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Life & Times Transcript
7/2/07 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- A story of then and now. How the Boys of Crenshaw found, then lost, a ticket out of the ghetto. Marvin McWhorter>> Baseball got me an education. I mean, it got me to where I am today. Without baseball, I don't know what would have really happened, to be honest. Val Zavala>> And then, from a child's keepsake to a soldier's gear. We preview a museum that's preserving the memory of the Cold War. It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. With additional support for Life and Times from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. Val Zavala>> They had the world at their feet, an exceptionally talented baseball team from Crenshaw, class of 1979. Baseball was going to be their ticket out of the ghetto, but as Toni Guinyard tells us, something happened on the way to the big leagues. Toni Guinyard>> At Crenshaw High School, the game of baseball once packed the stands and demanded the community's attention. Times have changed, but the sport still has a home here. After all, this field is where the talents of former Crenshaw High athlete turned major league standout Darryl Strawberry caught the attention of the sports world. Brooks Hurst>> You know, as the season progressed, the word got out to the scouts and to the community and we packed that place. Toni Guinyard>> Rightly or wrongly, sports represent a way out of this neighborhood and a way into a different life. Fernando Becker>> My family thought I was going to make it to the pros. That's everybody's dream to make it to the pros and everybody's banking on that, but the reality was that everybody's not going to make it. It was sometimes a hard reality for everybody to come to the realization of that, hey, you're not going to make it. Toni Guinyard>> Athletes who once played for the team more than two decades ago are now looking back and talking about how their lives used to be then and how their lives are now. Brooks Hurst>> It's the best team I've ever seen, but I'm sure there are people all over the country who are on great baseball teams who would've probably liked to play us and that would have been fun. I don't think too many people could pitch to us. Toni Guinyard>> The professional and personal successes and failures of the 1979 Crenshaw High baseball team is chronicled in the book "The Ticket Out: Darryl Strawberry and the Boys of Crenshaw". Author Michael Sokolove set out to explore the belief that making it big in sports is the way for an inner city kid to escape the only world they know. Michael Sokolove>> I was interested in looking at that from the inside out and using this team, this 1979 Crenshaw High baseball team, which was an amazing team, by the way, possibly the greatest high school baseball team ever, and looking at this group of men to examine that myth, to explore that myth, and see what it felt like to them, if they believed in it, if it worked for them, if it worked against them. Toni Guinyard>> Two of the young men, Chris Brown and Darryl Strawberry, became major league all-stars, but it was Strawberry that commanded the media's attention first with his impressive talent on the field followed by his exploits off the field involving drugs, alcohol and violence. It ultimately ended his baseball career. Michael Sokolove>> You know, he was a prince of the physical world, but on the other hand, Darryl was just cheated emotionally. You know, Darryl did not have the emotional makeup to really succeed in the realm that people thought he should succeed in and in the grand way that people thought. And then you have these other men who, in most cases, were more devoted to their sport and who had the capacity to do other things sort of emotionally and mentally that Darryl was not capable of. Toni Guinyard>> Fernando Becker, Marvin McWhorter and Reggie Dymally were part of the 1979 championship team. We invited them to speak with us about their lives and baseball. Fernando Becker>> There's one thing I'll still always have in my blood is baseball. Toni Guinyard>> The players and their former coach, Brooks Hurst, met us at what was once their home away from home, the baseball field at Crenshaw High. We watched a game being played that day and we listened as the men recalled how things used to be. Brooks Hurst>> I was dedicating a lot of time of my own on Saturdays to the program and I had kids who were playing pro ball who never came back to help us out. I didn't like that. That might have been one of the things that made me somewhat bitter. Marvin McWhorter>> Baseball got me an education. I mean, it got me to where I am today. Without baseball, I don't know what would have really happened, to be honest. Reggie Dymally>> I learned more about discipline and how to be focused and how to set your goals and work at those goals to fulfill your dreams and stuff because baseball to me was just a stepping stone. I did it because I loved it, but I learned