James “Jake” Sanders, Negro League Star
Segregation shut out ballplayers like James “Jake” Sanders from ballparks and the major leagues, but it didn’t quell his passion for the game.
He attended the same high school in Fairfield as Willie Mays and went on to star in the Negro League. These days, Sanders travels the country telling the history of the league to school kids so the stories don’t get lost.
Sanders turns 84 this month, and he still loves to talk about baseball. He grew up playing in the streets of Fairfield, using a broomstick and tennis ball. He didn’t have the real equipment.
When he was about 12, Sanders’ father took him to a Negro League game at Rickwood Field. He saw Toni Stone, a female playing second base. He decided, if she could play baseball, he could do the same.
Sanders traded that broomstick for a bat – and later played in the Negro League for the Birmingham Black Barons, the New Orleans Bears and several other teams.
He still remembers the huge crowds that came to watch the Negro League games.
“There’d be so many people in Birmingham, they’d have to put a line down the third and fourth base line,” he says. “I’ve played before 50,000 people in the Negro League.”
Source: Gigi Douban, WBHM
The Negro Southern League Museum in Birmingham has Sanders jersey and the the last bat he played with.
A lot of Negro League History still lives in Birmingham. Nine Birmingham-area players went to the Major League after integration.
Sanders enjoys talking about his friends, such as Rev. William Greason, a Birmingham minister.
“His curve ball was so good. He could throw a curve ball and it could wrap around a house,” Sanders says of Greason. “He went on to play in the Major League with the St. Louis Cardinals.”
Not all of his memories from the early days of baseball are good. Sanders remembers getting cut from LA Dodgers Farm System in the 1950s.
“I’m battin’ clean up, with a .462 battin’ and I get cut,” he says. “I’m leading the club in every department. I gets cut, because of the color of my skin.”
When another Major League team tried to recruit him, Sanders turned them down.
Sanders and other Negro Leaguers players get some recognition now. Congress issued a proclamation in 2002 recognizing the league as part of the Major League.
WBHM Anchor/Producer Janae Pierre contributed to this story.
Postal traffic to US drops more than 80% after trade exemption rule ends, UN agency says
The de minimis rule that allowed small packages worth less than $800 to be exempt from tariffs ended on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025.
Colombia’s lone Amazon port faces drying river and rising tensions with Peru
Colombia's only Amazon port town could soon be cut off from the river that keeps it alive. As drought and a shifting river spark a tense border dispute with Peru, locals are scrambling to adapt—and politicians are raising flags, literally.
Sunday Puzzle: Common denominator
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe plays the puzzle with Weekend Edition puzzlemaster Will Shortz along with listener Cynthia Rose of Littleton, Colorado.
South Korea says it has reached a deal with the US for the release of workers in a Georgia plant
More than 300 South Korean workers were detained in an immigration raid on Thursday. Presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik said South Korea plans to send a charter plane to bring the workers home.
Hitch a ride to the moon in a rusty old car and ‘The Couch in the Yard’
As the sun sets in a small town, a family loads up their rusty old car with the spare couch in their yard. When it breaks down in the mountains, what else is there to do but fly it to the moon?
The silent killer increases your risk of stroke and dementia. Here’s how to control it
New recommendations for early treatment for hypertension to prevent strokes, heart attacks and dementia come as an experimental medication is shown to lower blood pressure in hard to treat patients.
