Ron Teasley | MLBPA Players

A TRIP BACK IN TIME

Ron Teasley, one of the oldest living Negro Leaguers, remembers Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson and a lifetime in the game

By Jerry Crasnick

Ron Teasley received the nickname “Schoolboy’’ for his talent and precociousness while growing up in Detroit in the 1930s and ‘40s. As an adolescent, he competed against grown men on the baseball field. And when he wasn’t playing ball, he was immersed in a book or busy in the classroom.

Teasley’s life has been full and rich by any measure. He served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific during World War II, signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization in 1948 and spent two years playing independent ball in Canada before returning to his native Michigan to embark upon a long career as an educator and coach. He’s a member of the Northwestern (Detroit) High School, Wayne State University and Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Association Halls of Fame.

At age 96, Teasley is the second oldest living Negro Leaguer and one of only four players remaining from the 1920-1948 era. The others: Bill Greason (98), Clyde Golden (94) and a gentleman named Willie Mays, who turns 92 in May.

Teasley’s wife, Marie, an award-winning journalist, died in 2020 after 71 years of marriage. “She was a beautiful person with a beautiful spirit,’’ he says. “I miss her so much.’’ But his legacy lives on through his three children, Ron Jr., Tim and Lydia, seven grandchildren and six great grandchildren. He still drops in at high school games in the Detroit area and keeps a close watch on the next generation of ballplayers. “He loves the Little League World Series,’’ says Ron Jr.

In conjunction with Black History Month, Teasley recently shared some of his favorite baseball memories with the MLBPA. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

AS A BOY IN DETROIT, DID YOU FOLLOW THE NEGRO LEAGUES OR MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL?

I heard a lot about the Negro Leagues and then I started listening to the Detroit Tigers baseball games. I had a couple of favorites -- Charlie Gehringer and Hank Greenberg. My father would never take me to the games because of the racial situation. But whenever a Black team came to town, with Satchel Paige, Turkey Stearnes and some of those guys, he would take me to the games. We had a park called Mack Park where the Detroit Stars played. When that burned down, they moved to Hamtramck Stadium, and I often went to see games when I was quite young. Most of the time, I was under the stands running around. I don't know what I was looking for. There were big crowds, and on Sundays people would come directly from church to the ballpark and they were all dressed up. They loved to see the Negro League teams when they came to town.

WHEN DID YOU START PLAYING?

When I was 11 or 12 years old, I started hanging out with the former Negro League players and some of the Class A players in the area. First I was a bat boy. Later on, if a player didn't show, they’d put me into games because I was so advanced. One of my neighbors was a pitcher and he would ask me to come over and play catch so he could warm up and get his arm loose. Pretty soon he was throwing me medium fastballs and some curveballs. There was a factory team, and one day a player didn’t show up and they stuck me in right field when I was about 13 years old.

YOU MENTIONED SATCHEL PAIGE. DID YOU EVER GET TO SEE HIM PITCH?

We had a park in Detroit called Dequindre Park, and I faced him in a game when I was 15 or 16 years old. My first time up, I had a triple against him. I was so excited, I can’t remember what I did the second time up. He probably struck me out. That was a highlight of my career and something I’ll never forget. Later on, I was playing in Toledo and he would pitch for us for two or three innings. He drew the attention of the crowd because he was very comical and had so many interesting stories to tell.

AND TURKEY STEARNES? DID THEY REALLY CALL HIM TURKEY BECAUSE HE RAN LIKE A BIRD?

They used to use the word ‘quirky.’ He stood on his toes, and he had a rather long neck. I played one game with him in Toledo when he was in his 40s, and lo and behold, he scored from first base on a single and he was the star of the game. One time we played a series of games in Louisiana and Arkansas, and Turkey was my roommate in New Orleans. He used to tell us, ‘When you get here, you don’t want to start running around. That’s when you get in trouble.’ He was very moralistic. He was a fine gentleman.

WE’VE HEARD A LOT ABOUT THE NEGRO LEAGUERS AND THEIR PASSION FOR THE GAME. WHAT WERE YOUR IMPRESSIONS AS A YOUNG FAN?

I just knew that they made the games exciting. They made some fantastic plays. On some of the simple plays, they would clown around and do something out of the ordinary. The baserunning was fantastic, and there was a lot of bunting -- especially by the leadoff man. We had a player by the name of Willie King, and he would bunt to get on first base, steal second and third, and we would have a man on third base and nobody out in the first inning. He was that good.