more about discipline and being focused and I had a passion for it. Michael Sokolove>> I mean, they were really great. Reggie Dymally was the MVP of the high school league in the same year that Darryl Strawberry was the first draft choice in the whole nation. Toni Guinyard>> Dymally was the only player on the 1979 team to go directly to a four-year college after high school. Michael Sokolove>> Reggie Dymally, beautiful ball player, beautiful ball player. It was the ticket out to the University of Hawaii, a baseball scholarship for Reggie Dymally. Reggie Dymally got to the University of Hawaii, very bright guy, signed up for history classes, computer classes, all this great stuff. The coach looked at his schedule and changed his schedule to teaching football, teaching basketball and some kind of military class where he had to learn to shoot guns. Reggie said, "I didn't leave inner city Los Angeles to go to Hawaii and learn how to shoot a gun. That's pretty much what I was trying to get away from." Toni Guinyard>> Most of the players have moved on and built new lives. Fernando Becker now works for San Diego State University and serves in the Army National Guard. Marvin McWhorter is a supervisor with the Los Angeles County Probation Department. Reggie Dymally is a certified chef and catering company owner. Michael Sokolove>> It did hurt a little bit, though, when you lost that pro dream? Reggie Dymally>> Oh, yeah, of course. That is true, yes, of course. I mean, of course, I wanted to play. I loved cooking a little bit more, so it wasn't like I lost something. I just felt, okay, I did what I had to do. One of my goals was to get drafted and I did, so, you know, I fulfilled my dream. I knew there were other things whether baseball worked out or not. Marvin McWhorter>> Of course, not making it in baseball is disappointing, but I'm like Reggie. You know, your dream is to get drafted by a team and you do that and it's like you're one of the few fortunate people who had that opportunity. A lot of people never have that opportunity. Toni Guinyard>> They put aside their big league dreams while some of their former teammates mourned the death of their baseball careers. Michael Sokolove>> It threw Carl into a tailspin. Carl had no other plan and Carl ended up pretty much on the streets on crack and Carl was one of the first people in California convicted on the Three Strikes law. Toni Guinyard>> Carl Jones was sentenced to twenty-five years to life. Michael Sokolove>> Carl's three offenses are breaking and entering, no one home; breaking and entering, no one home; breaking into Crenshaw High School and stealing, at most, a pair of shoes. Tahitha Jones>> You remember me? Tell me you don't remember me. Reggie Dymally>> Vaguely. Tahitha Jones>> What you mean, vaguely? I was the team. What you mean, vaguely? I was the one (laughter). Toni Guinyard>> Tahitha Jones Moore is Carl Jones' sister. Her sons, his nephews, played for Crenshaw High. Their presence on the field, in some ways, marked the beginning of a new era, yet at the same time, a continuation of times past. Marvin McWhorter>> I didn't even know Fernando was a Hispanic until the book came out really (laughter). You know, I thought he was just one of us. Fernando Becker>> A lot of people still don't know I'm Hispanic. Marvin McWhorter>> You speak Spanish? Fernando Becker>> No (laughter). Toni Guinyard>> They laugh now. No pressures of baseball hanging overhead. "The Ticket Out" has placed these men back in the spotlight. There are book signings to attend, old friendships to renew. >> Hey, coach, how you doing? Toni Guinyard>> Thanks to an author who thought their story was worth telling. Michael Sokolove>> You know, I just went out and did what writers do. I went out there with my notebook and my humanity and said, you know, tell me your stories. Toni Guinyard>> Now for an update. Chris Brown survived a stint driving a truck for Halliburton in Iraq only to die in December 2006 from burns suffered in a fire at his Texas home. I'm Toni Guinyard for Life and Times. Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times". Val Zavala>> The figure is nine percent. In fact, less than nine percent of all baseball players are African American. That is, blacks born in the United States. Now that's a far cry from the mid-1970s when the percentage used to be three times that much. So why the dramatic decline and is there racism in the sport that brought us Jackie Robinson? For an interesting discussion on blacks and baseball, we brought three people together at our Kitchen Table. David Lehrer of CommUnity Advocates; Darrell Miller, a former Angel and now working to bring baseball to inner city youth; and Steve Mason from 710 ESPN SportsTalk. The Kitchen Table is made possible by Ralph Tornberg. David Lehrer>> Darrell and Steve, we're here to talk about a topic that's been much in the news since the celebration of Jackie Robinson's sixtieth anniversary of entering into baseball. Mrs. Robinson suggested in several interviews