Golden Opportunity

Nat Bates slowly bends over to pluck a baseball off of the pitchers mound. He winds up for a fake throw. Behind him, Willie Reed holds down second base in their mock game.

Bates spins a little off-kilter and throws the ball to Reed. The ball lands about three metres in front of Reed, who with great baseball form blocks it from passing him, scoops it up and throws it back with a small groan.

Making a fool out of myself, the second baseman says with a chuckle.

The two 90-year-olds are at a ball diamond in Richmond, Calif., renamed this year for Hall of Famer Willie Mays. Its one in a series of long-awaited acknowledgments of the contributions of Black baseball players across North America Bates and Reed included.

That spring day in their hometown, Bates and Reed were recreating footage of a game they played in 1952 in Saskatchewan as members of the Indian Head Rockets. The all-Black team was one of several that competed across the Prairies in the 1940s and 1950s, providing Black and Cuban players an opportunity that was hard to access in the United States and offered the small communities where they played rich entertainment.

WATCH | Nat Bates and Willie Reed reunite on a diamond in their hometown to reminisce on their days playing baseball in Canada:

In the late 1940s, Indian Head mayor Jimmy Robison led a small group of locals who brought the Jacksonville Eagles to Saskatchewan from Florida, becoming the Indian Head Rockets. The team played in what the town billed as Canadas greatest baseball tournament, which Indian Head hosted from 1947 to 1955, attracting tens of thousands of spectators.

Robisons daughter, Leone Farrell, said he never disclosed why he brought an all-Black baseball team to the province, but thinks she has an idea.

He loved baseball and he certainly followed what happened to the Black players with the leagues in the States, Farrell said.

He realized that there were phenomenal Black baseball players and I think thats what he wanted to profile.

Through much of the early 20th century, Black men and other people of colour were excluded from Major League Baseball. Instead, they turned to the Negro Leagues to showcase their talents in the United States.

Jackie Robinson famously broke the sports race barrier by becoming the first Black man to appear on a Major League Baseball roster in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Still, integration was slow.

At the same time, Robinsons debut spelled the beginning of the end for the Negro Leagues.

Almost everyone hears the story of Jackie Robinson and his impact on the integration of the American [and] National Leagues, said baseball historian Max Weder.

The Rockets wouldnt have come up here if Major League Baseball had done a better job of integrating.

The Jacksonville Eagles were part of the Negro Southern League and when it moved north, many players tagged along.

Bates and Reed joined a bit later on. Both had played for Contra Costa College in San Pablo, Calif. Their first stint in Canadian baseball was in Medicine Hat, Alta. They then jumped at the chance to join the Indian Head Rockets in 1952.

It was a golden opportunity. As a high school athlete, our ambition always was to go as far as we could go, meaning that we would try to get into professional baseball and the major leagues, said Bates.

The duo was drawn to Canada to grow their skills as there werent many opportunities for Black baseball players south of the border. Bates said some players chose to travel to Puerto Rico, but he and Reed only received offers in Canada.

The Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame estimates up to 500 Black players moved to Canada during the 1950s.

They may have only spent eight months playing for the Rockets the team itself folded after 1955 but they left a decades-long impression on Indian Head.

This summer, the Indian Head Museum opened an exhibit honouring the Rockets contributions to baseball in Saskatchewan. It includes a baseball autographed by team members over the years and a jersey recreated by Regina fashion designer Dean Renwick.

Watching the team play would bring the town and surrounding area together, Farrell said, unlike any other social event in Indian Head at the time. Fans would even follow the team as they travelled across the Prairies to play.

I had no idea the effect it would have on the people of our town and even our province, because it spurred other communities to beef up their teams somewhat, Farrell said.

It was pretty exciting. I remember going to the games and cheering like mad.

Doreen Willerth recalled the games were like big league games.

There was lots and lots of people here, cars all over, stands were always full, and I remember all the ladies in town would provide food. And I dont mean hamburgers they were full-course meals.

Her father owned a hardware store in Indian Head and would invite players over for meals.

The Canadians were extremely polite, friendly, supportive, recalled Bates. We had a pretty good baseball team and we generally filled the stands wherever we played.

Willerth said the Black players were treated well in Indian Head a relief for Bates, who remembered being apprehensive about the move. He said the players werent sure if theyd face the same level of racism that permeated segregated post-war United States.

But in Canada, Bates said he didnt experience any racial descrimination.

The use of one word, though, stood out.

The only thing you might call racial, but it wasnt, is that they refered to African Americans as darkies, Bates said.

Theyd say, Oh, hi, darkie. It wasnt disrespectful, but I guess it was just their way of identifying who we were. They never called us Americans or Yankees or anything like that. They would just casually [say], Good morning, darkie.

Farrell doesnt feel many people in Indian Head thought differently of the players because of the colour of their skin; they just associated them with the Rockets and knew they played good baseball.

