Chet Brewer, pitcher for the Estrellas Orientales of the Dominican Republic winter league, loosens up before a game in 1937. “In my estimation,” said baseball researcher and Negro Leagues historian Phil Dixon, “Chet affected Black guys coming to the major leagues more than any other single African American individual.” Smith, now 77, cited one moment specifically during a recent phone …
Natalie Simon has spent much of her life on a soccer field, yet in those 32 years she’s rarely seen another person who looks like her. “I can’t believe it’s 2022 and your first Black referee?” said Christina Unkel, who was a FIFA official for seven years. “You’ll see her as an MLS referee, probably next year.” Simon has proved …
The Dodgers were still in Brooklyn and Dwight D. Eisenhower was still in the White House the last time Southern California went this deep into the summer without a Major League Baseball game. “For the players, both U.S.-born and migrants, the games were a transnational platform by which they could achieve a level of respect and local notoriety that, outside …