that the lower percentage of blacks in baseball today than thirty years ago may be ascribed to racism or discrimination on baseball's part. You're kind of the leading edge of baseball's effort to recruit young blacks. What do you think is going on? Darrell Miller>> Well, I really believe that the system is predicated and moving towards the elimination of African Americans playing the game. You look at the family disintegration where the dads aren't teaching their young kids -- David Lehrer>> -- you're not talking about the baseball system, but society. Darrell Miller>> I'm talking about the baseball system and society's system. Not necessarily major league baseball, but the baseball way. Little League was the number one teacher of baseball in America. With the lack of fathers teaching their kids how to play the game, the Little Leagues are disintegrating because the dads usually do all the work in the Little Leagues. They'd mow the lawns. They'd rake the fields. In urban America, there are no Little Leagues. The scholarship numbers have dropped in collegiate America, so you can only get 11.7 scholarships, the maximum they have for the baseball player. That's the maximum number of scholarships you can have. David Lehrer>> But that's across the board. That's not -- Darrell Miller>> -- that's across the board. But what I'm getting to is, you know, you look at the increased number of scholarships in basketball, the increased number of scholarships in football, so most inner city kids don't have the resources to pay their own way to college. Baseball has taken eighty percent of its players in their drafts from colleges. All of a sudden, you add the equation and we have a systematic disintegration of the African American playing the game of baseball. Steve Mason>> I think that what Darrell is addressing is that it is about access. It's about having the opportunity. And I think that baseball could do a far better job in finding ways to get African American kids, to get inner city kids, involved. You know, in the Dominican Republic, the reason we see so many phenomenal Dominican players is that baseball has invested in these academies now for decades in the Dominican Republic and they haven't made the same commitment here in our inner city neighborhoods. David Lehrer>> But were there more baseball diamonds thirty-five or forty years ago? Darrell Miller>> I want to answer your question. Absolutely are there less diamonds. David Lehrer>> There are? Darrell Miller>> Absolutely are there less programs. Absolutely are there less opportunities for young kids and even a little bit older kids to play baseball. That's why RBI, Revived Baseball Inner City, major league baseball's program for thirteen and fourteen year olds going through the Boy's and Girl's Club, is a critical program for the grassroots development introduction into baseball. A hundred twenty-five thousand kids from inner city America played in that program last year. Steve Mason>> Baseball is competing with a sport that is incredibly easy and inexpensive to play: basketball. You need a ball and there's a public court everywhere. David Lehrer>> And you don't need a dad to shoot a hoop. Darrell Miller>> No, you sure do not. And we see more and more. It's easy to build and it's cheaper to build. It's more expensive to build a field. Steve Mason>> And then you couple that with the iconic figures in sports today. You know, Michael Jordan is still the most popular athlete in the entire world. As fewer and fewer African American faces are on baseball diamonds, there are fewer and fewer African American kids who want to play the game. David Lehrer>> But there are not fewer and fewer black faces. Forty-some percent of the baseball players are black. They're not African American. A lot of them are Caribbean. Steve Mason>> Right, but in my mind -- David Lehrer>> -- it's not a shortage of role models. Steve Mason>> Yeah, but in my mind -- and, Darrell, you could probably speak to this -- I view Dominican players as being different from African American players. David Lehrer>> But does a kid know that Vladimir Guerrero -- Darrell Miller>> -- oh, absolutely, especially when they watch an interview and there's an interpreter. All of a sudden, you go, "Well, he looks like he's African American or black, but he's not." Steve Mason>> Yeah, and when he shows up at the World Baseball Classic playing for the Dominican Republic instead of the United States. David Lehrer>> Okay, then let's say you have a magic wand. What would you do as urgently as possible to reverse the trends? Darrell Miller>> Get every single African American major league baseball player involved in helping to market and build more of these inner city academies. Steve Mason>> Once we see a new generation of black stars establish themselves in the major leagues, this problem will begin to reverse itself. David Lehrer>> Do you think there's a lack of commitment on baseball's part today? Steve Mason>> I don't think that there's a lack of commitment. I think