W.E. A.L.L. B.E.: “Say It Ain’t So: Farewell Tribute to Negro Leagues Baseball Great & ‘Good Guy’ Joe B. Scott” (10/2/1920-3/21/2013)

“Say It Ain’t So: Farewell Tribute to Negro Leagues Baseball Great & ‘Good Guy’ Joe B. Scott”

(10/2/1920-3/21/2013)

***For Immediate Release***

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Bro. Ron Herd II aka r2c2h2 tha artivist

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2 Hall of Fame worthy talents: Bro. Joe B. Scott & Bro. Ron aka r2c2h2 tha artivist 4/28/2009

“Say It Ain’t So: Farewell Tribute to Negro Leagues Baseball Great & ‘Good Guy’ Joe B. Scott”

(10/2/1920-3/21/2013)

By Bro. Ron aka r2c2h2 tha artivist

Special to W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News

“Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”

~Horace Mann

On March 21, 2013, Baseball lost one of its great ambassadors and humanity lost one of its best human beings…After 92 years of playing the game of life the right way Joe B. Scott finally got drafted into the greatest league one could ever hope to play for…

In 1937, Joe B. Scott became the first African American to ever play Wrigley Field in Chicago, one of Major League Baseball's greatest historic ballparks...Joe B. Scott accomplished this feat 10 years before Jackie Robinson officially broke the color barrier in baseball and while still a teenager!!! He did so during the city championship game as a standout first baseman and the only African American on his high school baseball team at Tilden Tech High School in Chicago...Afterwards, Joe confronted the virulently racist Major League Baseball Commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis and prophetically proclaimed that Blacks will one day play in the major leagues…

He was also only one of 20 remaining living former baseball players to play their entire careers in the legendary Negro Leagues...One career highlight was hitting a mind blowing .714 in 58 games in a season shortened by the advent of the United States’ entry into World War 2…He was the star subject of the Memphis Public Broadcasting Television documentary Joe Scott: Memories of the Negro Leagues...

The most Joe B. Scott ever made in his 20 year baseball career was $350 per month, but his love for the game and for people was priceless!!! Joe B. Scott was one of the few folks I have run across in my life that I call pure spirits…It is really hard for me to imagine Joe holding a grudge or being truly angry at anybody for long periods of time…And being a Black man for 92 years surviving the worst aspects of Jim Crow America all the while keeping a cool sanguine mind says a lot about his character and temperament…He was also a cheerful giver as well..Both traits I mentioned are attested to by both family and friends who knew him better and way longer than I did…I also found out that if Joe really liked you that he would take you out to dinner or lunch at his favorite restaurant, Outback Steakhouse…I told Joe that I would treat him to Outback Steakhouse as a thank you for being so generous with his time, but unfortunately he got too sick for me to honor my offer…

Joe B. Scott was a giant of a human being and I don’t mean in a physical sense, but definitely in the spiritual…He understood his purpose and fulfilled it well…In spite of all the accolades he received in his life the most rewarding thing it seem he could do outside of playing and talking about baseball was truly being a servant to people and giving folks his most valuable asset, his time…

Pictured: With several Negro Leagues Baseball vets and stars (Ollie Brantley sitting on my right and Reginald Howard sitting to my left, standing from left to right Bill Little, Lonnie Harris (in shades) as well as one former Major League Baseball player, Reggie Williams, standing second from left)...Also included in pic is Andrew Rome Withers, son of prominent, prolific and now controversial civil rights photographer Ernest Withers (back row with hat) and Steve Moore next to him on the right, Ollie Brantley's nephew...At Joe B. Scott's homegoing @ St. Mary's Catholic Church in Downtown Memphis, 4/5/2013.

In this W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News special, friends, family and admirers pay loving homage to the man and the legend…Also featured are interviews with the late great from 2008 and 2009 that shows Mr. Scott discussing his 20 year career in the Negro Leagues, what and who inspired him to play baseball, the influence of his mother on his life, his association with his lifelong mentor & friend baseball immortal Satchel Paige, his thoughts on the game today and friendship with the late great Negro Leagues Baseball ambassador and pioneer Buck O'Neil among other things...Mr. Scott was a master storyteller in a class all by himself...His enthusiasm was contagious…He will be missed.

You can check out these tributes and so much more via videos, photos and podcasts at the following links:

"Say It Ain't So Joe: Farewell Tribute To Negro Leagues Baseball Joe B. Scott"