Tampa Bay Rays – Page 13

Finding your grit — and why that matters

February 15, 2023 by C.J. Stewart

“We’d take the baseballs that the old players had. And after it unraveled, we’d get some tape and wrap it up and make it back more like a baseball again.” — James “Red” Moore

I had the pleasure of meeting James “Red” Moore several years prior to him passing in 2016. A graduate of Atlanta’s historic Booker T. Washington High School, he later played in the Negro Leagues for his hometown Atlanta Black Crackers.

I love Moore’s quote because it reminds me to be gritty. The relentless pursuit of purpose and grit is built through adversity.

I currently serve as the Chief Visionary for L.E.A.D. Center For Youth, a 501 (c)3 nonprofit organization operating in Atlanta. Through our year-round Pathway2Empowerment, sport-based youth development (SBYD) programming, we are inspiring and equipping Black males with the empowerment they need to live sustainable lives of significance.

When L.E.A.D. was established in 2007, we operated with a $40,000 budget. In 2022, we raised 1.7 million dollars. That required a lot of grit from Team L.E.A.D., and lots of love from our donors and supporters. Glory be to God.

How much grit is in your tank?
How do you respond to adversity on the baseball field?
How about off the field?
How do your coaches help through adversity?
How do they help you prevent it?

For more information, visit L.E.A.D. Center for Youth today. Also, check out our Digital Magazine.

C.J. Stewart has built a reputation as one of the leading professional hitting instructors in the country. He is a former professional baseball player in the Chicago Cubs organization and has also served as an associate scout for the Cincinnati Reds. As founder and CEO of Diamond Directors Player Development, C.J. has more than 22 years of player development experience and has built an impressive list of clients, including some of the top young prospects in baseball today. If your desire is to change your game for the better, C.J. Stewart has a proven system of development and a track record of success that can work for you.

Passing on the transformation

February 8, 2023 by C.J. Stewart

Rube Foster was the founder of the Negro Leagues, which was established in 1920. While the world was experiencing the racial pandemonium and pandemic, I found joy in the celebration of the 100 year anniversary of the Negro Leagues.

Today, I serve as the Chief Visionary Officer for L.E.A.D. Center For Youth and I am a community repairer.

Microsoft recently sent shockwaves through Atlanta when it was announced that they are pausing plans for the 90-acre Westside hub, leaving the land in the Grove Park community in limbo.

I was born and raised in Atlanta, and received my foundational education at Grove Park Elementary School. As a child, I wanted to grow up one day to be who I am, doing what I do today.

Among many, I intentionally convict people to invoke change that allows others to grow. And even though it doesn’t feel good, I position myself to be convicted by others so that I remain in transformation mode.

When we started LEAD in 2007, a good friend of my wife, Kelli, and I, gave me a book called “We Are the Ship” by Kadir Nelson. As fate would have it, I opened the book to the page of this powerful image of Willie Foster, who is the brother of Rube Foster. He was a left-handed pitcher in the Negro Leagues and was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996.

This image is a reminder to me to be.

For more information, visit L.E.A.D. Center for Youth today. Also, check out our Digital Magazine.

Why Curt Flood is a name you should know (and remember)

February 1, 2023 by C.J. Stewart

Do you know who Curt Flood is?

When we think about Blacks in baseball, we often go to the life and legacy of Jackie Robinson, who was indeed a force to be reckoned with. But Curt Flood is one of my heroes. He was fierce, loyal, obedient, outcasted and determined.

F – Fierce
L – Loyal
O – Obedient
O – Outcasted
D – Determined

According to TIME Magazine, “In 1969, St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Curt Flood was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. He didn’t want to go and eventually sued baseball, challenging its reserve clause, which gave owners absolute rights over players. His case went all the way to the Supreme Court. Flood lost, but his suit paved the way for modern free agency. He died in Jan. 20, 1997.”

