, who now resides in Elizabeth, pitched for the New York Black Yankees of the old Negro Baseball League, which gave African-Americans the opportunity to play professionally before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier and became the first black major leaguer in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Scott was a professional baseball player from 1941 through 1955, the majority of that time being spent in the Negro Leagues. Nowadays, he travels around the area, speaking with youngsters and teaching them about what it was like to be a black professional baseball player in a white man's world.
As part of Black History Month, St. Dominic history teacher Dave Majewski, who is also the head softball coach at the school, arranged to have Scott and another former Negro League hurler, Sidney Blacknoll, come to the school and speak with the students.Good opportunity
"The first time I met Mr. Scott, it was at a baseball card and autograph show in Secaucus," Majewski said. "I went up to him and asked for an autograph, and he ended up talking to me for about 10 minutes. After talking to him, I thought it would be a good opportunity for my students to learn more about the Negro Leagues. I've always brought in my cards, balls, autographs and bats to show to the girls when we talk about those times in history, but I figured an appearance would fit in nicely. Talking about it and showing them pictures and cards is one thing, but having a player from that era who lived it is another."
With the help of a grant, Scott's management company, KJM Promotions, enabled Scott and Blacknoll to come to the school and speak.
Scott said that he has no regrets for growing up in a different time and era, where the blacks and whites never mingled.
"We always had mixed crowds at games, black fans and white fans," Scott explained. "We were always together at games. We just didn't sit together."
Added Scott, "But I can't remember a game where we weren't treated fairly. The Negro Leagues had something to do with the way we are in America today. Baseball in America is something totally different. It's something religious. People treat baseball with respect. I truly think it's God's game. Everywhere I went in baseball, people always gave me nice compliments. There are some mean people around, but they never took it out on us on the ball fields."
However, off the diamond, things were different, as Blacknoll pointed out.
"It was tough," Blacknoll said. "We weren't allowed in white hotels and had to eat in black restaurants. Those things really happened. We had to deal with it, because we didn't have any other choice. It was the way it was and it was the way it stayed. It's the way people thought in those days, but it was all different on the ball field."
Added Blacknoll, "When I was a youngster growing up in the South, baseball was the only sport we could play. There was no pro basketball and football. We all played baseball through the summer and hoped that someone would sign us to the Negro League."
Blacknall was also a pitcher who began with the Birmingham Red Wings and finished his career with the Newark Eagles of the Negro League. On Satchel
Scott asked the girls if they ever heard of his heroes, Negro League legends Satchel Paige (who eventually played major league baseball in 1948 at the age of 50) and Josh Gibson. No one replied.
"Josh Gibson was like the Babe Ruth of the Negro Leagues," Scott explained. "He hit 972 home runs. After hearing stories, you'll get interested in the Negro Leagues."
The girls did know about Jackie Robinson and his importance in American history. One girl asked Scott if he knew Robinson.
"Not only did I know Jackie Robinson, but I got to play on his All-Star team in 1950," Scott said. "We had a traveling All-Star team that played after the season was over, and that's how I got to know Jackie very well."
Scott said that he was given a chance to play in the major leagues, having signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1951. He attended spring training with the Pirates.
"But they wanted to send me to Grand Fork, North Dakota, for the minor leagues and I didn't want to go," Scott said.
So he went back to his native Georgia and played for the Macon Cardinals of the Negro League for four more years, before retiring from baseball in 1955.
"I never got bitter than I only played in the Negro League," Scott said. "It was a great experience for all of us. Some of my teammates never got a chance [to play in the majors] because they were already too old by the time Jackie Robinson got there. I just wanted to be like Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, playing baseball because I loved it. Things happen in life for a reason. I never got to the major leagues, but I have no regrets. I enjoy my life and want to keep on enjoying my life."
Blacknall said that players in the Negro Leagues never gave the major leagues a second thought.
"It just wasn't meant to be," Blacknall said. "I was just born at the wrong time."
Majewski said that he was happy to be able to integrate history with baseball, integrating the Negro Leagues with the more familiar major leaguers.
"Baseball is such a great game," Majewski said. "These men truly loved to play, and they played at a high level. I used to bring in all my memorabilia and show them to my students, but nothing had the impact like having true players there, telling their stories."
Scott said that he travels to local ballparks whenever they choose to honor the old Negro League players. There is a Negro League museum in Kansas City now that holds all Negro League artifacts.
"But the real Baseball Hall of Fame is in Cooperstown," Scott said. "We don't want to take away from that. I get to go to a big day at Shea Stadium every year. They roll out the red carpet for us. I like that. Obviously, baseball cared about us and appreciated us enough to give us a pension."
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