Source: United States Senator for Ohio Sherrod Brown
Download Production-Quality Video Here
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In Case You Missed It, last night, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) took to the Senate floor to honor the life and memory of baseball legend and civil rights pioneer, Jim “Mudcat” Grant.
Brown’s full remarks, as prepared for delivery, can be found below. Production quality video can be downloaded here.
Last week, America lost a baseball legend and a pioneer for Civil Rights, Jim “Mudcat” Grant. He joined the Indians in 1958, and spent 14 years in the major leagues.
I remember watching him play as a kid in Cleveland growing up in the 60s.
Cleveland has been a pioneer for change in baseball – we had the first Black player in the American League with Larry Doby, and the first Black manager, in Frank Robinson.
And we had Mudcat Grant, who refused to be silent in the face of segregated hotels and racist slurs and discrimination from management.
Grant was an accomplished singer with a beautiful voice. He organized a singing group, Mudcat and the Kittens, to make up the income he was denied in advertising and endorsements, because companies wouldn’t hire a Black player.
They toured the country during the off season, even performing on Johnny Carson.
I remember Grant in later years serving as an announcer at games, with a southern drawl that was unmistakable.
And he didn’t just use that voice for entertainment or commentating on plays.
He used it to speak out for civil rights. During the national anthem at one game, he sang, “This land is not free. I can’t even go to Mississippi and sit down at a counter.”
In 1958, he and his teammate Gary Bell roomed together for away games, becoming the first Black and white roommates in the major leagues.
While running for president, John F. Kennedy invited him to breakfast. Grant didn’t hold back – he talked openly with the future president about the poverty he grew up in, and the racism he still endured every day, as a major league player.
Of course it wasn’t only his activism we remember Mr. Grant for – we also know his talent on the field.
Grant was named the minor league’s Rookie of the Year in 1954.
In 1965, Grant became the first Black player to win 20 games in the American League.
He shouldn’t have been the first.
For years, major league managers conspired to prevent any Black pitchers from becoming a 20-game winner. Grant later said that, “Some catchers would tell the hitters – the opposing player – what was coming, because they didn’t want you to do well as a pitcher.”
After Black players pass away, we often hear about how they were among the underappreciated talents of the game.
That’s not a coincidence.
In addition to being a singer, Grant was also a writer.
Grant published a book in 2007, called “the Black Aces.”
It’s about the great African American pitchers – part of his project to tell more stories of Black players, and to teach more people about the history of baseball integration.
It’s the kind of stories we need to tell more often. And our country is all the richer when we do.
Let’s honor James Timothy Grant Jr. by telling his story, and by heeding his words. In his great poem, “Life,” Grant wrote:
“Life is like a game of baseball, and you play it every day. It isn’t just the breaks you get, but the kind of game you play.”
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