How one organization preserved baseball history in this popular video game
Baseball fans love an underdog story. Whether it’s the Red Sox winning their best-of-seven after losing the first three games in 2004, the Blue Jays overcoming a 7-0 deficit to win 8-7 in 2013, or Canadian slugger Josh Naylor’s first grand slam earlier this year, seeing a team beat the odds and take home the win is always a thrilling tale.
While there are plenty of stories to come out of Major League Baseball (MLB), there are also hometown heroes who’ve made big impacts on their communities. Because of Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation’s (OLG) commitment to local communities, it wanted to shine a light on a local team that overcame the odds. Cue the 1934 Chatham Coloured All-Stars.
This historic team was one of the first all-Black baseball teams from southern Ontario’s Chatham-Kent region and has recently been added as a playable team to MLB The Show 22 — in partnership with OLG.
To learn more about the legacy of the Chatham Coloured All-Stars, and the collaboration with MLB, we spoke with Tony Bitonti, director of media relations at OLG.
Who are the Chatham Coloured All-Stars?
Starting as a group of friends who played at Stirling Park in Chatham’s east-end neighbourhood, Archie Stirling, a long-time business owner and local representative for the Ontario Baseball Amateur Association (OBAA, later known as OBA), took notice of the team’s skills and got them into the league as the Chatham Coloured All-Stars in 1933.
At the time, the colour barrier was firmly in place for baseball, as Black players were banned from playing in the Majors until late 1940.
“Intolerance was basically part of the culture,” Bitonti tells Daily Hive. “They faced roadblocks and weren’t well-liked in the community. Not to use a baseball pun, but they were playing with a few strikes against them.”
Even though the team faced intolerance, the Chatham Coloured All-Stars let their skills speak for themselves, and went on to win the provincial championship in 1934 — becoming the first all-Black team to win an OBAA title.
Preserving their legacy
While this win solidified the Chatham Coloured All-Stars within their local community, there are still very few people who’ve heard about the team.
“There was no social media in 1934, the story only spread through word-of-mouth,” says Bitonti. “So it really didn’t go beyond the borders of their community.”
As part of their mission to support local communities in Ontario, OLG wanted to help spotlight the Chatham Coloured All-Stars and raise awareness of their inspiring story.
“At OLG, we love telling the stories of our winners. This was a different winner’s story that we really wanted to tell because it deserved telling.”
In partnership with MLB, OLG worked to make the 1934 Chatham Coloured All-Stars a playable team in one of their most popular video games.
Re-creating the team
Working with the Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, OLG connected with the families of the Chatham Coloured All-Stars players to build the team within the game.
“The families were very excited to be part of this, specifically Blake Harding and Fergie Jenkins Jr,” says Bitonti. “Recreating this team really brought back a lot of emotion for everyone involved. Seeing their fathers as these young men in a video game just blew them away.”
Hitting it out of the park
After completing the project, the Chatham-Kent community got a preview of the virtual team during their second annual Field of Honour Charity baseball game — an event honouring the Chatham Coloured All-Stars legacy.
Legendary hall-of-fame baseball player, Fergie Jenkins Jr., the namesake for Fergie Jenkins Field in Chatham-Kent and whose father played on the All-Stars, flew in for the event.
“The video game, the cooperation by the families, Fergie being there, it was just a really wonderful event,” says Bitonti.
At the event, OLG also contributed a $25,000 check to the Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society and Black Mecca Museum to help further the preservation of this groundbreaking team.
“As much as we love telling stories, we love supporting the communities and organizations that help tell these great stories,” says Bitonti. “Our goal was to take the story of the Chatham Coloured All-Stars beyond this community, and I felt it was a great success.”
To learn more about the 1934 Chatham Coloured All-Stars, and how to access the team to play it for yourself, visit OLG’s website.
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