One way of reporting on the events of April 7, 2025 at the White House …
Another way of reporting on it from writer Dave Zirin for The Nation on April 4, 2025 included: “The Dodgers should also refuse this invite because Trump has put the lives of several Dodgers and their families at risk. There are 63 Major League Baseball players who were born in Venezuela. On the Dodgers, Edgardo Henriquez, Brusdar Graterol, and Miguel Rojas are all from Venezuela. Given that the United States is now sending Venezuelans without due process to an El Salvadoran labor camp, telling these players to set foot in this White House seems cruel. It’s telling them to shut up and play, or risk something worse than a team fine.”
’twas a crafty suggestion til ’twasn’t.
Blasted into the universe prior to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ problematic visit to the White House on April 7, the comment came up: What if every player dons a Jackie Robinson No. 42 jersey, make a statement, take the photo ops, be defiant?
The Shrine of the Eternals’ 2025 official ballot allows nine names to be filled from 40 eligible candidates. The top three will draw induction later this year into the Shrine as per rules of The Baseball Reliquary, which has done this now since 1999 years.
Of the candidates, six-and-a-half are women.
* Mamie “Peanut” Johnson is the only female pitcher in the Negro Leagues, after being rejected by the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League because of the color of her skin.
* Morganna Roberts was “The Kissing Bandit,” who turned a challenge by friends into a celebrity activity of running on to the field and planting a kiss on a player, manager, umpire or even the San Diego Chicken. It warranted numerous trespassing charges and even a stay in an Anaheim jail. She is still with us, at 78 years old, known as Morgana Cottrell. There should be a book on her … seems it would be rather robust.
Susan Sarandon shared top billing with Kevin Costner. Tim Robbins didn’t get that kind of attention — and Robbins and Sarandon married after this movie.
Fictitious work, that is, created by Ron Shelton for his 1988 movie “Bull Durham,” with the famous line: “Baseball is the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in and day out.” She gets her due in Shelton’s 2023 book, “The Church of Baseball.” Which we enjoyed reviewing and, in the process, creating a neat relationship with Ron.
* Janet Marie Smith is an architect and urban planner best known for Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, but also for extensive upgrades done at Dodger Stadium over a 10-year period as the franchise’s executive vice president for planning and development. She should eventually write a story about her experiences. A title suggestion: “Built By Janet.”
* Helen Callaghan goes in as a co-entry with her son, Casey Candaele. They are the only mother-son combination to play professional baseball. Helen St. Aubuin was a star in the All-American Girls Professional League and the inspiration for “A League of Their Own” 1986 film. She had her son, Casey, at age 38 in 1961 in Lompoc, and he had a nine-year MLB career from1986 to 1997 in Montreal, Houston and Cleveland as an infielder and outfielder.
Alphabetically, Maybelle Blair is listed first among that female subset on the ballot.
This is what happens when you send out an all-points bulletin — or even just a gentle nudge — asking people for their baseball origin stories. At a time when they have time to think it through.
A baseball story that makes them feel most connected. Or, the baseball story that takes them back in time. Or gives them hope.
Grandparents. Dads and sons having a catch.Mickey Mantle. Fantasy camps. Ticket stubs. First gloves. Romance. Food. Scorebooks. Historical events. Ted Williams. Fan appreciation nights. Family outings. Broken hearts. Foul balls. An autograph.
Curtis Pride walks with his daughter Noelle on the Angel Stadium field after a game. (Photo by Lisa Pride, from the book, “I Felt The Cheers.”
The idea, as well as the fact, that Curtis Pride is still proudly identified these days as an MLB Ambassador for Inclusion since 2015 is worth mentioning right out of the batters’ box.
The announcement came in an MLB press release that remains on its website. The same proclamation noted that Billy Bean, hired as the first Ambassador for Inclusion a year earlier, was to be promoted to VP of Social Responsibility and Inclusion.
To be clear: Bean was actually named Senior VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Even if the press release now reads otherwise. At least Bean kept his title in tact when MLB.com did an obituary on him in August of 2024. Maybe that title dies with him.
In his new autobiography, waiting until almost near the end, Pride acknowledges the responsibilities he feels have come with that designation for the league’s DEI program.
“We worked together to find ways to be more inclusive, which can mean greater accessibility in every stadium, or finding ways for teams to build bridges with their local community,” Pride wrote on page 198. “We did programs for children with disabilities. In my travels I met everyone: the stadium director, the community relations director, marketing officials and attorneys. Basically I worked with a team’s different departments to cover as many different bases as possible.
“One day I believe those club executives will be made up of more minorities and people with disabilities. It was work I really enjoyed, probably because I believe it is so important. It’s a long process, but we are moving in the right direction. The goal is to make Major League Baseball the most inclusive and accessible of all the major sports.”
Pride puts his humility on the line here. It comes from birth.
Early in the top of the third inning of a Dodgers-White Sox exhibition game in Glendale, Ariz., last March, there was a buzz in the crowd.
From what we could tell from our seats along the first-base line at Camelback Ranch Stadium, Shohei Ohtani was coming to the plate, about to get in a few more spring-training cuts before calling it a day.
We could not actually confirm it was taking place. Our view had been eclipsed by a large gentleman wearing an equally robust-sized Ohtani jersey. He stopped walking down the aisle to our left, then stood and waited. And waited. A few folks in that row figured out he was asking if he could by and slide into his seat down the row — no small feat.
As four men stood up, all wore some version of Dodgers’ Ohtani jersey. Now they formed a convoy, and more sight line was affected.
A couple pitches went by. The group still failed to execute the simple dance required– the suck-in-the-stomach maneuver, with the down-the-aisle shimmy.
“Hey, guys, park it!” my brother sitting next to me eventually barked. “If you’re all such big Ohtani fans, why aren’t you paying attention when he’s up to bat?”
A couple pitches later, Ohtani struck out. The Ohtani fan contingency didn’t stir, obsessed with their concession-stand ultra-edibles and gallon-sized diet sodas. They went back to their general lack of awareness.
But, certainly, buy the jerseys and show your allegiance.
Back at Dodger Stadium for the final home game of the ’24 regular season, as the Dodgers clinched the NL West title, the Ohtani Obsession was more evident from our place in the Reserve Level looking down to the Field Level, third base side. The gaggle of Ohtani jerseys were impressive to behold.
It has been recorded that Ohtani Effect took over Los Angeles in earnest soon on a day in mid-December, 2023. The Dodgers announced they had convinced the All-Star pitcher/DH to move from Orange County red to blue L.A. County blue for his seventh season since leaving Japan to seek fame, fortune and titles.
Fortunately for the Dodgers, the titles never came in Anaheim.
Going back to Tokyo to open the 2025 season, the Dodgers saw how the Oh-Oh-Oh-Ohtani Noise Meter could go up past 11. The Tokyo Series against the Cubs took it to new planetary levels.
Any opportunity there is these days to assess our century’s version of Babe Ruth Deluxe — or even better, as historians now try to convince us — means being part of shock-and-awe experience, no matter whose jersey one may be wearing. This is someone who stands to make $100 million this season on endorsements alone, with a modest $2 million players salary, freeing up some 97 percent of a 10-year, $700 million contract so the team won’t be hogtied by financial straights.
Ohtani and his afterglow must be recorded on as many media platforms as possible today, for the sake of future generations, as we witness baseball’s first superstar of the digital era.
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