Hooray!
The St. Louis Cardinals have an African-American player on the 25-man roster. Let’s all welcome Jerome Williams.
Williams, 34, pitched in relief on Saturday at Miami and surrendered one hit over four innings of work in a blowout loss to the Marlins. He didn’t give up an earned run, but two inherited runners did score.
A tip of the cap to the journeyman hurler for protecting the Cards’ bullpen by lasting so long in a game that was over by the fifth inning.
“He has the ability to throw a lot of pitches,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said.
“I’d love for our starters to go out there and sail, but the likelihood of needing some arms down there is pretty high, and he’s a guy with some experience that has been around a while.”
After signing with the Cardinals in June, Williams posted a 5-3 mark with a 4.89 ERA in nine starts at Triple-A Memphis. While those aren’t stellar numbers, keep in mind Williams has not been a starting pitcher for several seasons.
The Cardinals are his 8th MLB team, following the Giants, Cubs, Nationals, Angels, Astros, Rangers and Phillies. He also pitched a season in a Chinese professional baseball league.
It was in Taiwan that he obtained a pink glove that he wears each game in honor of his mother, who was taken from him at 43 after a bout with breast cancer. The story behind the glove is not heartwarming, though.
Unable to deal with his mom’s illness, Williams admits that as a teen he neglected her. He simply stayed away from his Honolulu home if one of his two brothers or his dad were not there. His father had to force him to spend time with the woman who had faithfully taken him to practice and help mold him into a potential MLB pitcher.
“I really didn’t worry about it or care. I just cared about myself,” he told espn.com.
When he did enter his mother’s room, “The first words out of my mom’s mouth were, ‘What are you doing here? Get the hell out of my face,’” Williams said.
“That blew me away. I left for like three days and didn’t come home.”
He was 19 when the terrible realization of how shamefully he had treated his mother hit him. He would spend more time with her before she passed in 2001.
“It kind of still hits me to this day, all the stuff I didn’t do that hurt her,” Williams said.
He now wears the pink glove as a tribute, and also remnants of a pukka-shell necklace she left him inside his spikes and glued to his cap.
MLB draft shows promises
The New York Mets drafted African-American pitcher Justin Dunn from Boston College 19th overall in the June amateur draft, which is a rarity. Few black pitchers are selected in the first round.
Over the past five years, according to MLB, 34 of 168 first-round draft choices have been black. That’s 20.2 percent. Only five of those 34 were pitchers.
There is good news. Twelve of the 77 players (15.5 percent) selected on the first day of the draft were African-Americans. Black players accounted for 25 percent of first-round picks in 2015, which was the most since 1992.
I’m one who believes any black player at any MLB position is cause for celebration, and it would be great to see more black starting pitchers. Why?
According to USA Today, only 14 of the 449 pitchers on 2016 opening-day rosters — or the disabled list — were African-American.
Most famous black athletes
ESPN recently comprised a list of the world’s “Most Famous Athletes.” It is based on analytic information that includes endorsements, Twitter followers and Facebook likes. Yeah, that kind of gives me the yips, but I’m 55.
Of the top 20, most hail from Europe and few are African-Americans – but the names are quite recognizable. Here are the top black athlete’s
2. LeBron James (Selected before he led Cleveland to NBA title. 6. Kevin Durant (List compiled before he left Oklahoma City for Golden State) 7. Tiger Woods (yes, the guy who hasn’t played in more than a year) 10. Kobe Bryant (yes, post-retirement) 14. Usain Bolt.
Excuse me, but the numbers must be off if Serena Williams is not included. By the way, soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal was No. 1.
Alvin A. Reid is a panelist on the Nine Network program, Donnybrook and appears on ABC’s The Allman Report and several sports radio shows. His Twitter handle is #aareid1
