Heard some great Negro BB League stories today at Douglas Center

[gitrdone!]

In observance of Black History Month there was a presentation this pm at the Douglas Center in Man. BTW Douglas Center is named after Fredrick Douglas. Jesse Dixon (board of directors of Negro Leagues Museum and former Royals staff member) from KC gave a very informative presentation on the history of the Negro Leagues in Manhattans history. Satchel Paige played here a number of times. He would usually stay in a house on Yuma two doors east of Douglas which was a private home but served as a quasi black motel in Man since there weren't any actual black motels. Joe Louis stayed there also as did many black KSU athletes and visiting black athletes from visiting Big 6-7-8 schools. When the KC Monarchs came to Man to play the games they were at Griffith field and over 2000 people would attend. Bob Feller played there Vs the Monarchs. The first night game in Man under lights was played at Griffith Park in 1930 when they brought in 4 trucks with light poles. Saw pix of it today. The Monarchs sometimes played town teams or brought along another pro team. The KC Monarchs also are credited with starting some new baseball ideas such as a team bus. They had the first one built for their team. George Giles who was born and raised on Yuma St played with Satchel on the Monarchs and caught for him. Tiger Woods dad Earl was born and raised on Yuma st one block west of Douglas and is buried in Man. A funny story about Paige: he was by far the most popular and highest paid black player on the Monarchs. The rest of the team traveled by bus while Satchel was allowed to drive his own pink Cadilac and he was always late getting to the ballpark. Once he was speeding through a small town in the Midwest and the local sherif stopped him and took him before the local judge who fined him $25. Satch paid the judge $50. The judge asked why he paid him $50 rather than $25. Paige said "because I'm coming back home this way". Lastly, the current KC Royals aren't the first Pro Bb team in KC named the Royals. In 1925 there was a negro leagues team called the KC Royal Chiefs. Very interesting presentation today. Jesse Dixon has written a book about the league which George Giles called "the truth". Lastly, Ksu basketball player Daryl Winston was there. Spoke to him briefly. First thing I said was "that was a terrible call!" Without saying what I was referring to the horrible call against him for the tip in vs Marquette that was disallowed which would have sent Ksu to the Final Four. He immediately laughed and said "Terrible call! Winston Rule". Fun day