YOU SIGNED WITH THE BROOKLYN DODGERS IN 1948. HOW DID THAT UNFOLD?

When I was at Wayne State I caught the attention of Bill Robinson, who had some connections with the Dodgers. A year later I was invited to Vero Beach, Florida, for a tryout. After two weeks, they were satisfied with my play. So a gentleman named Al Campanis brought me into the office and said they were interested in signing me. I asked him, ‘Will I get a bonus?’ because I had been told they might keep you around longer if they had more invested in you. I was talking about a 100 dollar bonus! And he said, ‘Well, we're not giving out bonuses at this time.’ I told him I wanted to call my coach or my dad and he said, ‘Well, we really don't have time. We want to sign you right away.’

BUT YOUR TENURE WITH THE TEAM WAS SHORT-LIVED.

I was getting a lot of rave notices for my play at first base. Then one day a representative of the team came up and said, ‘We’re going to have to let you go to make room for players of a higher classification.’ That was really puzzling to me. It was a shock, and I always felt they owed us an apology or some kind of reason for that. Mr. Robinson said he would look into it, but we never did hear back from the Dodgers. They interrupted my career, and that was very hurtful.

I had a chance to talk to Buck Leonard on several occasions and he comforted me when I was released by the Dodgers. The major league teams were not having what you call ‘bench players’ at that time. You had to be a Hank Aaron or Willie Mays (or someone at that level).

WHAT WAS THE REACTION AMONG THE OTHER BLACK PLAYERS WHEN JACKIE ROBINSON SIGNED WITH THE DODGERS?

There were mixed emotions about that. Some players thought it was a bad idea for him to play, because as soon as he signed, the fans stopped coming to our games. At that time, we were drawing humongous crowds. We were drawing 20,000 or 30,000 people to our games, and some players thought they were doing something to break up the Negro Leagues.

It was a matter of, ‘Do we do something to bring the races together, or are we more concerned about our jobs as players?’ We lost a few hundred players who were out of jobs, and many of them started going up to Canada. That’s what I did in 1949 and 1950. And we were really welcomed in Canada. There was no discrimination up there. Willie Wells and Leon Day played up there. They’re both Hall of Famers.

DID YOU EVER MEET JACKIE?

When I went to down to Vero Beach, the major league team was leaving. They were catching the bus and I talked to Jackie for a minute or two. He wished me well and I congratulated him on the job he was doing. I can only imagine what he went through. When I signed, I didn't have any problems like that. We stayed at the same hotels (with the white players) and the fans were very gracious and appreciative of our play. He paved the way for that, I think. He went through a lot, with other players not wanting to play against him and the fans sending him all kinds of messages and that sort of thing. But he paid it no mind, as they used to say. He was tough. Very tough.

WHEN YOUR PLAYING CAREER ENDED, YOU SPENT DECADES AS AN EDUCATOR AND COACH. ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT THE CURRENT PARTICIPATION LEVEL OF BLACK ATHLETES IN BASEBALL?

Absolutely, I'm concerned about it. To play baseball, you have to have four or five kids to go out with you. In basketball, you can put a net up in your yard and 50 kids have nets out in the street, so you can practice on your own. I think that had a lot to do with it. At Northwestern High, we had guys like Willie Horton and John Mayberry and Alex Johnson for everybody to look up to.
The Tigers would sign local players to play in the majors. I had 15 players who were signed by major league teams.

Toward the end (of my coaching career), the kids started switching to basketball. I think it was because of a fellow by the name of Michael Jordan. They were so excited when his games were on TV. After that, we had a pretty tough time even assembling a team.

WHEN YOU REFLECT ON THE NEGRO LEAGUES AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE,
WHAT’S THE MOST ENDURING IMPRESSION?

When I joined the Negro Leagues, we would travel from city to city and the fans just welcomed us -- especially the African American fans. They felt like we were some kind of saviors. Things were pretty tough sometimes, with discrimination and that sort of thing. But whenever we came to town, it was like the circus was coming to town. They were so happy to see us. We played an outstanding brand of baseball, and they were so appreciative. I often think about that -- how we would just encourage people to hang in there and work hard, and eventually things would change for the better.