A Long Time Coming!

Bravo, bravo. It's about time. The Civil Rights Act disposing of segregation was passed 42 years ago. We are now just getting around to dolling out the honors.

Rachel Robinson, wife of Jackie Robinson: "You always wish things can be done in a timely manner," Rachel Robinson said. "Clearly, you wished people would be available to enjoy the awards and the accolades." Robinson paused to reflect a bit more. "But that's life," she said with finality.

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- The Hall of Fame induction of the 17 members of "black baseball" had formally ended Sunday afternoon as Monte Irvin, a former Negro League star and himself a Hall of Famer, sat in a nearby gym at the Clark Sports Center and paid homage to old friends. "I'd like to say this: 'What happened today was something that I thought would never happen,'" Irvin said. "I'm happy that people know a little bit more about some of these great players." Others echoed Irvin's sentiments. "It means so much to these guys and their families," said Linda Paige Shelby, whose father, the legendary pitcher Satchel Paige, went into the Hall of Fame in 1971. "Unless you're there, it's the appreciation that they want, not the recognition, not the glory and all that. "They just want, 'Hey, I remember when I did this.'" In the warmth of a hot summer day, 16 men and one woman from black baseball got their recognition from the Major Leagues. They had been among an initial list of 39 candidates that a group of respected baseball researchers and historians had put together as part of $250,000 project that Major League Baseball funded. A smaller group, which former Commissioner Fay Vincent chaired as a non-voting member, then assembled in Tampa earlier this year and put each candidate's credentials under scrutiny. In a secret ballot, the group selected 17 from the final list. "This has been a historic moment for baseball," said Jane Forbes Clark, chairman of the Hall of Fame. Rachel Robinson, the wife of Jackie Robinson, viewed the event as Clark did. "It's exciting; it's an historic day for me," Robinson said. "I think it means, in a formal way, that they are being recognized as the great organizations that they were. "It's a long time in coming, and yet we're celebrating the fact that it's happening at all." - mlb.com