How one teenager unearthed baseball's untold history - Cam Perron

Tradutor: Margarida Ferreira Revisora: Mafalda Ferreira

I've always collected baseball cards.

Sempre colecionei cartões de basebol.

I first started playing baseball when I was eight years old,

Comecei por jogar basebol quando tinha oito anos.

and when my hometown, Red Sox won the World Series in 2004,

Quando os Red Sox ganharam a Série Mundial em 2004,

I began meeting many of the players

conheci muitos jogadores

at autograph signings and events around Boston.

em sessões de autógrafos e eventos em volta de Boston.

But I noticed a few things in common.

E reparei nalgumas coisas em comum.

These players weren't very friendly, they were all quite overpaid

Esses jogadores não eram simpáticos, todos eles ganhavam balúrdios

and they acted more like celebrities.

e agiam como celebridades.

In middle school, a friend introduced me to a new way to collect autographs:

No liceu, um amigo ensinou-me uma forma nova de colecionar autógrafos:

writing the players through the mail.

escrever aos jogadores, por correio.

In doing so, I would write a letter, send a self-addressed stamped envelope,

Eu escrevia uma carta, enviava um envelope com selo e o meu endereço,

and send a few baseball cards.

e enviava cartões de basebol.

Within a few weeks, I'd often get a response.

Semanas depois, recebia uma resposta.

But it was never the modern players that would send back.

Mas nunca eram os jogadores modernos que a devolviam,

It was always the players from the 50s and 60s,

eram sempre os jogadores dos anos 50 e 60,

who were much friendlier,

que eram muito mais simpáticos

and much less recognized during their career.

e não tinham sido famosos durante a sua carreira.

So, I continued to write letters to these retired ball players,

Continuei a escrever cartas a esses jogadores reformados.

and in 2007, Topps Baseball Cards came out with a set

Em 2007, os Topps Baseball Cards apareceram com um conjunto

where they included a few Negro league baseball player cards.

que incluía cartões de jogadores de basebol da Liga Negra.

Negro league was a period from 1920 to the 1960s

A Liga Negra foi um período de 1920 aos anos 60,

where blacks who were segregated from playing in the Major Leagues

em que os negros não podiam jogar nas ligas principais

played in their own baseball league,

e só jogavam na sua liga de basebol,

often busing around the country, playing two to three games a day,

percorrendo o país e jogando dois a três jogos por dia,

under much less glamorous conditions.

em condições muito menos fascinantes.

But over time,

Mas, com o tempo,

due to the lack of glamorization and public interest,

devido à falta de fascínio e de interesse do público,

everything just kind of faded away,

tudo aquilo se foi evaporando,

leaving the history of the Negro leagues behind.

e a história das Ligas Negras caiu no esquecimento.

So, I ended up writing to these players in this set

Acabei por escrever aos jogadores daquele conjunto

and within a few weeks, they signed my cards.

e, em poucas semanas, eles assinaram os meus cartões.

From here, I began writing to Negro leaguers

Comecei a escrever aos jogadores das Ligas Negras

who didn't have baseball cards.

que não tinham cartões de basebol.

Guys that were, you know, even less recognized.

Alguns deles ainda eram menos conhecidos.

And in my letters, I'd often include my phone number,

Nas minhas cartas incluía o meu número de telefone

and a few of them began reaching out to me.

e alguns deles começaram a ligar-me.

When I started speaking with them,

Quando comecei a falar com eles,

I noticed they all had a few things in common.

reparei que tinham algumas coisas em comum.

None of them had baseball cards, none of them had any documentation,

Nenhum deles tinha cartões de basebol, nenhum tinha documentação,

no newspaper articles, no sorts of photos from their career,

nem artigos de jornal, nem fotografias da carreira,

just nothing tying them to the game.

nada que os relacionasse com o jogo.

And lastly, they had just left all their teammates behind.

E todos eles se tinham afastado dos seus colegas de equipa.

They hadn't stayed in touch with any of their teammates.

Não tinham mantido contacto com nenhum colega da equipa.

So, I tried to change this,

Tentei alterar isso

and I started off by making baseball cards on my home computer.

e comecei por fazer cartões de basebol no meu computador.

Printing them out, designing them and sending them to ball players.

Imprimia-os, desenhava-os e enviava-os aos jogadores de basebol.

And what I also did is I began signing up for newspaper archive websites

E também comecei a investigar em arquivos de jornais na Internet,

where I'd find old newspaper articles

onde encontrei antigos artigos de jornais

that would give these guys the recognition that, you know, tied them to the game.

que iriam dar àqueles jogadores o reconhecimento que os ligava ao jogo.

And lastly, I began becoming kind of like a private investigator,

Por fim, comecei a ser uma espécie de investigador privado,

procurando os seus antigos colegas de equipa

tracking down their former teammates

and trying to get these guys back in touch.

e tentando voltar a pô-los em contacto.

From here, I went on and I just spoke to these players.

A partir daí, acabei por falar com esses jogadores.

It got to the point where I actually had players calling me up,

Cheguei ao ponto de ter jogadores a ligar-me,

asking me for information.

pedindo informações.

And by the time I was a freshman in high school,

Nessa altura, quando entrei para o liceu,

it was no longer a hobby at all.

já não se tratava de um passatempo.

I had gone from an autograph collector to this Negro league research obsession.

Passara de colecionador de autógrafos

para um investigador obcecado da Liga Negra.

I even asked for Negro league autographs and stamps for Christmas.

Até pedia autógrafos e selos à Liga Negra, pelo Natal.

So, going on through high school,

Durante o liceu,

I began to take this work in the Negro league much more seriously.

comecei a levar mais a sério este trabalho da Liga Negra.

