|
|||||||
|
|||||||
The
Legendary Sammie Haynes during his days
as catcher for famed Kansas City Monarchs
Martin Luther King, Jr Little League Proudly presents
The Sammie Haynes Tournament
"A Salute to The Old Negro Leagues"(Competition starts May 29th)
June 1st thru June 3rd - 2001
Conrad N. Hilton Little League Field
MLK Park (39th & Western)No Admission Charge First Round Play, Minors - Giants 6 v Indians 5, Giants next game is Sat. June 2nd - 3pm v Dbacks. Indians next game is Sat. June 2nd - 9am v Rockies. Majors First Round - Wed. May 30th - Giants 15 v Dodgers 9, T-Ball Action, Friday Night, Giants v Rockies, DBacks v Dodgers - Great Fun for All. Sat. 6/2 Minor Indians beat Rockies, Major Indians beat D-Backs, Minor Giants beat DBacks, Major Giants beat Indians, Minor Indians beat DBacks. Championship Round - Sunday, Major, Dodgers beat Indians, Minor Giants beat Indians for championship game (13-12), Major Giants beat Dodgers for championship game 15-11. Congratulations to Giants in both divisions for going undeated, as well as each team for performing above average and demonstrating decorum that would make Sammie most proud.
Honda USA making presentation to SLAMLK
photo courtesy of Bruce Saito
Honda VIP's receiving SLAMLK Shirts presented by Ambassador J.J. Gutierrez
photo courtesy of Bruce Saito
BACK AFTER
POPULAR DEMAND
Special Exhibit 2 Weekends
May 31st (VIP Reception)- May 31st &
June 2nd - June 4rd
Sammie Haynes was loved in our community and kept the spirit of the old Negro Leagues alive to Young and Old Alike. A special Exhibit is being presented by Laura Hendrix, owner of Gallery Plus and Marie Goree in Leimert Park (two doors from Gallery Plus 4333 Degnan Blvd.) which will showcase this special history featuring Sammie and others who made the Old Negro Leagues LegendaryFor additional information contact
South Los Angeles
Martin Luther King, Jr. Little League
(323) 292 0879Gallery Plus / Laura Hendrix
(323) 296 2398
Sunday, June 4, 2000 | Print this story
Little League Tournament Honors Man With Big Heart
By DIANE PUCIN
Two sisters in Leimert Park put together a small, heartfelt
exhibition. Three hundred kids play in a baseball tournament on
the Conrad Hilton Field at Martin Luther King Jr. Park. And a
summer holiday weekend becomes a warm tribute to a man
named Sammie Haynes, a man who died three years ago, a
man who was blind in his eyes but who saw with his heart and
who always loved the kids, baseball and the old Negro
Leagues.
It is not always the big, fancy gestures that mean the most or
make a difference. It is the single man in the neighborhood or
two sisters joined by their love of history and their father.
Fred Thomas, a father and a baseball fan, is president of the
South Los Angeles Martin Luther King Jr. Little League. The
league is five years old. It was created, Thomas says, to show
all the people who said youth baseball could never survive in
neighborhoods ravaged by riots and crime, that, yes, people
cared and inner city kids loved baseball.
For three of those years Haynes would come to the field. He
would talk to the kids, to the parents, to the umpires and
coaches. He would tell stories of the old days when Haynes
played for the Kansas City Monarchs, when he was a catcher
for Satchel Paige.
Laura Hendrix and Marie Goree got to know Sammie
Haynes because of their love of the Negro Leagues. Hendrix
and Goree are two of the 12 children of the late Art Demery.
Art was a pitcher for the Bakersfield Indians of the Negro
League. Art used to tell his children tales of the old days. Two
of his sons, Art Jr., and Larry, would go on to play major
league baseball (Art Jr. for the Kansas City Royals and Larry
for the Pittsburgh Pirates). Two of his daughters, Hendrix and
Goree, have made it a hobby to collect the small pieces of
history they can find of the Negro Leagues.
It was in this search for history that Goree met Haynes.
Goree, who works for the Los Angeles Community College
District, became Haynes' assistant. She would drive him to
speaking engagements, fly with him to Negro League reunions.
Hendrix runs an art gallery, Gallery Plus. When Hendrix and
Goree heard that Thomas was having a Memorial Day
weekend Little League tournament named after Sammie
Haynes, the sisters put together an exhibit of memorabilia.
The young baseball players came to opening night of the
'Negro Leagues' exhibit. They saw pictures of the old players,
they saw the black and white photos of the rickety, yellow
school buses Haynes and Demery used to travel on. They could
see the spiffy, pointed-toe leather shoes and the tailored suits
the players used to wear. They could touch the old traveling
wardrobe, the suitcase with the little drawers and secret
compartments where the players could pack for weeks on the
bus.
After the trip to the gallery, it was off to play baseball.
This tournament, the Sammie Haynes Memorial, was a labor
of love for Thomas and his wife Judith. Besides the games, Fred
and Judith had an essay contest. The players wrote on the topic
"What the Negro Leagues Meant to Baseball and our Society."
"In today's society, especially in South Central Los Angeles,
as Little League Baseball players, my teammates and I are
proud that we can still have the same WILL POWER and the
HEART to BELIEVE just like the Black Baseball Players in the
Negro League did. With a lot of hard work and faith we can do
anything that our minds can see."
Johnathan Lowery wrote that. He is just a kid who comes to
the Conrad Hilton Field as often as possible.
The field is impeccably groomed, taken care of by
volunteers. Once in a while, Thomas and his crew must fight
against vandals, neighborhood punks who find it cool to spray
paint graffiti on the walls. Sometimes there is a fight with area
soccer players who find the close-cut green grass the perfect
place to set up impromptu games. These games, though, tear up
the grass and Thomas believes so much that for these kids, in
this city, it is important to give them pride.
"I want them to have nice uniforms and a nice field," Thomas
says. He is watching a tournament game. There are girls and
boys playing together, Latino kids and African-American kids.
There are some errors and not everybody knows what base to
throw to. But there are umpires and announcers and
scorekeepers. The kids see they are important.
Angelo and Janice Golden have their son, Angelo, playing in
the game. Young Angelo wrote an essay about the Negro
Leagues and has listened to stories about Sammie Haynes. "It's
good for him to learn about the players who came before,"
Angelo, the dad, says. Golden umpires for the league.
Sometimes he gets grief from other parents. "I just ask them if
they want this job," Golden says. "They shut up."
Donald McKenzy, who comes to the game in a wheelchair
because he has muscular dystrophy, watches his sons Jesse, 8,
and Donald Jr., 15, play. He brings his nephews Christian Ross,
10, Trent Harris, 9, and Antwine Bowden, 11, to the games
too. "Sammie Haynes used to come by all the time," McKenzy
says. "It was great for the kids to see that he cared and it's great
for the kids to learn about what the Negro League players did."
Hendrix and Goree had planned to close their exhibit today
after having a ceremony to give out the awards from the
tournament. But interest has been high and they can't help
themselves. They want to keep telling the neighborhood kids
and adults the stories their father told them. So the exhibit will
stay open indefinitely. There is no charge. There are some great
photos, a video, some artwork. And a lot of love of baseball.
Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address:
diane.pucin@latimes.com.
LAST EDITED June 4, 2001 PST. YOU ARE VISITOR NUMBER
SINCE LAST EDITTHANKS FOR STOPPING BY - SHARE THIS SITE WITH A FRIEND BY CLICKING "FILE" "SEND"
COPYRIGHT - www.fredyt123.com
Post Office Box 15742
Los Angeles, CA 90015Webmaster
fredyt3@pacbell.net
