This year's lineup includes actor Gil Gerard ("Buck Rogers"), a slew of former NFL stars with Super Bowl rings (among them Marv Fleming, Roy Gerela and Robin Cole), pro bowler Dana Miller-Mackie, one-time Harlem Globetrotter Larry "Gator" Rivers, and the usual complement of former Lobo football players, including some of Dennard's one-time teammates, such as Steve Myer and Bruce Herron, former Dallas Cowboys Robert Newhouse and Michael Downs, and former Denver Broncos standout and current Rio Rancho resident Lionel Taylor.
"Actually, I'm excited always about new faces," Dennard said of his tournament, which begins today with a free youth clinic at 2 p.m. and the pairings party and silent auction (5:30-9:30 p.m.), both at Garduņo's on the Green.
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"It's always a thrill to have him, as well as Stack Pierce (former Negro Leagues ballplayer and, most recently, an actor). I'm really thrilled to have those guys," Dennard continued, "to accent the years of experience we're bringing in, and guys the customers keep asking for: the Weatherspoons (Cephus this year), Marv Fleming, Robin Cole, Bruce Herron, and the Lobos."
Dennard said there's still room for latecomers. "We get 50 teams in a sold-out tournament; we'll fill up."
The golf tournament, once pairings have been announced, takes place Friday, with a morning flight at 7:30 and an afternoon flight at 1. The golfing takes place at Arroyo del Oso, on Osuna Road NE.
Dennard expects to generate $100,000 this year for APS non-funded sports programs.
Registration costs $200 per player, $800 for a four-person team. To reserve a spot, call Chris Ritchie at 889-3211.
You may even be lucky enough to find yourself paired with 84-year-old John Miles, a former Negro Leagues ballplayer who played for the Chicago American Giants outfielder from 1946-49.
His baseball days followed a stint as an aircraft mechanic. Working at Kelly Field, he played for the base's ball team, the "Brown Bombers." A Negro Baseball League scout saw him and signed him on the spot.
The Giants shared Comiskey Park with the Chicago White Sox of the American League and often outdrew the A.L. team, Miles said last weekend in a telephone call from San Antonio,
Some of the better-known American Giants who starred in the 20th century were outfielder Norman "Turkey" Stearnes, shortstop Willie Wells, and pitcher Willie Foster, all members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Although Miles' career wasn't quite as glamorous, he managed to accomplish something none of those guys, nor anybody in the Major Leagues, has ever done: hit home runs in 11 consecutive ballgames.
"I just ate more Wheaties," he cracked.
Miles, who acquired the nickname "Mule" from his manager "Candy" Jim Taylor ("He hits as hard as a mule," Taylor proclaimed) did that in the 1947 season, the same year Jackie Robinson broke the color line and joined the Brooklyn Dodgers.
"(Dodgers owner) Branch Rickey got smart; he saw we were out-drawing. We had great crowds, all black," he said.
What about baseball today? "The players can't compete with us," Miles replied.
Miles knew Robinson, he said, and he also knew some other one-time Negro league players most people are well-acquainted with: Leroy "Satchel" Paige, Josh Gibson - "the best I've ever seen," Miles said - and Larry Doby, the first African-American to play in the American League.
Miles, basically an outfielder but also an occasional corner infielder, was asked how he could hit 11 home runs in as many games; did the baseball float up to the plate like a beach ball?
No, he said.
"I had my eye on the ball," he said. "That's what I tell the kids: Keep your eye on the ball and you'll see it."
Well, he admitted, there was a time when he hadn't been able to see the ball.
That brought to mind a plate appearance against Paige.
"I came to bat and Satchel was pitching this particular night," Miles said. "I got in my stance, he wound up and threw the first pitch and the bat never moved off my shoulder and the umpire said 'strike one.' He wound up and threw the second pitch and the umpire said 'strike 2.'
"I stepped out and threw my bat on the ground. The manager asked me why and I said, 'Satch threw the first one and I did not see it. He threw the second pitch and I didn't see it.'"
Not expecting to see a third pitch, either, Miles conceded the at-bat.
"He was the greatest pitcher I'd ever seen."
The Negro Leagues eventually died after baseball became integrated, but one former player, Othello Renfroe, seemed saddened when that happened.
"Baseball lost something when Jackie Robinson went into organized ball," Renfroe is quoted as saying in "Voices From the Great Black Baseball Leagues." "Something died then - the Negro leagues. There was always so much color in the Negro league games. Now they would call it showboating, but I thought Negro baseball was so colorful."
Miles recalled spending a lot of time on buses, traveling from ballpark to ballpark.
"We played for the love of the game," he said. "We'd get $300 a month and I got $2, $3 to eat on. We'd play six or seven games a week, and twice on Sunday. We rode on the bus, dressed in the bus, ate on the bus."
Miles said he was saddened recently when Buck O'Neil passed away last October.
O'Neil had done a lot to preserve the memory of Negro Leagues players and even helped found a museum in Kansas City, where he once played for the Monarchs, to perpetuate their days on the diamond.
"He was a great guy; I went to his funeral," Miles said. "He was a great friend of mine. He did a lot for us. He should be in the Hall of Fame; he was a great guy and a great competitor - he expressed himself very wonderful. He told me things like my own father would tell me."
Although his career was shorter than he liked, about five years, Miles said his wife gave him an ultimatum. "We had four boys, she said I was gonna come home and raise a family."
So after his days with the American Giants ended - the team played its final game in 1952 - Miles played baseball in the Lone Star State with teams in Laredo and San Antonio before retiring in 1952, according to "The Encyclopedia of Negro League Baseball."
Today, he's in fine health and loves spending time on the golf course.
He watches a lot of baseball on television, torn between Texas's two teams, the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros, but still feeling loyal to a team in Chicago, the White Sox, who won the World Series in 2005.
He's not a big fan of slugger Barry Bonds, zeroing in on Henry Aaron's all-time home run mark of 755, but would be happy if Bonds would be more honest.
"Steroids? He won't admit it but he will somewhere down the line; he should come out and say what it is," Miles said. "I, for one, don't like his attitude about it. Hank didn't go through all of that; that's what's controversial about Bonds doing that. He won't commit himself; he won't express himself. It's up to him."
No one had to twist his arm to come to Albuquerque for the first time and play in Dennard's event.
"God has blessed me all these years; I'm 84 years of age," he said. "They call me 'Tiger Woods;' I'm hitting my age.
"They ask me my handicap and I say both of my knees."
What should people know about this Mule? "I'd like for them to remember that I made it - with heart, and I didn't take any steroids, or make a lot of money, but I enjoyed playing baseball," he said.
Miles had a message for youngsters, something he's passionate about: "It's cool to stay in school; a mind's a terrible thing to waste."
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1 comment(s)larry armijo wrote on Jun 30, 2009 11:01 PM: