December IO. 2003
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Crusading to Victory
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photo by
S hay W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Fresh o ff a first place victory at the Oregon City Tipoff Classic, Portland Disciples 6"' graders are
gearing up for this weekend's Hoop Tournament in Vancouver.
Wells: ‘I’m done with Portland’
Former Negro
League player
Sam Allen o f the
Kansas City
Monarchs.
Black Baseball Players Honored
ledgers, photos and letters. Pre
served unknowingly for decades in
som eone's suitcase, they are the
remnants of the less organized days
of the so-called Colored Leagues, a
period that even the old-timers
couldn’t remember.
Many of those will find a perma
(AP) — Veterans of the Negro nent home in the new Negro League
L eagues sw apped stories and Legends Hall of Fame, a shrine and
showed off old gloves, uniforms museum to be built in Washington.
and photos last week, promoting a Groundbreaking is scheduled for next
new a hall of fame to be built in the year, with opening day set for 2006.
nation's capital honoring early
“We need this,” said Sam Allen,
hlaek baseball players.
who played for the Kansas City
Al Burrows wore the same New Monarchs, Raleigh Taggers and
York Black Yankeesjersey he wore Memphis Red Sox in the late 1950s.
49 years ago — no high-priced "I've got grandchildren, and I can
throwback copy for him.
sit them down and tell them, but
On the table lay a weathered then they want to see the proof.
glove that had been worn for eight With this m useum com ing up,
years by the late Satchel Paige. He they’ll be able to come here and see
had eventually traded it to a friend my name and my picture. It's a long
forapairof knee-high fishing b»x,ts. time coming.”
Recently discovered artifacts
There already is a Negro Leagues
nearly a century old were scattered Baseball Museum in Kansas City,
throughout the room — box scores. Mo., and the history of black base
Negro Leagues
museum and
shrine plans
groundbreaking
ball is well documented in the Base
ball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
N.Y. The new Hall of Fame will
supplement those, focusing more
on individual players.
“ It gives the average player a
chance to be recognized," Allen
said. "When you talk about Negro
Leagues, black baseball, the first
thing is Satchel Paige and Josh
Gibson. But you had a lot of other
good ball players. The N egro
Leagues were loaded.”
The discovery of some pre-Ne
gro Leagues history fascinated
those gathered at Howard Univer
sity. Detailed records once belong
ing to Rutherford Hayes Jones, who
owned a team called the Washing
ton Giants in the early 20th century,
had been found in a suitcase and
turned o ver to D w ayne Sim s,
founder of the new Hall of Fame.
“He kept the box scores, how
much he paid the umpires, the play
ers, the receipts, everything," Sims
said.
Memphis Grizzlie Bonzi Wells
(A P ) — Bonzi W ells, who
earned a reputation as a bad boy
w hile with Portland, scored 16
points in his first gam e against
his old team to help the M emphis
G rizzlies win 93-79 Sunday. The
loss dropped Portland to 0-6 on
the road.
Portland drew four technical
fouls for arguing with the o ffi
cials in the closing m inutes o f the
game. Coach Maurice Cheeks was
ejected after picking up two.
Wells, who was traded to M em
phis last W ednesday, said h e 's
looking to start over with his new
team. In Portland he was known
for arguing with fans, officials
and coaches.
“ I'm definitely different. I'm a
G rizzlie now ,” W ells said. “I’m
done with the Portland chapter o f
my life and I'm ready to start the
M em phis chapter o f my life.”
T he G rizz lies, w ho have won
five in a row, are now 6-6 against
W estern C o n fere n ce c o m p e ti
tion. At 11-8 o v e ra ll, M em phis
is ab o v e .500 in D ecem b er for*
the first tim e in fra n ch ise h is
to ry .
Portland had a 15-point lead in
the second period but M emphis
erased it in the third and put the
Trail Blazers aw ay in the fourth.
W ells scored 10 points in the
final quarter to help put his former
team away.
“ It was ju st a bad second half,”
Cheeks said. “They beat us in
every facet o f the gam e. E very
thing we did to them in the first
half, they did to us in the second
half.
ADULTS:
Alcohol is the #/
drug o f choke for kids
Nike BorderClash
Olympians and
medallists Suzy
Favor Hamilton
(from left), Katie
Leary, Galen Rupp
and Bernard Lagat
pose with honors.
THIS HOLIDAY SEASON:
Talk to them
PHOTO BY
S teve D ipaoi . a /
about the dangers
o f drinking.
C o t r ie s y o f N ike
OREGON
PARTNERSHIP
Local Runners Win Honors
Two local high school runners came home
champions after the top 160 high school runners
in Oregon and Washington competed at the Nike
BorderClash.
Central Catholic High School senior Galen
Rupp won the boys' race and Zuber Ahmed
from Benson High School finished sixth.
Runners competed for $15,000 in footwear
donations to the winning state's coach's asso
ciation. A representative from Washington State
Cross Country Coaches Association accepted
the donated footwear to be di stributed to student
athletes that don't have resources to purchase
quality shoes.
Preventing Substance Abuse. Changing Lives,
www. copartnership. org
)