The mind plays tricks. What once was abhorrent becomes nostalgic.
Racism in baseball, written and unwritten, reigned from 1868 to 1947. No African-American played major-league baseball for almost a century until Jackie Robinson breached the color line.
ESPN’s “Classic Vintage Live: Negro League Baseball” (ESPN Classic, Comcast digital cable channel 402, 2 p.m. Sunday) is less nostalgia than a tribute to black players who toiled in relative anonymity in the Negro Leagues between 1920 and the late 1940s.
On Sunday, two teams of amateurs don vintage uniforms to re-create a 1940s-era game between the Birmingham Black Barons and the Bristol Barnstormers at historic Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala. Willie Mays, who played for the Black Barons and is one of a dwindling number of surviving Negro League players, hosts.
Olympics strong locally
The television ratings for the Winter Olympics continue to stumble along nationally but the news is better at KUSA-Channel 9.
Channel 9 averaged a 32 share for the first week of competition, on par with the 1998 games in Japan, though well behind Salt Lake City, which logged a 37 share four years ago.
The station’s in-house “Olympics Zone,” anchored by Bob Kendrick and Adele Arakawa is doing “very well,” according to station manager Mark Cornetta. “This is a fairly active town. Winter sports are very popular. We’re actually very pleased.”
1,000 for “BDSSP”
Some predicted “Best Damn Sports Show Period” wouldn’t last six episodes, but “BDSSP” makes its 1,000th appearance next Wednesday (10:30 p.m., FSN Rocky Mountain).
Can you name the show’s lineup when it debuted on July 23, 2001? (See below.)
The current show features John Salley, Rob Dibble, Rodney Peete and one member of the original cast. The 3,000 guests have included everyone from Serena Williams to Robert Duvall.
The original “BDSSP” lineup: Chris Rose, Tom Arnold, Deacon Jones, John Kruk and Reggie Theus. Only Rose remains.
Why it’s worked: “We never took ourselves seriously,” said Rose.
Around the dial
Thumbs up to Marcia Neville and her “Colorado Sportswomen” show on KCNC-Channel 4. Both won “Gracies” from the American Women in Radio & Television. She picks up the prizes in New York in June … Both ends of the North Dakota-University of Denver hockey showdown on TV this weekend (7:30 p.m. Friday and 7 p.m. Saturday, FSNRM) … Former major-league pitcher Orel Hershiser re-joining ESPN as a baseball analyst, a job he held with the network in 2001 … Quotable: “They used to say, ‘If we find a good black player, we’ll sign him.’ They was lying.” Cool Papa Bell.
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-820-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
