Full Transcript: Ike Blessitt on Discrimination in Professional Baseball
Interviewer: Do you feel like you experienced any discrimination in your baseball career?
Ike: A lot, a lot. Like we played in Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and I had— I ran into a lot of prejudiced white people in the south. I mean, it’s scary. We couldn’t stay in the same hotel with the white ball players. Like in Winter Ball down in Dundee, Florida, we had to stay with a black family and there were seven of us and each one of us had to pay this family $140 a month. When the white ball players stayed on the beach, two or three of them together, paying $100 a month, they on the beach. We couldn’t go on the beach. And the hotel, The Jamaica Inn, they didn’t want black to be in the hotel but they had to put up with it because we’re Detroit Tigers, we’re major league ball players. And once you’re a major league ball player, you’re so called— I hate to put it in this fashion, but this is the way it was back then— we some good niggers. Because we’re professional niggers. See what I’m saying? I hate to use that work but to make you understand what we went through I have to use it. And they used the n word more today than back then. And then in Lakeview, Florida, it was okay but it was still bad. But then when I got to Rocky Mountain, North Carolina that’s when stuff started going. We had to stay with a black family, and I’d say a half a block down from where we stayed at, our room was facing, you could look out our window and see the ball park. The ball park looked like it was on fire, so all the black ballers, we got up and ran down to see the ball park on fire. They was having a KKK meeting in the middle of the outfield. Whoaaaa, ohhhh, they turned around, boy, we turned I mean we got on it, we went back to the house. That’s one incident. Then riding the bus, going to Memphis, Louisiana, Little Rock, Arkansas, and places. They had black and white faucets. We had to go around the back to eat. You know it’s [sigh]. Then we got a little bit in Montgomery, Alabama, ohh. It was...aw. Governor Wallace was down there at the time and he... aw man, they would call you niggers and this here. But we would— we put up with it. As long as they didn’t put their hands on you. It was Bob Molinaro, which he’s Italian, Paul J--, he’s Polish, Gene Spats, that was Jewish, Ron Chambers, he was Indian, and me being black American. We had five different nationalities. We playing in Montgomery so, I didn’t have a black ball player to get a room and board. I had to pay for my own, you know. So Molinaro said, so-and-so that you gonna stay with us. Ehh. Yeah come on man you gonna stay with us. So we out to a place called the Heritage House, I mean, nice complex, but all white. You gonna stay with us. So they went out there and they picked out a condo that was in the back. So what they did with me, they put me in the trunk. Going through the security and everything. Night time we get back to the back we get my stuff out and I ran up there. And we did that for a while. In the trunk to the ballpark. Trunk, back to the apartment. So they wouldn’t see me, because black wasn’t allowed in there. And we was having a good season, and I was having a good year, so the white folks down there in Montgomery was starting to like me a little bit. So they happened to find out what we was doing staying there, and they ended up not saying nothing. Because I guess I was a good one, having a good season for the Montgomery Rebels. This, I mean this...it was a trip down there in the minor league. And I can just imagine what the black ball players played before me— like Willie Horton, Jake Woods, and all of them— what they went through. It was worse back then. If you saw that movie, 42, I mean like that. I had it bad, I had it bad in Mexico. You know when I first got down there, they really didn’t recognize black people, Americans. You know you got your Veracruzano, which is in Vera Cruz, that all the people from Africa come over there, your dark complexion people, having— making sex with the girls there. They’re dark but they’re not actually black American people. But we was something new to them. Every time I go down there, girls they come up put their hands in our hair. Because they’ve never seen one before, a black person. And then there were just— we’d go out on the ball field, and then to amuse they self, they’d urinate in cups and you had your rich in the middle, and your poors sitting on the outside, so they would urinate in cups and throw it on each other. And with the black ball players, if we hit, if we was on a road trip and we’re beating the team and we’re hitting home runs and all that, they’d throw snakes on us, but they had the snake mouth sewed up. Throw rocks at us from the stands. And it was amusement for them. A long bus ride, we leave from the frontier, which is Texas and Mexico, and go all the way down to the Yucatan, and that’s a 48, 50 hour bus ride, and we’d have to do that and anytime we’d get off the bus we’d change clothes and play that night. And then they finally got a little smart and put a twin mattress in the back of the half of the bus. And the eight ball players plus the pitcher, we got to lay on the cot and sleep while everybody else— the rookies, had to sleep in the chair. I’ve been through some times, but I love the game. I really loved it. But like I said, my experience in the south...but they didn’t stop me from trying to make that move and get to the big leagues. But after a while they started liking us because we was hitting home runs and stealing bases. Like I said, we were good niggers now.