that there is a certain oblivious attitude by baseball. Just in the last few years have we seen baseball even think about addressing this. David Lehrer>> Do you agree? Darrell Miller>> You know, Jimmy Lee Solomon, when he became Executive Vice President of Major League Baseball, he's the one that has championed this academy and he's the one who started bringing this to everyone's eyes. I mean, back in 2000 and 2001. It took us this long to build the academy. David Lehrer>> Now are you the only academy in all of the United States? Darrell Miller>> In existence, correct. So I think his goal and our goal is to build more. You know, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Houston, Chicago, all the major cities. David Lehrer>> And how many kids are involved in the academy? Darrell Miller>> Right now, we have twenty-five hundred kids involved in the academy and that's a fifty-fifty blend of Hispanic and African American. So we're seeing a tremendous reversal almost immediately with the interest. All of a sudden, kids want to play. Steve Mason>> Yeah, and you know what? Baseball needs to do a better job of highlighting the great accomplishments of players in the Negro Leagues because, right now, baseball history, with the exception of Jackie Robinson, doesn't feel like it's part of black history because this is such an under-reported chapter in sports history. I think that baseball needs to be aggressive about finding ways to help the country understand the incredible role and the incredible service that the Negro Leagues played not just in baseball, but culturally in the early part of the last century. David Lehrer>> Well, if there's any sector of American society that has access to the media and access to millions of eyeballs for six months of the year, it certainly is baseball. So if there's a will, there certainly ought to be a way to get the message out there. Steve Mason>> It absolutely should. I think, by the way, that, you know, Rachel Robinson did a phenomenal job of subtly prodding baseball through the celebration of Jackie's breaking of the color line. She did it in, you know, such a classy and subtle way, but she definitely highlighted the fact that she was giving baseball a nudge. She was giving baseball fans a nudge. She was giving major league baseball players who happen to be African American a nudge. Darrell Miller>> Right now, we're seeing the kids almost thinking it's not our game. This is their game or, you know, it's someone else's game. It's maybe an overseas Caribbean game or it's a Japanese game. We've brought in so many different players, if you will, that we've almost lost our Americanism and our domination of our sport. So I think it's important -- David Lehrer>> -- and we didn't win the Olympics -- Steve Mason>> -- no, and we didn't win the World Baseball Classic (laughter). Darrell Miller>> (Laughter) It's important for America. It really is important. David Lehrer>> Okay. Well, on that note, we're in the bottom of the ninth. Thank you both for joining us today. Steve Mason>> Thank you. Val Zavala>> So what do you think? Is baseball doing enough to attract blacks to the game? You can post your opinion. Just go to kcet.org and click on the Life and Times Blog. Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Val Zavala>> The Cold War stretched over fifty years. It was a tense and frightening time and no one is sorry it's over. But that doesn't mean it has to be forgotten. Now in a nondescript building in Culver City, one of the largest collections of Cold War artifacts is coming together. It's at a museum called Wende. Wende in German means change, as in the fall of Communism. Saul Gonzalez takes us inside. Saul Gonzalez>> For much of the twentieth century, a divided Berlin was a city synonymous with Cold War tensions, a place that was both a flash point and prize in the struggle between east and west. However, contemporary Berlin, now the capital of the united Germany, is putting those Iron Curtain memories behind it. What little that still stands of the Berlin Wall, once so feared and formidable, is now largely ignored, its sorry state a testament to just how quickly Cold War history is fading away across eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Yet six thousand miles away from Berlin in this nondescript office complex in Culver City, that history is being saved. [Film Clip] Saul Gonzalez>> This is the Wende Museum, home to one of the world's largest collections of Cold War artifacts and archives, all from countries that once made up the former East Bloc. How big is this collection, Justin? Justin Jampol>> There are approximately thirty thousand items. Saul Gonzalez>> Justin Jampol has had a passion for Cold War history since he was a child. He's the founder and Director of the museum which he established in 2002. Justin Jampol>> The mission of the museum is to investigate something we know little about which is, during the Cold War which affected the whole world, how people lived on the other side of the