User:Oughtta Be Otters/sandbox/Romare Bearden

Athletics career
As a child, Bearden played baseball in empty lots in his neighborhood. He enjoyed sports, throwing discus for his high school track team and trying out for football. (https://www.google.com/books/edition/Romare_Bearden/SZ5PAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=baseball p 58) After his mother became the New York editor for the Chicago Defender, he did some writing for the paper, including some stories about baseball. But once Bearden transferred from Lincoln University to Boston University, he became the starting fullback for the school football team (1931-2) and then began pitching - first for the freshman team and eventually for the school's varsity baseball team. (The New York Age (New York, New York) · Sat, Feb 27, 1932, https://www.dukeupress.edu/Assets/PubMaterials/978-1-4780-0058-7_601.pdf) He was awarded a certificate of merit for his pitching at BU, which he hung with pride in subsequent homes throughout his life. (https://www.google.com/books/edition/An_American_Odyssey/RRtnDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Romare+Bearden+%22boston+tigers%22+1930..1933&pg=PA79&printsec=frontcover)

While at Boston University he played for the Boston Tigers, a semi-professional, all Black team based in the neighborhood of Roxbury. He tended to play with them during the BU baseball off-season and had opportunities to play both iconic Negro League and white baseball teams. For example, he pitched against Satchel Paige when he played on the Pittsburg Crawfords for a summer (https://www.google.com/books/edition/Romare_Bearden/9o58bjEVO5YC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=pittsburgh%20%22crawfords%22), and played exhibition games against teams such as the House of David and the Kansas City Monarchs (https://www.google.com/books/edition/An_American_Odyssey/RRtnDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Romare_Bearden/SZ5PAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=baseball) When Philadelphia Athletics catcher, Mickey Cochraine, brought a number of teammates to play a game against BU, Bearden gave up only one hit -- impressing Athletics owner Connie Mack. Mack offered Bearden a place on the Athletics fifteen years before Jackie Robinson became the first Black player in major league baseball. Sources conflict about whether Mack thought Bearden was white (https://www.dukeupress.edu/Assets/PubMaterials/978-1-4780-0058-7_601.pdf) or told Bearden he would have to pass for white, but in any event, Bearden decided he did not want to hide his identity and chose not to play for the Athletics. (https://www.google.com/books/edition/An_American_Odyssey/RRtnDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Romare+Bearden+%22boston+tigers%22+1930..1933&pg=PA79&printsec=frontcover) After two summers with the Boston Tigers, an injury made Bearden rethink the attention he was giving to baseball and he put grater focus into his art, instead. (https://www.google.com/books/edition/An_American_Odyssey/RRtnDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Romare+Bearden+%22boston+tigers%22+1930..1933&pg=PA79&printsec=frontcover)

(https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/03/the-man-who-spurned-a-baseball-career-to-become-a-renowned-artist/254451/)

In the winter of 1930, Bearden took flight from the green flatlands of Oxford, Pennsylvania, where he was then a freshman at Lincoln University, to Boston. Once there he attended Boston University and, in addition to his regular course load, began to take classes in art history and instruction, despite his thinking he still might become a doctor. It was still only a feigning interest then—"a hobby," he might have called it—but it marks an important point of departure. "When I went to college I thought that I was going to be a doctor and I majored in science and later in mathematics," Bearden told Henri Ghent in a 1968 interview for the Smithsonian.

Another thing also happened while at BU: Bearden began pitching for the university's varsity baseball team and became something of a star. He'd always had a love for the game. In fact, when his mother, Bessye, became the New York editor of the Chicago Defender in 1929 (then the most widely circulated African American newspaper in the country) Bearden wrote stories on "topics such as baseball" on rare occasions. But at BU he finally had the opportunity to showcase his physical talent to a wider audience. He was such a remarkable pitcher that not long after his star began to rise, he was approached and offered a spot on the Boston Colored Tigers, one of the city's all-black, semi-professional baseball teams. In the long and rich history of the Negro Leagues, it was common practice for teams to wait for high school and college seasons to end and recruit players thereafter in an effort to further fortify repute. Bearden was one such player

Thus began Bearden's relationship with the Negro Leagues. Not only was he an extraordinarily talented pitcher—he was on what many believed to be "the first prominent black ball club in 20th century Boston." The Tigers were a traveling team from Boston's Roxbury neighborhood, and during Bearden's tenure the team reached its heyday (which roughly spanned from 1921-1933), often beating out opposing ballclubs—both black and white. In September 1936, still equipped with a decent lineup, a reporter from the Lewistown Daily Sun detailed the Tigers' renown before the season-ending game in Maine: "These Colored Giants are one club that the management of the Buccaneers have been trying to book all season, without success. This group of colored performers have been too much in demand elsewhere." Despite the chokehold the Great Depression had taken on the city and country at large, the Tigers' celebrity endured, even emboldened, during this turbulent time. Add to this The Great Migration—the single largest exodus of African Americans from the confines of the South to cities like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia in the Northeast—and one might begin to grasp the historical import of the Tigers' legend. Despite the Tigers' grandiosity, the team never earned a proper seat in the professional Negro Leagues, as was the case for several other all-black squads. Yet in the story of black Boston ballclubs from the era—the Boston Pilgrims, Roxbury Wolverines, and Boston ABCs are among the city's other local teams—the Tigers stand at the pinnacle.

