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Hi, it's Rebecca Jarvis. I

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want to tell you about another podcast from

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ABC Audio that you might like called

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Reclaimed, The Forgotten League. Baseball

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may be America's pastime, but

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there's more to this story than you may know. This

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season of Reclaimed explores what happened

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before Jackie Robinson integrated

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the sport. Black players who were

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shut out of the major leagues had to create

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their own space to play. And the

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story of the Negro Leagues is full

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of surprises, unspoken

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agreements, feuding businessmen,

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and even people being recruited to play

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for a dictator.

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I want to play you the trailer for this season

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of Reclaimed.

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If you find it interesting, click

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the link in our episode description and

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follow the show for the rest of the story.

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Here's the trailer. I've got a question

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for you. Who's the greatest baseball

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player of all time? Whether

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you're a baseball fan or not, you

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probably have someone in mind, like

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Babe Ruth. His name, as you all

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know, is Babe Ruth. Hank

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Aaron. Baseball legend, Hank Aaron. Shohei

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Ohtani. Superstar, Shohei Ohtani.

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These are the greats of America's pastime, right?

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But what if I told you that names

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have been purposely excluded

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from that list, players kept out

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of our record books, out of our

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halls of fame, and out of

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our shared memory?

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In 1947, Jackie Robinson

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famously broke the color line. But

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before that, there was a whole other

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chapter of American baseball, a chapter

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that belongs to thousands of Black

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players who competed in a segregated

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league. This is not in the pages of

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American history books. And so countless

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generations of us went through our own formal

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educations without knowing one of the most significant

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chapters, not in baseball history, but in American

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history.

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In this season of Reclaim. we're

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going to open that chapter and tell the

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stories of the Negro League.

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I'm Vanessa Ivy Rose. I'm a baseball

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fan. And I'm the

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granddaughter of one of the greatest batters

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you've never heard of. Norman

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Turkey

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Stearns. Turkey's first season

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with the Detroit Stars, by all accounts,

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was unbelievable. In

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an era defined by discrimination, my

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grandfather and other black baseball players found

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a way to play the game they loved. And

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they were incredible. Most

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of the time, Negro League teams beat the

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Negro League teams. I'll leave it at that.

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I've wanted to talk about these baseball legends

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for a long time. Not just to

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tell you about their triumphs, but also

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to tell you what they witnessed about this country.

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While playing America's sport in segregated

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towns and stadiums. It was

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not uncommon for these athletes

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to ride into a town, to luck

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at the ballpark, but yet not be able

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to get a meal from the same fans who were just cheerleading.

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Today, descendants of these athletes,

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like me, and baseball's institutions,

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like MLB, are reckoning

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with this history. What

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would justice look like after

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so many decades of exclusion? Who

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are you to tell us that we are now major leaguers?

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We always consider our relatives

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as major leaguers.

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So, I asked who you thought the greatest

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baseball player of all time was. But

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the truth is, you can't really answer

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the question. Because you don't know all the

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greats.

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Yet.

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From ABC Audio, Reclaim,

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the Forgotten League, premieres on

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October 2nd, wherever you get your podcasts.