First published on 90.5 WESA on July 6, 2023, by Priyanka Tewari and Doug Shugarts
This year’s All-Star Break is about to begin, with Major League Baseball holding its first ever Swingman Classic tomorrow. The game will showcase players from Division One programs at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
Those players are getting the kind of national recognition that most of the Black players who were on the diamond a century ago never saw. One of them was named Ernest Gooden. He played for teams here in Pittsburgh that helped define the game as we see it today.
Gooden died an early death from a heart attack and his grave in North Braddock will finally get a marker Friday thanks to the Josh Gibson Foundation. They’re setting out to place markers on the graves of Negro Leagues players who took the field here in Pittsburgh.
Sean Gibson, executive director of the Josh Gibson Foundation, spoke with 90.5 WESA’s Priyanka Tewari about the initiative.
