Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 16, 1993 TAG: 9306160029
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Right away, Garagiola knew the arithmetic would not work. And so, the former major league catcher and Hall of Fame broadcaster, now a contributing correspondent for NBC's Today show, went on a pilgrimage to the reservation in New Mexico.
"They had nothing, to tell the truth," Garagiola said. "A big field and not much else."
But they had children, and that was a start. Garagiola took it from there, hustling shoes, uniforms, bats and balls from his various contacts in and out of baseball.
"I am an equal opportunity beggar," he said. "Anybody wants to help these kids, I've got room for them."
He arrived at the reservation, 60 miles from Gallup, N.M. - "Not exactly the crossroads of the world," - like a whirlwind, loaded down with supplies. "They didn't know what hit them," he said.
That moment, two years ago, remains with Garagiola now.
"The first time those kids got uniforms, they stood differently, they walked differently," he said. "There was a sense of pride.
"One mother came up to me and said her son had not slept the whole night, knowing he would get a uniform the next day. One little guy put on the catcher's shin pads without putting on the uniform pants. Another kid wouldn't take the price tag off his glove. It said $89. I asked him why he wouldn't take the tag off and he said he never had anything that cost more than $5."
A year later, Garagiola went back to the Zunis.
"One kid's baseball shoes were worn out because he wore them all the time, to school, everywhere," he said.
But progress had been made. A program was taking shape and this summer it is flourishing with four fields, all of them fenced and a sports complex that, when finished, will have basketball and volleyball facilities. All of it is the product of a huge volunteer effort, much of it from within the Zuni tribe who supplied the labor, and much of it from Garagiola's elves who supplied the equipment.
And now there is more. There is hope.
When officials at the Pennington School, a prep school in Pennington, N.J., heard about Garagiola's band of Indians, they decided to offer a scholarship for their native American studies program. Garagiola bargained them into two.
"One makes it tough," he said. "The culture is so different. The school is so far from their home. One kid alone would have a tough time."
Pennington went for two and when headmaster Stephen L. Bowers traveled to New Mexico to interview candidates, he took the school baseball team with him for clinics conducted by Garagiola and former players Lou Klimchock, Ken Rudolph, Mike Colbern and Cisco Carlos.
It was an exercise in racial relations, or perhaps kid relations.
"We were there at the height of the mystery ailment in New Mexico," Garagiola said. "The Pennington kids took one look and they said, `They're just like us. They laugh like us. They giggle like us.' They became little brothers and sisters."
This week, Pennington picked Makossa Sweetwyne and Jazz Beyuka as the scholarship recipients. They were representative of the spirit that one youngster displayed to Garagiola.
"She said, `If I want to do and learn what I want to, I have to get off the reservation. Then, I can come back and help.' "
by CNB