It was earlier this past week that I happened to be
in the Pullman neighborhood when 9th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale got
a crowd of 400-plus people all excited by merely uttering three initials.
“J-R-W.”
AS IN THE Jackie Robinson West baseball league that
consists of a couple dozen teams from predominantly-black neighborhoods such as
Roseland, Pullman and Morgan Park on the far Sout’ Side (and a few surrounding suburbs that have developed sizable African-American communities).
It’s a league that usually only gets public
attention from the Chicago Defender, which often uses pictures of young
African-Americans in action on their sports pages.
But now, that league is something far much bigger.
They’ve been partaking in the Little League World Series tournament this past
week, and became the best youth team in the United States when they defeated a
Las Vegas, Nev.-area team Saturday by 7-5.
Which was particularly pleasurable because the one
negative for the Jackie Robinson West all-star ball club during the past week
was a 13-2 loss to that same Las Vegas team.
IT WAS PAYBACK of the finest kind for those of us
with a Chicago interest and enjoy seeing one of our youth teams show it can
compete with the best of the rest of the nation.
And considering how in recent years baseball has
become so overwhelmingly pale in complexion while lacking in much interest
amongst more urban communities, the sight of an all-black ball club takes on a
certain other significance.
Particularly since they’re now going to represent
this country when they take on the winner of the Japan/South Korea game played
Saturday night.
I can’t think of a better ball club to represent
what this country is about than the kids from the South Side. Particularly
since way too many people tend to think the only things of significance in
Chicago come from select neighborhoods on the north lakefront.
IT’S THE ENTIRETY of Chicago that makes it amongst
the most interesting places in this country (and quite possibly on Planet Earth)
to be. A small piece of that South Side existence is now getting national
attention.
It’s a good thing that Mayor Rahm Emanuel has
already committed city officials to having some sort of city-wide celebration
when the team returns to Chicago in coming days.
Memories of that 2005 post-World Series parade the
White Sox made through Bridgeport and Chinatown on their way to downtown come
to mind. Although is a Grant Park-type rally also possible.
Let’s only hope that these kids go on to be inspired
to achieve greater success in life (and not necessarily just in the world of
athletics). Because the sad thing would be if this moment at age 12 became the
highlight of their lives.
IT OUGHT TO be a moment that inspires all people to
want to strive for greater things and higher levels than we already have
achieved. That could be the real-life lesson we all learn.
So as we relish this moment of a Chicago-area
ball club (even one of 12- and 13-year-olds) actually winning something (as
opposed to seeing the White Sox blow a couple of ballgames to the New York
Yankees in recent days or watching the Cubs’ ground crew show its ineptitude at
laying down a tarp to avoid a rainy day), keep this thought in mind.
The next time Beale rattles off “J-R-W,” it won’t be
just a room full of Pullman people cheering.
It ought to be the nearly 9-million of the
metropolitan area expressing its joy.
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