wall. Saul Gonzalez>> The Wende Museum's collection goes beyond monuments, the dauntless Communist heroes and heroic proletarian workers. Jampol and his colleagues have also filled this repository with artifacts that detail ordinary life in the former East Bloc from a display of children's toys and school books to this re-creation of a Communist official's office. What's on display, though, pales in comparison to what's in storage. Justin Jampol>> This is the warehouse. This is the vault. This is where we keep all of our artifacts. When they first come here, this is when they are first unpacked and then processed. Saul Gonzalez>> This warehouse is a treasure chest of Cold War memorabilia from signs and placards to uniforms to consumer goods. Some of the most extraordinary items are some of the humblest, like these stamps. Justin Jampol>> These are Berlin Wall stamps. These were stamps that were used at the various checkpoints throughout the East. This is specific here to East Germany. These are very, very important items. Saul Gonzalez>> Why? Justin Jampol>> During that time, they controlled who got in and who got out. Saul Gonzalez>> The keys to the kingdom, so to speak? Justin Jampol>> The keys to the kingdom. This reflects something we've been trying hard to do, which is revealing the human cost of the Cold War. This is not an abstraction, but really has real effect on the daily lives of those who lived through this period. Saul Gonzalez>> The Wende Museum's small staff receives thirty to seventy new items a week which are all carefully examined and recorded before they're inserted into the permanent collection. Many of the items are given to the museum by individuals in Europe and the former Soviet Union who want to ensure that the world they lived in is not forgotten. Chief curator, Kelly Ann Kolar, is most struck by what people give from their youth. Kelly Ann Kolar>> I really like the children's items. I love the toys and a lot of that stuff. It's interesting because so much of it is even reminiscent of toys I had as a child here growing up in Los Angeles, but sometimes they'll be just a little bit different. It is important sometimes to see the personal side and the fact that, you know, these people were just like us. They had, you know, normal lives. There might have been all the politics in the way and there was, you know, other problems, but it's kind of good to learn about other cultures and how similar they might have been and how they might have been different, but how it's just still people. Saul Gonzalez>> This museum's mission goes beyond simply collecting and cataloging the icons, symbols and products of long-dead Communist regimes. It's also trying to explore the distinctive culture created by totalitarian societies, a culture that's often used by the state to stay in power and silence dissent. Justin Jampol>> This was a culture that depended heavily on symbolism and iconography. These were integrated into all different aspects of daily life, into everything that was produced which, of course, was all produced by the state. Saul Gonzalez>> Art was one powerful instrument of propaganda in state control with many works filled with Marxist-Leninist symbolism. That is clear in this 1967 Soviet painting titled "In the Meadows". Striding forward, the walk forward, plays a big role in Soviet era art and art of Eastern Europe. Justin Jampol>> Right, and what's also very important is not only striding forward, but striding forward to what? And you'll see over here that they're striding forward towards what looks like the land, but also if you look at the shapes of the clouds, they are in the shapes of Europe, Asia and Africa. This is really what their idea of what their mission was, not only to cultivate the lands within the country, but beyond the borders. They wanted to push the agenda, the ideology, of socialism and bring it really around the world. Saul Gonzalez>> Years after the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, this museum's stance is now in a race against time and neglect to save Cold War history. Justin Jampol>> Each time I go back to Berlin, there is something else. There is another building, another collection, that's gone, that's disappeared. We want to teach people about this and it's crucial for us to preserve these items to make sure that these items - not only items, but the archival collections -- are around so that people will never forget. [Film Clip] Saul Gonzalez>> This museum not only wants to create an invaluable historical record, it also wants to honor the memory of those who endured the hardships of the Cold War. For Life and Times, I'm Saul Gonzalez. Val Zavala>> If you'd like more information on the Wende Museum, you can go to their website at wendemuseum.org -- that's W-e-n-d-e -- or give them a call. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. With additional support for Life and Times from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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