Interviewer: Was it surprising going from Hamtramck to the south and seeing how different it was?
Ike: Yeah, you know, you read about it some, it wasn’t really televised back in the day because we didn’t have no TV so all of it was over radio. So to actually see it, is shocking. Another story, we was in, we had left Montgomery and went to Knoxville, Tennessee to play. And my parents, they was coming back through Knoxville to see me play in Knoxville, so they got to Knoxville, we playing, having a good game. So all of a sudden, I’m running to the outfield, I heard a big boom! In the stands, on our dug out side. And I’m thinking about my parents, and I turn around, these two little white boys threw an M80 behind my parents and them seat, my mother jumped over the seat, my father fell, my sister and them. And Bob Molinaro, Paul, Brian Lim, Mark, all these white ball players said what you wanna do Ike? I said, I don’t know what y’all gonna do, I’m going up in the stands. So I went up in the stands, got to fighting with them up there, and my ball players— thank the Lord— they went right behind me. All the different nationality outfielders. They all ran up there with me, you with us Ike, we ain't got nothing against you, come on. So one of the white ball players, Mark G— beat the white boy up. And we went and changed clothes and we’re getting out of dodge. So coach told them, roll the windows up and scoot down in your seat, because they didn’t know if they’re gonna throw bricks through the window or what. Next thing I know, the bus driver stop, he open the door, here come the state troopers. Four of them with the little white boys that got beat up. But I didn’t beat him up, the one who beat him up is another white guy beat him up. So he got on the bus telling, yeah he beat me up. All black and blue and everything. And they really wanted to get who did that, because when they got the one who did it, they gonna do something to him, some kind of way.But lucky the kid didn’t remember who did it. He points at one of the ball players, nah man you cold. He said, I think that--nah you still cold. He pointed at me, I said nah I didn’t beat him up, he woulda known if it was me beating him up. He pointed to one more guy, he said no he didn’t do it. Mark was in the back so he didn’t get there farther, and the state trooper finally said, man you don’t know who did it, man let’s go. So they got off the bus, let us go. We all had to duck heads getting out of there but lucky they didn’t throw no rocks or nothing, we got out of there. You had to do that all through the south, it was...aw man.
Interviewer: Was your family ok?
Ike: Yeah, but my mamma was there, she could have had a heart attack. So, we walked them outside and they got in the car and they went on back to Detroit and we finished the game and they went on.
Ike: A lot, a lot. Like we played in Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and I had— I ran into a lot of prejudiced white people in the south. I mean, it’s scary. We couldn’t stay in the same hotel with the white ball players. Like in Winter Ball down in Dundee, Florida, we had to stay with a black family and there were seven of us and each one of us had to pay this family $140 a month. When the white ball players stayed on the beach, two or three of them together, paying $100 a month, they on the beach. We couldn’t go on the beach. And the hotel, The Jamaica Inn, they didn’t want black to be in the hotel but they had to put up with it because we’re Detroit Tigers, we’re major league ball players. And once you’re a major league ball player, you’re so called— I hate to put it in this fashion, but this is the way it was back then— we some good niggers. Because we’re professional niggers. See what I’m saying? I hate to use that work but to make you understand what we went through I have to use it. And they used the n word more today than back then. And then in Lakeview, Florida, it was okay but it was still bad. But then when I got to Rocky Mountain, North Carolina that’s when stuff started going. We had to stay with a black family, and I’d say a half a block down from where we stayed at, our room was facing, you could look out our window and see the ball park. The ball park looked like it was on fire, so all the black ballers, we got up and ran down to see the ball park on fire. They was having a KKK meeting in the middle of the outfield. Whoaaaa, ohhhh, they turned around, boy, we turned I mean we got on it, we went back to the house. That’s one incident. Then riding the bus, going to Memphis, Louisiana, Little Rock, Arkansas, and places. They had black and white faucets. We had to go around the back to eat. You know it’s [sigh]. Then we got a little bit in Montgomery, Alabama, ohh. It was...aw. Governor Wallace was down there at the time and he... aw man, they would call you niggers and this here. But we would— we put up with it. As long as they didn’t put their hands on you. It was Bob Molinaro, which he’s Italian, Paul J--, he’s Polish, Gene Spats, that was Jewish, Ron Chambers, he was Indian, and me being black American. We had five different nationalities. We playing in Montgomery so, I didn’t have a black ball player to get a room and board. I had to pay for my own, you know. So Molinaro said, so-and-so that you gonna stay with us. Ehh. Yeah come on man you gonna stay with us. So we out to a place called the Heritage House, I mean, nice complex, but all white. You gonna stay with us. So they went out there and they picked out a condo that was in the back. So what they did with me, they put