This isn’t strictly APBA related (unless you are replaying a ‘50s AL season maybe) but a lot of you might find it interesting especially if you are baseball history fanatics.
Last night, Orestes ‘Minnie’ Minoso was on the campus of the University of Illinois and I got a chance to hear him speak. Titled ‘Pioneering Latinos: Building a Legacy on and Beyond the Playing Field’, it was part of the U of I’s MLKs commemoration program and sponsored by the Department of Latina/Latino Studies. This year is the 60th anniversary of Minoso breaking the color barrier in Chicago.
Other panelists included Bernardo Ruiz, director of the film ‘Roberto Clemente’ and Fernando Perez who was Tampa Rays Minor League Player of the Year and has been now recently traded to the Cubs.
I wrote about the event and posted some photos over at The Baseball Zealot.
Minnie is a great guy! He hangs out behind the plate on the main concourse of US Cellular Field almost every game. I remember talking with him about Alexei Ramirez, current White Sox shortstop & fellow Cuban, telling Minnie how good Alexei was going to be, he had just missed hitting a two run home run, driving the ball to the warning track. Minoso smiled & said, “With nobody out & a runner on 1st, his job was to advance the runner”. Still, in his eighties, nothing gets by him.