At the corner of Sheldon Avenue SE and Highland Street SE there’s a Grand Rapids inner-city baseball diamond receiving some much needed care. A grant totaling nearly $55,000 from the Baseball Tomorrow Fund paid for renovations to Ted Rasberry Field, and Wednesday a ribbon cutting took place dedicating the ballpark.
“On behalf of the Rasberry family we are so happy, so excited and so grateful.”
Minnie Forbes is Ted Rasberry’s niece. It was her uncle who purchased Negro Leagues teams the Kansas City Monarchs and Detroit Stars in the 1950’s, and it was Uncle Ted who turned ownership of the Stars over to Minnie. Rasberry moved to Grand Rapids from Mississippi in 1935. He played for Jesse Elster and would eventually own the Grand Rapids Black Sox.
“The honor of the naming the Rasberry Field means a lot to us. It’s not the idea of 'Rasberry Field', it’s the purpose of what the field is going to be used for.”
Working with kids was his passion. In 1965, he established Grand Rapids first integrated little league. Rasberry believed it was sports that could bridge the color barrier and he didn’t want kids to experience racial discrimination. He organized the Gap Program at Buckley Field.
“He would work with those kids, so to speak, until the sun went down so to speak. I can hear him now yelling at the kids, in a nice way saying, ‘Keep the ball in front. Don’t run backwards. Yell before you go to get a ball’ and this was all love that he did this with.”
His love for mentoring and coaching little leagues continues with the West Michigan Whitecaps, Fifth Third Bank, Meijer, and Grand Rapids Parks and Recreation announcing the kickoff of its annual Equipment Drive for the Inner-City Youth Baseball League.
Patrick Center, WGVU News.