me in the trunk. Going through the security and everything. Night time we get back to the back we get my stuff out and I ran up there. And we did that for a while. In the trunk to the ballpark. Trunk, back to the apartment. So they wouldn’t see me, because black wasn’t allowed in there. And we was having a good season, and I was having a good year, so the white folks down there in Montgomery was starting to like me a little bit. So they happened to find out what we was doing staying there, and they ended up not saying nothing. Because I guess I was a good one, having a good season for the Montgomery Rebels. This, I mean this...it was a trip down there in the minor league. And I can just imagine what the black ball players played before me— like Willie Horton, Jake Woods, and all of them— what they went through. It was worse back then. If you saw that movie, 42, I mean like that. I had it bad, I had it bad in Mexico. You know when I first got down there, they really didn’t recognize black people, Americans. You know you got your Veracruzano, which is in Vera Cruz, that all the people from Africa come over there, your dark complexion people, having— making sex with the girls there. They’re dark but they’re not actually black American people. But we was something new to them. Every time I go down there, girls they come up put their hands in our hair. Because they’ve never seen one before, a black person. And then there were just— we’d go out on the ball field, and then to amuse they self, they’d urinate in cups and you had your rich in the middle, and your poors sitting on the outside, so they would urinate in cups and throw it on each other. And with the black ball players, if we hit, if we was on a road trip and we’re beating the team and we’re hitting home runs and all that, they’d throw snakes on us, but they had the snake mouth sewed up. Throw rocks at us from the stands. And it was amusement for them. A long bus ride, we leave from the frontier, which is Texas and Mexico, and go all the way down to the Yucatan, and that’s a 48, 50 hour bus ride, and we’d have to do that and anytime we’d get off the bus we’d change clothes and play that night. And then they finally got a little smart and put a twin mattress in the back of the half of the bus. And the eight ball players plus the pitcher, we got to lay on the cot and sleep while everybody else— the rookies, had to sleep in the chair. I’ve been through some times, but I love the game. I really loved it. But like I said, my experience in the south...but they didn’t stop me from trying to make that move and get to the big leagues. But after a while they started liking us because we was hitting home runs and stealing bases. Like I said, we were good niggers now.
Interviewer: Was it surprising going from Hamtramck to the south and seeing how different it was?
Ike: Yeah, you know, you read about it some, it wasn’t really televised back in the day because we didn’t have no TV so all of it was over radio. So to actually see it, is shocking. Another story, we was in, we had left Montgomery and went to Knoxville, Tennessee to play. And my parents, they was coming back through Knoxville to see me play in Knoxville, so they got to Knoxville, we playing, having a good game. So all of a sudden, I’m running to the outfield, I heard a big boom! In the stands, on our dug out side. And I’m thinking about my parents, and I turn around, these two little white boys threw an M80 behind my parents and them seat, my mother jumped over the seat, my father fell, my sister and them. And Bob Molinaro, Paul, Brian Lim, Mark, all these white ball players said what you wanna do Ike? I said, I don’t know what y’all gonna do, I’m going up in the stands. So I went up in the stands, got to fighting with them up there, and my ball players— thank the Lord— they went right behind me. All the different nationality outfielders. They all ran up there with me, you with us Ike, we ain't got nothing against you, come on. So one of the white ball players, Mark G— beat the white boy up. And we went and changed clothes and we’re getting out of dodge. So coach told them, roll the windows up and scoot down in your seat, because they didn’t know if they’re gonna throw bricks through the window or what. Next thing I know, the bus driver stop, he open the door, here come the state troopers. Four of them with the little white boys that got beat up. But I didn’t beat him up, the one who beat him up is another white guy beat him up. So he got on the bus telling, yeah he beat me up. All black and blue and everything. And they really wanted to get who did that, because when they got the one who did it, they gonna do something to him, some kind of way.But lucky the kid didn’t remember who did it. He points at one of the ball players, nah man you cold. He said, I think that--nah you still cold. He pointed at me, I said nah I didn’t beat him up, he woulda known if it was me beating him up. He pointed to one more guy, he said no he didn’t do it. Mark was in the back so he didn’t get there farther, and the state trooper finally said, man you don’t know who did it, man let’s go. So they got off the bus, let us go. We all had to duck heads getting out of there but lucky they didn’t throw no rocks or nothing, we got out of there. You had to do that all through the south, it was...aw man.
Interviewer: Was your family ok?
Ike: Yeah, but my mamma was there, she could have had a heart attack. So, we walked them outside and they got in the car and they went on back to Detroit and we finished the game and they went on.