the fifth annual civil rights game between the philadelphia phillies and as part of the celebrations major league celebrations are handing out the beacon awards. among the recipients, morgan freeman, carlos santana and ernie banks. i was able to get all three of the guys in the same room. listen to them as we talk about a pair of historic firsts. mr. banks could you imagine, there was a time you couldn t imagine there being a black player in major league baseball. now there s a black president. what was your thought? it was you know very unique. i didn t ever think it was going to be a black manager or black general manager and jackie said this 1972, he said he felt that baseball had to reach this pinnacle, unless you see a black
baseball and the other stuff just came? that s right. and i played the game as if nobody was there but me. it s amazing, isn t it? it is. amazing. people went to the park. i didn t know that. i walked past my kids, i didn t recognize them. i was so enticed and focused on that game, huh? focused. focused on that game. it s amazing how it controlled my life. when you look back at it now, do you understand why some might view you as that trailblazer? do you understand it better as you got out of it and got older that wow! you were doing something special at the time and may not realize what you were in the midst of? i didn t realize that. somebody said you did this and that? what, hit a home run there? you did this and this? i didn t realize it. i m sure you re aware the numbers of african-american
service to who? we know you re getting beacon awards, i ve got an oscar winner, grammy winner and hall of famer here. surely you all don t believe what you re saying. yes. let me ask you, do you feel that same sentiment? they re nothing, to everybody it s everything. most people who are from aerial view they don t necessarily trip on what they do. they do it by breathing. people around them, we understand just by them being alive they have brought a change, very vital, significant, most meaningful change. we have to write this down, carlos is a philosopher. mr. banks, a lot of people look at you as a trailblazer in baseball. for you at the time, were you simply a guy who wanted to play
were living today he would have said well done, son, we ve made a tremendous change, moved in the right direction. you said riding on the shoulders of dr. king, jackie robinson. a lot of people would put you in that same vein of jackie robinson, martin luther king jr., ambassador young and others. you still hold those guys to a higher esteem. i do. i told them much higher than i do. they were great in more ways than one. not only because of what they stood for but what they stood for to bring to the civil rights table for other blacks to chew on and ride on. what is the state of baseball these days? how is it doing today? is it its popularity waning at all? it could be a lot better. we don t have as many african-americans playing baseball as we used to have.
any time we have an economic struggle in this country, we, we, the blacks, are going to feel the pinch quicker than anybody and baseball is a very expensive game. kids can turn on tv and see that immediate, instant fame or whatnot from basketball or football. i don t believe baseball has sold itself as much in the black area as it should have. somehow football was done a terrific job and basketball another terrific job and selling its sports in the areas. you look at it deep enough if that young kid who is 7, 10, 12 years ago, growing up, wants to play baseball and by the time he gets it to 18 where he can get to college, here comes the football coach. the football coach says we have a four-year scholarship and looking somewhere else because we have not made the progress in baseball that we needed to make,