When I was the manager of the Brooklyn College baseball team back in 19xx, we had a deaf player named Dave Kaplan (no relation). He was a quiet, studious guy. Not a great player, but solid enough. He was only with the team for one year but I recall one scary incident when we were practicing a bit too close to the archery team (not smart). Dave was an outfielder and went back on a ball, tracking it all the way but growing closer and closer to the archers. Our screams of warning were pointless. Fortunately, the coach of the bow-and-arrow brigade blew a whistle, indicating all shooting should stop immediately. His team was well-trained and all ended well.
Being young men in their teens and early twenties, you might expect some stupid juvenile remarks that are often thrown upon those who are deemed different.Thankfully, the Brooklyn squad was pretty sensitive in that regard. I didn’t know Dave that well; he was only on the team for one year. But I doubt he would have even considered baseball as a profession.
If you told Curtis Pride what an amazing and courageous feat he accomplished by being a pro ballplayer for more than 20 years, he would probably just say, “Thank you.” I’m sure he’s heard it all, including the well-meaning but slightly condescending “compliments.”
Pride played for six teams over 11 Major League seasons, making his debut as a 17-year-old in the low minors in the New York Mets’ organization. As a deaf person, an African-American, and a celebrity, you can bet he’s had more than his share of hateful and stupid things said to and about him. But the fact that he played for a total of 23 seasons is a testament to his determination. He collaborated with Doug Ward on his memoirs, I Felt the Cheers: The Amazing Silent Life of Curtis Pride.”
As for Ward’s role on the project, I’m always interested the the collaboration between the subject and the writer. I was curious if there what the process was here.
Having the conversation with Pride and Ward posed a bit of a challenge. I wondered how Pride would be able to understand my questions and comments. I knew he read lips, but I worried about the video quality hindering things. Rather than the usual Zoom, I followed the suggestion to use Google One, which both Pride and Ward were accustomed in part because it offered closed captioning so he could read my remarks. I chose not to include the CC in the finished product because a) I could understand Pride with no problems, and b) I thought it did a poor of job capturing Pride’s responses.
Also, there is no audio-only for the Conversation. Apologies.
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