A legendary Negro Leagues pitcher inspired a researcher from Fairport
A half-century ago this week, a seed was planted in the mind of a 6-year-old white kid from suburban Rochester who knew not a lick about Negro Leagues baseball. Doug Brei was an inquisitive lad, and already a voracious reader of newspaper sports sections, but when he came across the story that legendary pitcher Satchel Paige had been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown by a special committee of Negro League experts, he didn’t understand its historical significance.
“I asked my dad about it, and he explained to me that, in the days before Jackie Robinson, African-Americans weren’t allowed to play in the major leagues, and had their own, very successful league, in which Satchel was its biggest star,’’ Brei recalled. “I said, ‘Oh, now I get it.’ And that really was my introduction to the Negro Leagues.’’