THE CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING ANDRE RODGERS BASEBALL STADIUM
WASHINGTON, D.C. — I am a sports fanatic and have been throughout my life. Baseball is my most favourite sport, although it did not become a participatory sport in The Bahamas until 1954 after Andre Rodgers became the first Bahamian to sign a professional baseball contract to play in the farm system of the then New York Giants and a group of sports-minded Bahamians met to establish the Bahamas Baseball Association (BBA).
Prior to the introduction of organized baseball in The Bahamas, cricket and soccer were extremely popular, and it was because of the outstanding skills he possessed as a cricket player that Andre was able to transfer his immense talent to baseball. It took Andre only three years to make it to the Majors and he made his debut at shortstop with the New York Giants on April 16, 1957, in the season opener against the Pittsburg Pirates. To put this in perspective, Andre played his first game in the Major League only 10 years after Jackie Robinson integrated Major League baseball when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.
Aside from the national pride that this generated not only among baseball fans but Bahamians in general, what this meant to The Bahamas as a country could not be measured in dollars and cents. Every time André Rodgers stepped on the field in baseball stadiums across the United States and his name and where he was from was announced, that represented thousands and thousands of dollars of free publicity for The Bahamas. Given the fact that the late 1950s was when the strategy was shifted from marketing The Bahamas as a playground for the rich and famous to promoting it as a popular tourist destination, it can easily be concluded that André Rodgers was one of the country’s greatest assets at the time.
Just about every young Bahamian male who did not have “two left feet” developed an interest in playing baseball, resulting in the formation of the Bahamas Baseball Association in 1954, with the late E.S. Stanley Mitchell as President; the late Reno Brown as Secretary; and the late George “Posey” Gardiner as Treasurer. The first games were played at Clifford Park in November of 1954.
There is no disputing the fact that Andre’s success became the benchmark for gifted young players to emulate, and in the immediate years after his Major League debut, a number of talented Bahamian players were signed to professional contracts. Among those who also made it to the Major League were Tony Curry, Ed Armbrister, Wenty Ford and Wil Culmer, but with a little bit of luck – and in some cases, a better attitude – the number of Bahamians making it to the Major Leagues would be considerably higher.
Surely, had he not lost his life in a tragic car accident in January of 1961, while home for the Christmas holidays, Andre’s younger brother, Lionel, definitely would have made it to the Majors. In fact, the Rodgers Family produced a coterie of talented baseball players. In addition to Andre and Lionel, other talented brothers were Adrian, who was signed by the Giants as a pitcher, but was subsequently released; Roy, who was considered to be one of the best first-basemen in BBA during his prime; and Randy, who was an excellent shortstop during the many years he played in the BBA.
Other baseball greats from that era included the late Vince Ferguson, who died several years ago, and Edmundo (Ed) Moxey, who died recently. Both Vince and Ed made it to AAA, one step below the Majors, before giving up on their quest to become Major Leaguers. Ed was a great catcher and after retiring from professional baseball, he opened a popular restaurant and bar called “The Dugout” in the shopping plaza next door to the Nassau Guardian building. It was one of my favourite hangouts when I was Editor of the Guardian, so I was absolutely shocked when I found out that he had died.
Given my love for baseball and as a former President of the BBA during its very productive years in the 1960s, I was obviously very disappointed in remarks attributed to Minister of Works Desmond Bannister about the status of the Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium that’s currently under construction.
I happen to know Desmond Bannister very well. We are both from Stanyard Creek, Andros, and his parents – Horatio and Joyce Bannister – both taught me at Stanyard Creek All-Age School. In addition to the scholarly attributes of his parents, the Desmond that I know inherited the strong humanistic traits exhibited by his parents throughout their lives.
This is why I concluded that the Desmond that I know was misquoted in the article I read in The Tribune claiming that he said that the Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium is a waste of taxpayer money that will “never pay for itself.” According to the article, the Minister “told Tribune Business that the Government was aiming to cap construction costs at ‘about $30m’ rather than the $43.014m full scope of works to limit the Bahamian people’s financial exposure.”
What’s being overlooked here is that the stadium now being built is a replacement for a ballpark bearing Andre Rodgers’ name that was demolished in 2006 to build the Thomas A. Robinson Stadium in honour of Bahamian track and field Olympic sprinter Tommy Robinson. An argument could be made that Minister Bannister has a greater affinity to track and field than he does baseball, given the fact that he was for many years a great President of the Bahamas Amateur Athletic Association (BAAA), but the Desmond Bannister that I know would not be so biased in favour of one sport at the expense of the other.
What’s more, the argument that the Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium will “never pay for itself” does not take into consideration the fact that some Major League teams may consider using Nassau as their spring training base if the proper facilities to attract them were available. Actually, when I was President of the BBA in the mid-1960s, I invited the Baltimore Orioles to consider using Nassau as their spring training site and they sent their then Public Relations Director Bob Brown to Nassau to investigate whether it would be feasible for the Orioles to do so. However, our facilities at the time were not considered to be up to the standard of stadiums in South Florida that are spring training sites for a number of Major League teams.
This surely is something to keep in mind as we move forward with plans to construct a stadium in honour of Andre Rodgers, who in my view is the greatest sports hero in Bahamian history. Of course, there are track and field aficionados who will insist that this honour should be shared equally with Tommy Robinson.