I started working with adult Negro league researchers

Comecei a trabalhar com investigadores adultos da Liga Negra,

where I began working on a few different programs.

primeiro em programas muito diferentes

The first being the Negro League Annual Reunion

O primeiro foi a Reunião Anual da Liga Negra,

in Birmingham, Alabama.

em Birmingham, no Alabama.

At the reunion, we'd have about 50 to 60 Negro league ball players

Nessa reunião, tivemos cerca de 50 a 60 jogadores negros

de todo o pais.

from around the country,

and they'd all come together,

Compareceram todos

and these players would just, you know, sit in the hotel lobby for me

e esses jogadores ficavam no átrio do hotel à minha espera

from 8am until the late hours of the night

das 8 da manhã até altas horas da noite

just catching up, telling stories,

a falar-me do passado, a contar histórias.

and here we just had a week of events

Tivemos uma semana de eventos

and these guys got some of this recognition and honor

e eles receberam algum reconhecimento e as homenagens

that they never really had before.

que nunca tinham tido até aí.

The second program that I began working on was the Negro League Pension Program.

O segundo programa em que comecei a trabalhar

foi o Programa de Reformas da Liga Negra.

And the Pension Program was a program that was offered by Major League Baseball,

O Programa de Reformas foi um programa oferecido pela Liga Principal de Basebol.

and if you played four years in the Negro league,

Os jogadores que tivessem jogado na Liga Negra durante quatro anos

and you can document it,

e pudessem documentar isso,

these players would be entitled to 10,000 dollars a year.

tinham direito a 10 000 dólares por ano.

This meant a lot for these players.

Isto era muito para aqueles jogadores.

Many of these guys never really did much after baseball,

Muitos nunca tinham feito grande coisa depois do basebol,

they didn't make much money.

não ganhavam muito.

So, when I was able to get these players pensions,

Quando eu consegui arranjar pensões para os jogadores,

it really made a difference.

isso fez uma enorme diferença.

When I started doing this, I encountered a lot of difficulty.

Quando comecei a fazer isso, encontrei muitas dificuldades.

I had to go through hundreds and hundreds of newspaper articles

Tive que percorrer centenas e centenas de artigos de jornal

trying to find this documentation to prove they played,

a tentar encontrar a documentação que provasse que eles tinham jogado

and in many cases I did.

e, em muitos casos, consegui.

Also I want to mention,

Também quero referir que,

when I was speaking with these players on the phone,

quando falava com esses jogadores ao telefone,

tracking them down, it wasn't easy either.

nem sempre era fácil.

I would go through hundreds of articles

Consultei centenas de artigos

trying to look for names, find information,

tentando encontrar nomes, encontrar informações

and I encountered quite a lot of failure.

e conheci muitos fracassos.

I would call people up, it would be the wrong person.

Liguei a pessoas que eram as pessoas erradas.

It would be really awkward.

Foi uma coisa complicada.

I'd also have a lot of times where I'd call players up,

Também aconteceu eu ligar a jogadores

and they didn't want to speak at all to me.

e eles não quererem falar comigo.

Desligavam.

They would hang up.

When I said the word baseball, they would just refuse to talk altogether.

Quando eu dizia a palavra "basebol", recusavam-se a falar,

This was because they faced a lot of segregation during their careers.

porque tinham sofrido muita segregação durante a carreira.

Juntamente com a falta de fascínio que tinham enfrentado,

Along with the lack of glamorization that they faced,

they also dealt with a lot of racism on and off the baseball field,

também tinham lidado com muito racismo tanto no campo como fora dele.

which just lasted with them throughout their whole lives.

Nunca ultrapassaram isso durante toda a vida.

These guys, you know,

Para estes rapazes,

it was very emotional for them to talk about baseball,

era muito emotivo falar de basebol

and it was really hard to kind of get these guys back, you know,

e foi muito difícil atrair esses rapazes,

talking about this game that they had kind of left behind.

pô-los a falar deste jogo que eles tinham deixado para trás.

Lastly though, I encountered, you know, quite a lot of success as well.

Mas, por fim, também conheci muitos êxitos.

Some of these guys I'd call up, I'd talk to them for two to three hours,

Falei durante duas ou três horas com alguns dos jogadores a quem liguei.

and these guys would just go on and on about their stories,

Esses rapazes não se cansavam de contar-me as suas histórias,

telling me, like, exact baseball games and memories that they had.

falavam dos jogos de basebol e das recordações que tinham.

Nowadays, I've attended four Negro League Reunions,

Até hoje, já assisti a quatro reuniões da Liga Negra,

three of which I've actually roomed with former Negro league ball player

em três das quais partilhei o quarto com o jogador de basebol da Liga Negra,

Russell "Crazy Legs" Patterson of the Indianapolis Clowns.

Russell "Crazy Legs" Patterson dos Indianapolis Clowns.

He actually snores at night, in case you all were wondering.

Ele ressona de noite, se estão interessados em saber.

I've worked on about a dozen pensions

Consegui uma dúzia de pensões

e descobri o paradeiro de mais de cem jogadores da Liga Negra.

and I've tracked down over a hundred Negro league ball players,

constantly finding new ball players,

Andava sempre a descobrir novo jogadores

getting them in touch with their former teammates,

e a pô-los em contacto com os seus antigos colegas de equipa,

bringing baseball back into these players' lives

pondo o basebol de novo na vida desses jogadores

and bringing these guys back into the game.

e levando esses rapazes de novo para o jogo.

(Music)

(Vídeo)

Thank you!

Obrigado!

(Applause)

(Aplausos)