AUGUSTA, GA (WFXG) -
Before Jackie Robinson the only place African
Americans could play baseball was in the Negro Leagues.
Friday night two of the leagues
greatest players shared their experiences about life on and off the field with a crowd at Georgia Regents University.
Now Carl Long signs baseball caps and
shakes hands, but his hands used to swing a bat and throw a baseball.
He played for the Birmingham Black
Barons from 1952 to 1953 and his friend, Clifford Layton still remembers when
he started spring training for the Indianapolis Clowns.
"We went to Jacksonville, Florida
March 25, 1951. You couldn't have bought me for a million dollars because it
was so exciting that I was going to play baseball in the Negro League,"
Layton, said.
He played for the league and its
grueling schedule for four years.
"We didn't have any off time. We
played every day, every day. We traveled sometimes, you might say 700 miles in
a bus, get in to town that morning and be on the field and playing that
afternoon."
Along with the challenging schedule; they
also faced the challenge of an unfriendly culture.
Long remembered one time when he was
at bat a man shouted racial slurs at him. Long says his response was to hit the
ball out of the park.
But the players also have many fond
memories. One of Layton's favorite memories is playing side by side with Hank
Aaron.
"The excitement was just being
able to play with him that he went on to become going on to be the greatest
home run hitter of all time, until Barry Bonds," said Layton.
Even though their time on the field is over their legacy lives
on. Layton still boasts only one person has ever hit a home run on him.
If you'd like to learn more about the league, there's an
exhibit at the GRU Summerville campus library for the next week and Long has a
book coming out soon that will be called Game of Faith.
