Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a great baseball player and a baseball player who befriended me and was a great human being who passed away on Sunday, Saturnino Orestes Arrieta Armas, Minnie Minoso, the Cuban Comet, Mr. White Sox. Minnie Minoso was born in 1925 on November 29 in Cuba. He played baseball in Cuba, had the opportunity to come to America and play in the Negro Leagues for, being a Black Cuban, he wasn't allowed to play in the Major Leagues. He played 3 years with the New York Cubans, and then, Bill Veeck, who was one of the leaders, I guess, the American League's Branch Rickey, gave him an opportunity to play baseball in the Major Leagues. After playing in the Minors in San Diego, he came up with the Cleveland Indians, but was quickly traded to the Chicago White Sox, where he started his career in 1951, and became known as Mr. White Sox. He was a great White Sox baseball player, one of the greatest players of the 1950s, and a great emissary of Latin American baseballers. He was the first Black Latin American baseball player, he was the first Black White Sox player, and the second African American in the American League after Larry Doby. Minnie Minoso had a great career. He did everything in baseball. He hit for average, he hit for power, he had speed, he was a great fielder, a great competitor, and he was a great human being. In 1955, I was recovering from polio and I lived in Memphis, Tennessee.…”