ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 16, 1997 TAG: 9704160034
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The midweek buffet:
The 50th anniversary celebration of Jackie Robinson's debut in the major leagues brought an intriguing reader question. Did the first black to play in the majors ever play in Roanoke?
Well, Robinson did play in Lynchburg for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the early '50s, when big-league clubs made their way north for the start of the season from spring training. Maher Field, home of the Class D Piedmont League's Roanoke Red Sox (through 1953), had a big-league game almost every spring.
Robinson didn't play with the Dodgers in the Star City. After Robinson broke the game's color barrier, the first black to perform for a big-league team at Maher Field was center fielder Sam Jethroe, on April 9, 1950. The Easter crowd was 5,397.
Jethroe helped the Boston Braves to a 15-12 victory over Cincinnati in a game that included a triple play and a pinch-hit grand slam. Ernie Johnson, later the Atlanta Braves' longtime broadcaster, was the Braves' winning pitcher.
``The presence of Sam Jethroe, speedy Negro outfielder in the Braves' lineup, helped attract several hundred members of his own race,'' the World-News reported, ``and they cheered him to the hilt every time he made a fancy catch or good throw, and they went wild when he slammed a home run over the scoreboard to lead off the eighth.''
Robinson signed his first major-league contract April 10, 1947. Roanoke was occupied with another game that day at Maher, as more than 8,000 fans watched Ewell Blackwell pitch the Reds to a 5-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox. Ted Williams was 2-for-3 for the Sox, who then flew home in the first Constellation ever to land at Woodrum Field.
BIG ARM: Jim Druckenmiller's NFL future will be in Atlanta, Miami or San Francisco. So predicted NFL draft maven Mel Kiper on Tuesday. The ESPN analyst called the Virginia Tech quarterback ``kind of a wild card'' but said Druckenmiller is certain to be a first-round pick.
``Does Atlanta take him [11th], with [coach] Dan Reeves making him the developmental guy behind Chris Chandler?'' Kiper said. ``If not, will Miami get him at 15th? Jimmy Johnson worked Druckenmiller out and really likes him. If he gets past 15th, he'll probably drop all the way to No.26 and San Francisco. [49ers executive] Bill Walsh loves this guy. There's no way he falls past 26th.''
DOUBLE UP: When twins Tiki and Ronde Barber, former Cave Spring and Virginia stars, are selected in the NFL Draft this weekend, they will become the first Roanoke Valley residents picked by NFL teams in a decade.
The last local player in the draft was former Virginia Tech linebacker Curtis Taliaferro of Salem, who was an eighth-round choice by Atlanta in 1987. No Roanoke product has been chosen in the draft since Tom Pettigrew, a former Catholic High lineman and Eastern Illinois standout, was the Los Angeles Rams' eighth-round pick in 1980.
BULL'S-EYE: In this final week of the NBA regular season, there's more to the four-team scramble in the middle of the Eastern Conference standings than trying to clinch home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Atlanta, New York, Charlotte and Detroit also should want to avoid the bracket topped by the defending champion Chicago Bulls. Those four clubs will make up the third through sixth seeds in the conference. The fourth-place finisher will get a home-floor edge in the best-of-five first round, but then would have to meet the Bulls in the conference semifinals.
This is one case where, if you can't finish third, it might be better to finish sixth than fourth or fifth. Of the four teams, the Knicks have the toughest finishing schedule.
ANOTHER WORLD: Tiger Woods' initials are E.T. Perhaps he really is an extra-terrestrial.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 linesby CNB