Curt was also an artist and one of my favorites pieces of his is the painting of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a son, a husband, a father, an activist, a baseball player and one of my heroes. And he should be in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.

For more information, visit L.E.A.D. Center for Youth today. Also, check out our Digital Magazine.

Why we need to continue to make our own history

January 25, 2023 by C.J. Stewart

The first expansion of Major League Baseball from the Northeast was when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. Jackie Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia, and moved to LA as a child. He was a multi-sport star at UCLA, as well as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army.

Many would assume that Robison would be at the top of my list of heroes because I was born in Georgia like him. He continues to be an inspiration to many because he became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era.

I was born and raised in a low-income community of Atlanta called “Bankhead.” Henry “Hank” Aaron was my hero. Aaron was born in a low-income community in Mobile, Alabama referred to as “Down the Bay.” He started his professional baseball career in the Negro Leagues with the Indianapolis Clowns. His Major League career began with the Milwaukee Braves, where he arguably was the best baseball player in the world.

According to NPS.gov, “During [Ivan] Allen’s administration, Atlanta was dubbed “the City too Busy to Hate.” In the summer of 1966, Allen tried to live up to that image by going into the black inner city community of Summerhill to try to calm racial tension.

In 1966, The Atlanta Braves, under the skill and courage of Hammerin’ Hank Aaron, lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2, becoming the first Major League sports team in the South. More than anything, the game proved that Atlanta was “the City too Busy to Hate.”

Why were the Braves the first Major League sports team in the South? Black athletes were playing in the MLB before 1966, so why was there no MLB team in the South?

Because Jim Crow Laws prevented the interaction of Blacks and whites in the South.

Hank Aaron changed laws by the way he hit balls.

According the Wikipedia, The Atlanta Braves laid claim to the name “America’s Team.” From 1977-2007, their games played out on TBS, a nationwide cable TV system. The exposure helped the Braves build a fan base across the US, especially those that were far removed from a Major League Baseball team.

The other team to get national cable exposure on the SuperStation was the Chicago Cubs. During the hot summer days in Atlanta in 1984, I would regularly watch the Cubs in the day time and the Braves at night.

I fell in love with the Cubs because they had the best record of the two, becoming National League East Champions in 84.

Today, along with my wife, Kelli, we are leading 250 Black boys grades 6-12 in Atlanta to become Major League Citizens. On Feb. 10, 2023, the world will hear an announcement that is going to change the game of athletics forever.

The world is waiting.

For more information, visit L.E.A.D. Center for Youth today. Also, check out our Digital Magazine.

Tracing the path to what ‘MLK Day’ means to me—and my career

January 18, 2023 by C.J. Stewart

When I was around 15 or 16, I met Patrick Miller. I still cannot remember how we met because the reason we connected was because of baseball. He was white and lived in Cobb County; I was black living in Bankhead.

I remember he had a house with cars in the garage. He had fruit on the table to grab and go, and a dog. All of this was new to me. I considered it to be a white way of living.

Fast-forward many years later, I am 46, married to my beautiful wife, Kelli, and we have two beautiful daughters, Mackenzi and Mackenna. We lived in Cobb. We always have fruit to grab and go, and our dog, Bose, lives in the house with us.

That experience with Patrick helped shape my future.

This past Monday, Jan. 16, we celebrated another “MLK Day” in America. Although legislation for a federal holiday was introduced in Congress as early as 1968, there was sufficient opposition, on racial and political grounds, to block its passage. In 1983, legislation making the third Monday in January a federal holiday finally was passed, and the first observance nationwide was in 1986. (Britannica.com)

“MLK Day” was a day on, not a day off experience for me. I was able to serve families in the Dallas, Texas community with the Players Alliance.

I am grateful for all that Martin Luther King, Jr., did for mankind. I am also grateful to Hosea Williams for being one of the first to introduce legislation for the “MLK Day.”

For more information, visit L.E.A.D. Center for Youth today. Also, check out our Digital Magazine.

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