Column: Double Duty Classic players get a history lesson while living out their dreams

Under the lights Tuesday at Guaranteed Rate Field, 30 of the nation’s most elite Black and brown high school baseball players lined up along the first- and third-base lines for the singing of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and the national anthem before the annual Double Duty Classic.

As they faced the outfield, their friends and families in the stands behind them, the high school juniors and seniors were living out one dream while on the precipice of another.

While some already have committed to college programs, others were grateful for the opportunity to be seen by coaches from Alabama State, Bethune-Cookman, Grambling State, Jackson State, North Carolina A&T, Southern University and UIC, among others.

“They get a chance to re-create a very famous game that was held at this park years ago,” Troy Williams, manager of the Chicago White Sox Amateur City Elite (ACE) program, told the Tribune. “They get a chance to dress like Negro League players, to showcase their talents on a big-league field and to compete in front of college coaches. This is a dream for some of these kids.”

Just before the first inning began, I sat with someone else who once had baseball dreams: Dennis Biddle. Though it had been 70 years since his professional debut, his memories remained vivid.

I asked Biddle what it meant to him to throw out the ceremonial first pitch for the Double Duty Classic.

“This is an honor. For a lot of reasons. For these players. One of the main reasons is because … I called him ’Dad,’ ” he told me with a smile.

When Biddle joined the Chicago American Giants in 1953, he was 17. That’s when he met the man he would call “Dad”: Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe.

“He caught my first professional baseball game in Memphis, Tennessee,” Biddle said. “He yelled at me (because) I didn’t do what he told me to do.

“I was winning the game. And there was a player, a known home run hitter named ‘Big Red.’ I struck him out twice. And in the seventh inning he came up and I had a devastating pitch called a drop. And I saw (Radcliffe) step up from the plate. He was going to try to catch it before it dropped. Well, he told me to throw the drop and I shook him off.”

Radcliffe came to the mound and dressed down the young pitcher for disrespecting his many years of experience, Biddle said. After the confrontation, he shook off Radcliffe again — and then “watched the ball disappear into the lights.”

Biddle remembers it as the most embarrassing moment of his life. It taught him that if he wanted to make it to the majors, he needed to listen to Radcliffe. From then on, Radcliffe took Biddle under his wing.

Biddle, who grew up in Magnolia, Ala., had big-league aspirations. But despite Jackie Robinson rebreaking the color barrier in 1947, there were only a few Black players in the majors and Biddle found it somewhat discouraging.

“Jackie Robinson did not open the door. He cracked the door,” Biddle explained. “It was nine years before every major-league team had a Black ballplayer. And a lot of old players fell through the cracks. Some of them would’ve been Hall of Famers; they just weren’t given the opportunity.”

The day before the Double Duty Classic, players took a bus tour of historic locations on Chicago’s South Side. I rode along not only to see the tour myself, but also to see how the players reacted to the history.

The first stop, conducted by Shermann “Dilla” Thomas, was at 39th and Princeton, less than a mile from Guaranteed Rate Field. Today it’s a gravel lot with a chain-link fence around it. But from 1911 to 1940, it was the 39th Street Grounds, the first home of the American Giants. It had been destroyed in a fire by the time Biddle arrived in Chicago.

Thomas told the players the story of Rube Foster and the founding of the Negro National League, reminding them of Thomas’ slogan: “Everything dope about America comes from Chicago.” For many of them, being part of the Double Duty Classic was their introduction to the historic league.

The players asked questions as I sat silently, occasionally chuckling at their sense of wonder at history that was just a neighborhood or two away for some of them. The tour with Thomas included other stops such as Mamie and Emmett Till’s and Louis Armstrong’s former homes.

“They’re walking in the footsteps of greatness,” Thomas told me after the tour. “Even what (the Double Duty Classic is) called and what it honors speaks to the White Sox’s understanding of the importance of history. And hopefully, although they may not get it now, when they’re 35 and they see something about the 150th anniversary of negro leagues, they can remember that they played in this game.”

But they did get it.

“It means a lot,” said Kevari Thunderbird, a senior at Kenwood. “I get to represent Black people who don’t get to come to stuff like this and I get to represent my city.”

Supporters from all across Chicagoland came out. The game wasn’t just an opportunity for the players. It was an opportunity for the youth baseball community.

Brittani Jefferson, who attended with her children, Journee and Jonah, said the no-cost event was a chance for her kids to come to a major-league ballpark for the first time. They played games at the pregame tailgate hosted by local baseball advocate Black Baseball Media.

“We pass White Sox Park all the time on our way to different places,” Jefferson said, “and I told my son, ‘One day we will go.’ And here we are. And it’s great.”

As the East and West All-Stars took the field in their navy and white replica jerseys, era-appropriate music played on the ballpark sound system. Biddle briefly paused during his storytelling to look out at the field.

“You know, the Cubs were interested in me,” he said. “(They) purchased my contract in 1955. But I got injured in spring training. My ankle had broken in two places and never healed. In 1958 they released me, and that was my end with professional baseball.”

After a hitless first inning, players started to make contact and Biddle clapped softly for each hit. He was happy for the players, he said, noting how his story and theirs were connected through time.

Thunderbird was named the Minnie Miñoso Most Valuable Player. He struck out three in two innings as the West defeated the East 5-1.

“This is some of the best baseball I’ve been around,” said Lane Tech senior Amaan Khan, who pitched for Team Pakistan in a World Baseball Classic qualifier last year. “It’s super legit. It’s an incredible opportunity to be able to represent such a historic background.”

Biddle enjoyed conversation with fans who approached him, most of them in awe at meeting someone who played in an era that feels like history has forgotten. They told him as much as they knew of the American Giants, and he filled in the rest while offering smiles and handshakes.

“I came a thousand miles (to Chicago) just to play in a negro baseball league,” Biddle told me, his body language signaling we had reached the end of his story. “But I never made it to the majors.”

Not all of Tuesday night’s All-Stars will make it to the majors either. But for one night, the ballpark lights shined bright for them and Biddle.