Obama's New Yorker Cover

While, at first blush, the New Yorker cover depicting the Obamas as radicals seems offensive, in reality it's not. In fact, it's a brilliant use of satire, and here’s why: No longer can right-wingers use whisper and innuendo to try to paint an unflattering portrait of the presumptive Democratic nominee... by taking the joke way, way past Broadway, Obama's detractors have no place to go — the New Yorker has already put it out there. Game, set, match.

League Park: What it Could Become

Today, if you see a player with Black skin on a professional baseball diamond it’s almost a sure bet that he’s from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, or some other Latin American country. For better or worse, Black kids in the U.S. don’t play baseball much anymore. The sport is viewed as too slow, too boring, and always has been too expensive for inner-city kids to afford — with all of the requisite equipment and uniforms.

Basketball, on the other hand takes, well, a basketball and hoop (which can be — and often is in the inner-city — nailed to the nearest lamppost). Besides, baseball doesn’t allow as much opportunity for individual hot-dogging as basketball. With the 30+years of ascendancy of basketball — and to a degree football — among inner-city youth, there is no indication that baseball is ever going to make a comeback among Black kids. To them, baseball is becoming almost as foreign as ice hockey.

None of the foregoing is much of a revelation, or even worthy of discussing, if not for the fact that over the years moves have been afoot to bring baseball (in some form, either as a museum, or playing fields) back to League Park, which is in the heart of a 99.99 percent Black community. I know because it’s my community, I live two blocks from historic League Park.

With a crying need for recreational activities for the young people of Hough, why on earth would anyone think of using this valuable plot of land for something that would almost instantly turn into a white elephant — one that virtually no children in the community would care to use? This smacks of someone from outside a Black community — once again — determining our needs... and making a culturally wrong determination.

The only thing I can think of is nostalgia. True, League Park was the original home of the Cleveland Indians, and later became home to the Negro League’s Cleveland Buckeyes, but all that remains from that era is a decrepit 1500 square foot building that once was the ticket booth, and about 80 feet of the original outside wall, which is crumbling. Both, due to their historical significance, should be preserved and restored, but the idea of using these remnants as a cornerstone (a jumping off point if you will) to erect a Negro League baseball museum makes little sense such a facility already exists in Kansas City (and it’s starving to death due to lack of attendance). The past is impossible to recreate, and, really, who would want to? And the idea of new baseball diamonds at League Park is about as logical as building a hockey rink on the site.

I’ve been in attendance as three different mayors over the years have laid out their plans for the future of League Park; none (fortunately) have come to fruition. For once, government inaction seems to have caused a good end. All of the plans were too grandiose by half, and all lacked focus and real input from the community.

Fortunately, there are some people in Hough who spend their time and efforts providing stability, guidance, and recreational opportunities for neighborhood kids, and they really have some exciting ideas in regards to what should be done with the expanse of land. These grassroots experts (usually the most informed kinds when dealing with local matters) want four things on the site: a swimming pool (there used to be one, but for some reason it was ripped out about five or six years ago). a kiddies’ water park, a band shell (with a stage) for outdoor community events, and, of course, two basketball courts. All of these can be had for far less money than what current plans call for.

What planners need to do first is to acquire the vacant land (and the lots with the boarded up houses) which abut the property ... this would increase the footprint of the park by 20 percent and probably create enough room for a football field as well. The fact that this land hasn’t already been acquired is a testament to the lack of planning on someone’s part (probably the person(s) in charge of planning, I would guess). Then decisions need to be made regarding parking adjacent to the facility. Recently a new home (don’t get me wrong, we just love new homes in Hough!) was erected on land that was supposed to be reserved for the parking lot, which is further proof that someone is asleep at the switch in regards to the overall development of the facility. With proper planning League Park could become a welcomed and well-used addition to the community — all it takes is a bit of vision and community input.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com
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