WASHINGTON, D.C., June 9, 2019 — Winston “Shem” Sherman spent his entire working career with the Bahamas Telecommunications Corporation – at least, I think he did — and I have known him from he was in his late teens. Shem is now retired and in his retirement years, I really think he should give serious consideration to becoming an archivist of historical photos.
Recently, he has posted an series of photos of mutual friends, some of whom are no longer with us, but he has just posted a classic photo of the Rodgers Brothers – The Royal Family of baseball in The Bahamas – that most certainly should be “copied” as a keepsake by Bahamian baseball fans. Pictured from left to right in the photo are the late Lionel “Liney” Rodgers, Adrian “Squabby” Rodgers, the late Andre Rodgers, and Randy Rodgers.
Andre was the first Bahamian to sign a professional baseball contract in 1954 and made it to the Major League with the then New York Giants in 1957, opening an avenue for future Bahamian professional baseball aspirant to seriously being their quest to make it to thr Major League.
There is no question that Liney Rodgers would have joined his older brother Andre in the Majors had he not been tragically killed in a traffic accident over the Christmas holidays in January of 1961 after having a very successful season in Double A baseball.
Indeed, according to Wikipedia, “In June 1957, three years after Andre Rodgers and the year after Adrian Rodgers, Lionel Rodgers became the third member of his family to sign with the New York Giants. With Hastings in the Nebraska State League in 1957 (the same team for which Adrian had pitched a year before), the 17-year-old got off to a promising start with 42 hits in 127 at-bats (.331). Moving up to Class C for 1958, he played just seven games for St. Cloud (where André had previously starred) because of a fractured left leg.
“Returning to Class D in 1959, Lionel bounced back for Artesia (New Mexico) in the Sophomore League, hitting .284 in 74 games. He followed up with a .302 mark – with 15 homers and 104 RBIs – in 131 games for Fresno in 1960. He was an All-Star in the California League (Class C) that year.
“The catcher-infielder had the best shot among his brothers at joining André in the majors, especially if he’d continued to develop. He had hit .345 to lead the Arizona Instructional League and was slated to play Double-A ball in 1961. Tragically, he was killed in an auto accident in January of 1961 while at home in Nassau for the Christmas holidays. He was riding in an automobile which struck a wall. Thrown from the car, he was run over by another vehicle.”
(NOTE: Written by Oswald T. Brown)
