Before I moved to Maryland all I knew was baseball. If you ask anyone in my family, it was by far my best sport.
When I moved to downtown port deposit we didn’t have any where to play baseball and didn’t know anyone who played little league. So basketball became life.
We would play whiffleball on the school hill and I would play wall ball with myself at the Catholic Church by my house but that was about it.
My senior year in High School I went to a few baseball practices but stopped going to play more basketball.
Flash forward a few years I started learning of the deep history Port Deposit had in baseball. A lot of players where grandfathers, uncles, cousins to my closest friends.
I’d read an article often about the Black Sox’s and dream about making baseball great again for kids, especially in the Black community.
My fire grew as I grew as a parent with my kids falling in love with baseball and softball. I also was playing slow pitch softball a few nights a week but I needed more.
At 30 I started a baseball team with friends called the Maryland Braves, then I got sick and couldn’t play for a few years. But it allowed me to start a youth sports program.
It started with basketball and 22 hope road. We rented gyms and filled it with kids every week and worked on basketball skills and life skills. We ended it with an epic charity basketball game at PERRYVILLE High School. Where I had a semi successful basketball career. As basketball season came to an end it was time to shift gears to another sport and season.
The Cecil Cubs were born. We started small and still are small but our impact has been huge. We have positively impacted a lot of kids over the past few years, and will continue to do so as long as we can. We have won and lost many games, but in everything we have learned a lot.
I constantly worry about the quality of our program which has me constantly pursuing more. Our coaches come out of pocket for a lot of our program, without being ask. We simply care that much about this program and the future of the youth in our area. From coaches, parents, and players I don’t think there’s a better group out there.
Which brings me back to my point… the black Sox have been a huge part of my motivation. I am not a blood relative to anyone on the team. But when I moved to Maryland I was welcomed into the entire family without hesitation. If you ask my closest friends their parents and grand parents liked me more than they liked some blood relatives.
I’m not even sure why I wrote this blog but I had a point when I started. Something along the lines of just thanking my Port Deposit Family and the Black Sox for bringing me back to baseball and showing me so much love since the day I moved to Maryland. Robert Young was my first friend and still my best friend today. Though I rarely see or speak to you all I want you to all know there will always be a huge part of my heart dedicated to the love you all have shown me. So when you see a post regarding baseball know that you all are a reason why I’m doing it. From Mr. Cason to The Original George Benjamin Griffin and all the strong Women of the area I think about you all often. From my entire heart I love you all for molding me into who I am today.