Baseball Guru
02-26-2005, 08:35 PM
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1999290
Charley Pride is the Jackie Robinson of country music, having long ago obliterated Nashville's good ol' boy barricades through sheer force of will and the voice of a dark angel. But it turns out music superstardom was merely Pride's safety valve.
Before Charley Pride broke country music's color barrier, he was a star pitcher and outfielder in the Negro Leagues."I didn't intend to be in the hall of fame for singing," says Pride, who still performs regularly at venues nationwide. "My thing was baseball: I wanted to be the next Babe Ruth."
Throughout six seasons with the Negro League's Memphis Red Sox in the mid-'50s, Pride, an outfielder and pitcher, resembled both rugged Ruth the slugger and young Babe the hurler, baffling hitters with a three-pitch arsenal that included a fastball in the low 90's.
Charley Pride is the Jackie Robinson of country music, having long ago obliterated Nashville's good ol' boy barricades through sheer force of will and the voice of a dark angel. But it turns out music superstardom was merely Pride's safety valve.
Before Charley Pride broke country music's color barrier, he was a star pitcher and outfielder in the Negro Leagues."I didn't intend to be in the hall of fame for singing," says Pride, who still performs regularly at venues nationwide. "My thing was baseball: I wanted to be the next Babe Ruth."
Throughout six seasons with the Negro League's Memphis Red Sox in the mid-'50s, Pride, an outfielder and pitcher, resembled both rugged Ruth the slugger and young Babe the hurler, baffling hitters with a three-pitch arsenal that included a fastball in the low 90's.