NORFOLK, Va. — Minor league baseball teams like the Norfolk Tides are launching "The Nine". It's an initiative that's designed to celebrate, engage and welcome African American fans to the ballpark. Why the number nine? It's the number Baseball Hall Of Famer, Jackie Robinson wore in his lone season with the Montreal Royals in 1946. He would go on to the Brooklyn Dodgers and break Major League Baseball's color line the following season.
Tides general manager, Joe Gregory says it could work here in Hampton Roads. "With the black community here, we have two HBCUs", he says. "We have a history of professional and negro league baseball here. With Sam Allen being a living legend in that community. We're in a unique position."
Former Major League pitcher and Hampton native, Wayne Gomes is all for it. The former ODU Monarchs feels adjusting the experience could be a great thing for everyone. "For the fans you have there right now, what part of this do you like?" he says. "If you're a baseball purist, it may not be for you, but maybe there's a hybrid. Maybe there's a combination of the two that we can find a happy medium". Gomes also added, "It's not a short term fix. It's not something that all of a sudden that's going to be 50/50. It's a mindset."
Gregory has an incentive for the "The Nine" initiative. One of Robinson's Royals teammates at that time is from where he was raised. "I grew up in Youngstown Ohio and there's a picture of Jackie hitting his first homerun. As he's crossing home plate, he's shaking hands with a guy named George Schuba and he's from my hometown. And so for me, there's a personal connection that goes beyond the initiative." Something he hopes will resonate for this upcoming season and for years to come."