Like many other gifted black baseball players of fair skin, Bearden became a product of the times. His pitching for the Tigers soon caught the eyes of recruiters from the Philadelphia Athletics and the owner offered him a position on the team. For most, this would have been a dream long realized: a prized spot in the major leagues. But the offer came at a price—and for Bearden, one too high. The Athletics would grant Bearden access into the majors with one stipulation. He would have to pass for white. Bearden proudly declined. Soon after he would leave Boston, only after two years at BU, and return home to New York. He never played professional baseball again.

The end of Bearden's short semi-pro career was perhaps the singular turning point for Bearden as an artist. Bearden's one chance to make it in the big leagues, to actually cross over and make a career out of playing baseball (and a successful one at that), came at a price. He would have had to pass for white and turn his back on his family and his race. If Bearden hadn't rejected the offer from the Philadelphia Athletics, it is uncertain if he would have ever become the visionary painter and collagist he did. This much is certain, though: Following his departue from BU he returned to Harlem, where he graduated from New York University in 1935, after which he would study under George Grosz at the Art Students League and, upon completion, begin a job as a political cartoonist for The Afro-American, a popular black newspaper circulated in Baltimore. From that point forward his career rose sharply.

In 1940, eight years after he pitched his last ball for the Tigers

https://www.ajc.com/entertainment/books--literature/giant-gets-his-due/NIlImLqm8kEZoY55FSZtvM/

Baseball: Starting in the Harlem sandlots,

continuing through his time playing with the Boston University Tigers and local negro leagues, and culminating with an offer from legendary Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack. Decades before Jackie Robinson would break the color line, the light-skinned Bearden was told he could play in the major leagues if he was willing to pass for white. He declined.

https://menofchange.si.edu/exhibit/men-of-change/bearden/

In the early 1930s, Bearden—a talented pitcher—was offered a spot in Major League Baseball if he agreed to one condition: that he would use his light skin tone to his “advantage” and pass for white. Bearden refused the offer and pursued an uncertain future in art. His choice would have beautiful ramifications.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/first-the-new-yorker-profiled-romare-bearden-then-the-artist-and-activist-decided-to-tell-his-own-story-in-pictures/2019/10/08/7540ac2c-e622-11e9-a331-2df12d56a80b_story.html

exceptionally talented pitcher, he had played on a professional “colored” team while studying in Boston.

1932, he was invited to join the Philadelphia Athletics, a team that had won the World Series in 1929 and ’30 and the American League pennant in ’31.

But accepting would have meant pretending he was white. (This was 15 years before Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier.) Bearden turned it down.

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/13/obituaries/romare-bearden-collagist-and-painter-dies-at-75.html

songwriting: Twenty Bearden compositions were recorded, including Seabreeze, by Billy Eckstine and Oscar Pettiford.

Baseball: In college at Boston University, where he spent two years before transferring to New York University, he was a pitcher on the varsity baseball team.

- pitched summers for the Boston Tigers, an all-black team.

because he was light-complexioned enough to pass for white he could play in the major leagues. (Elton Fax, in his book,  Seventeen Black Artists,  described Mr. Bearden as  black by choice.  -Seventeen Black Artists - Page 128 Elton C. Fax · 1971 )

Majored in mathematics, preparing for medical school to fulfill his mother's hopes that he become a doctor.

He started drawing in college, made cartoons for the Afro-American, a black weekly newspaper, and the attraction of art triumphed.

Mr. Bearden is survived by his wife. A memorial service will be held at a later date. (Died 1988-03-13?)

https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/in-stadium-pursuit-51s-learn-from-those-before-them/attachment/charlotte-skyline-at-romare-bearden-park-and-bbt-knights-baseball-stadium-thinkstock/

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/queen_city_agenda/2014/02/charlotte-knights-exec-takes-a-swing-at-art.html

“What’s fitting is being in this park, Romare Bearden Park, our neighbors, Mecklenburg County has graciously allowed us to use this facility again for another major announcement,” Brown said. “There’s an untold story about this park from a baseball angle that maybe not everybody is aware of. And that is that Romare Bearden … was also a heck of a baseball player in his time.”

http://www.baystate-banner.com/archives/stories/2006/04/042706-03.htm

against the wishes of his parents - probably under an assumed name. Tiger competition included teams from Somerville, Malden and even an Italian team from South Boston.