As a kid, thats the way I felt, and I think it was good in many respects because I never have had any racial bias and I think its partly due to having these Black players in our town, she said.

They were treated like everyone else and it was great.

Ornella Nzindukiyimana, an assistant professor of human kinetics at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, said Black athletes from the United States were often welcomed into communities the way the Rockets were in Indian Head.

Saskatchewan actually passed what the Canadian Encyclopedia calls the most comprehensive anti-discrimination protections in the country 1947.

But while the players treatment was an improvement over their experiences in the United States, Nzindukiyamana said they saw a different side of Canada than their Black peers living there at the time.

The late 1800s and early 1900s saw the first wave of Black migration to the Canadian Prairies, as fur traders. About 1,000 Black people settled in Alberta and Saskatchewan between 1908 and 1911 as homesteaders.

Following pressure from white Canadians, in 1911 an anti-immigration campaign discouraged then an order-in-council outright banned the entry of Black people from the United States.

Immigration remained limited until the 1960s, when a policy change came into play. During that period, employment opportunities for Black people were just as limited, but railway companies provided a bypass to immigration policies. So, most Black men in Canada found themselves working as porters on railcars.

Many of the Black Canadian athletes are maybe barnstorm players, if we go back to baseball, Nzindukiyamana said.

Theyre making just enough money to make even, to be able to travel, but theyre not feeding their families on that salary of baseball; theyre having to find a regular job to make ends meet.

Over the years the Indian Head Rockets won multiple tournaments in Saskatchewan and a playoff tournament hosted by the National Baseball Congress all of which brought in generous cash prizes for the team. In 1952, during that annual greatest baseball tournament, the Rockets earned $500 or nearly $5,400 in 2022 dollars.

But the players didnt see any bonuses, said Reed and Bates.

For Reed, though, the goal was primarily to make the Indian Head Rockets the best team it could be and he contributed in droves. Reed recalled getting six or seven hits during a doubleheader in Calgary.

Though he turned in a stellar performance, one man outshone him.

My friend Pumpsie Green, I believe, he went eight for ten, Reed said.

That was an exciting thing and thats something Ill remember all my life.

Elijah Pumpsie Green would go on to play baseball for the Boston Red Sox in 1959 the first Black man to do so. The team was the last in Major League Baseball to integrate its roster.

Reed and Green became lifelong friends, both living in Californias Bay Area after their playing days. Green died in 2019.

He wasnt the only Rocket to make it to the major leagues.

In 1954, first baseman Tom Alston would become the first Black man to play professional baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals. The Rockets second baseman in 1951, Roberto Barbon, would go on to play professional baseball in Japan between 1955 and 1965. Pitcher Chet Brewer was a Negro Leagues World Series winner and the first Black man to sign with a professional team in Mexico.

In December 2020, Major League Baseball officially recognized the American Negro Leagues as professional leagues. Negro Leagues statistics were made official, and are being compiled and shared alongside those of historical Major League Baseball players and teams.

Bates and Reed never did get to hear their names called up to a Major League Baseball roster. After a season in Saskatchewan, they returned to the States. Soon after, they were drafted into the Korean War. They never returned to baseball.

In the late 1960s, Bates began his career in politics, serving multiple terms as mayor and councilman of Richmond, Calif. The oldest sitting council person in the United States, hes currently deep in an election race to become the citys mayor yet again with campaign help from Reed.

Bates said playing for the Rockets and other baseball teams helped his political career.

It enhanced my knowledge and awareness of the political process, he said.

[Its] the same as any baseball team or sports team; you need to work together, you got to respect your players and you dont accomplish anything by yourself you need the support of others.

The Indian Head Rockets winning record over the five years it existed, its contributions to the town and Saskatchewans baseball history warranted consideration from the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame. The Rockets, which the Hall of Fame called a jewel in the crown of Saskatchewan baseball in a press release, will be inducted in late August in the halls team category. Robison was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1993.

Though the Rockets played at what was likely a AA level of baseball at best by todays standards, Weder said its important to acknowledge the teams contributions to Indian Head and the careers of the players who called themselves Rockets.

We tend to simply focus on Major League Baseball, National League Hockey, Weder said.

Canadian history is full all across the country of incredible athletes There were a tremendous amount of players that never got to play [professionally].

The induction takes on extra meaning for Bates and Reed, given they may be the last living members of the team. It follows inductions into their local high school and Contra Costa Colleges halls of fame.

I want to thank the Canadians for doing what theyre doing: making us a part of their baseball history, Reed said.

We expect them to make sure that they go back and tell their families and their kids how important baseball history in Canada is.

Producer and editor: Natascia Lypny

Videography: Matt Duguid, Lisa Fryklund, Cory Herperger, Dan Plaster

Video producer: Bonnie Allen

Special thanks to: CBC Sports, Indian Head Museum, Carol LaFayette-Boyd (Saskatchewan African Canadian Heritage Museum)

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.