Negro Leagues Players Association

But 1955, they sent me out on the reservation out there in Billings, Montana. You stay up on the reservation all the time, have a good time, and had a real good year up there in Montana, played in Salt Lake City [Utah], Ogden, Utah, Boise [Idaho], Pocatello [Idaho], Magic Valley [Idaho] or something like that, and Billings, Great Falls, Montana, snow everywhere, had forty-two inches in 1954, 1955 in April. When the plane landed on top of that rock up there, and the airport is sitting on top of the mountain, looked on top of the mountain down in the valley at the ballpark, had forty-two inches of snow. They cleaned 'em all, cleaned the field away, snow banks piled up some, some kind of high. We practiced that Saturday evening. We got in there Saturday morning, practiced that Saturday evening. Went out there, the first pitch I hit was out of the ballpark, bim. I took off. I said Jack, Jack Paepke was our manager, and I told 'em, I said, I was ready. I went running off. He said, "No, you gonna have to hit some more. You gonna have to hit some more," but I know up there was cold, and the bat was stinging, and that's the reason while I hit one pitch out of the ball--first pitch I hit out of the ballpark. Had a young, young, young, young kid there played center field the year before. He didn't get it back no more. I had took over. And there's a guy by the name of Dick Stuart. Every time he'd get a hit, I get knocked down the next pitch. I said--never did charge the mound. I didn't go there to fight. I went there to play baseball.$$Yeah, Dick Stuart was a first baseman, right, for (simultaneous)--$$(Simultaneous) Yeah, first baseman--$$--for the Pirates, right?$$And no, he was a left fielder.$$Was he--$$Yeah (laughter).$$Okay.$$I had to go in his--all the way over there where he was standing about ten feet from the ball and catch the ball. He said, "You catch everything you can catch." He said, "Because I don't know if I can catch it or not." I said Dick, "You gon' have to learn how to catch these balls." And partner, I showed Dick something. I showed him how to play the outfield, but he never could learn. And (simultaneous)--$$(Simultaneous) I know he was the great hitter though--$$Yeah, who are--$$--great, great hitter.$$--talking about? In 1956, I went to Kinston. I went to Kinston, North Carolina in the Carolina League, first black ballplayer, being the first black ballplayer down there and showed out.$Then all the patrol cars, policemen, start coming in there, started grabbing these guys. I said, "Hold it, fellows." I said, "Take your hands off 'em." I said, "I got it under control." And they started mumbling. Police department started mumbling. I said, "I got it under control." See, I could arrest them. They couldn't arrest me. They had to do what I told 'em to do.$$Okay, so the sheriff was above the--$$Yeah.$$--police department. Okay.$$See, the sheriff's department would protect the city [Kinston, North Carolina]. I told the fellows, I said, "Now don't let me catch you out of here no more." I said, "Now, catch you out here again, you know where you're going. I want you off the street." One kid knowed me real well, Roy White [ph.]. I said, "Roy White, I said now, you know better than this." He said, "Yes, sir, Mr. Long [HistoryMaker Carl Long], I sure do." I said, "And I want every one of y'all off the street, and I want, I'm gonna make sure that you see that they off the street," and he said okay. I carried one guy down there and booked him, Palmer [ph.]. I said, "Palmer, if you hadn't been carrying this gasoline, I said you'd been home too." Down there booking Palmer, sheriff [Fred Boyd] called me saying, "Carl, when you get through what you doing, I'd like for you to come up here to, in the office a minute." He said no. I said, "Dusty [ph.]." He said, "I can tell you over the phone." He says, "Fred Bates called me and told me that you weren't working with the officer." And I said, "Well, no. You know I just come out of the county," and I said, "I saw what was going on, and I went right in there and stopped everyone; I stopped it. All the policemen come over there and try to take, take over, and I told 'em, I said leave 'em alone." The sheriff said, sheriff started cussing, not at me, at Fred Bates about his police officer. He said, "Look," he said, "I'm sorry." He said, "I didn't mean to disturb you." He said, "You go on do what you gotta do, but when you get time, you stop by here." And I gotta tell you something. So when I finished booking Palmer I went up to the office. He said, "Them damn son of bitches over there at the police department," he said, "too scared to get out of the patrol car. And you had to come in there and do their job, and they talking about that you wasn't helping them." He said, "Don't worry about a thing." He said, "I'll straighten it out." So the press was there. The press got a hold of it all, also. The big thing was in the paper about it. The police department was scared to go out there and do their own job and, and jumped down on Carl Long's throat, because Carl Long was doing their--Carl kept the city from getting burned up and all that stuff. You know how the press can do it, blow things up. But that's how that happened. But--$$James Earl Ray never came through there, did he?$$No, he never did come through there.$$Okay, that's right.