Teams representing the Oakland Larks and the San Francisco Sea Lions took the field Saturday to play in a game organized by Sacramento State students as a tribute to Negro League Baseball. The exhibition game was organized by twins Donte and Dominic Morris, sophomore business majors, as one of the campus’ Black History Month events.

Approximately 80 people, including Sac State President Alexander Gonzalez and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Joseph Sheley, came to McAuliffe Field in the rain and cold to watch the baseball game.

Donte Morris said he and his brother wanted to play the game as a tribute to the sacrifices black baseball players made in the past when the game was segregated.

The Negro Leagues served as the only conduit for blacks to play professional baseball before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color-barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

In a ceremony before the game, the two teams honored former Negro League and Major League Baseball player Frank Williams who played for the Negro League Kansas City Monarchs and Major League Pittsburgh Pirates, and former Major League player Jethro McIntyre who played for the Cincinnati Reds. Both Williams and McIntyre now live in the Sacramento area.

Williams said he hoped that such exhibition games will keep young people excited about playing the game and that he was honored to be a part of the event.

“I wouldn’t have missed this for anything,” Williams said.

Playing in the Negro Leagues was one of the most exciting times in his life, Williams said. It allowed him to see a lot of the country as he traveled with the team by bus from city to city to play games.

“I didn’t make a lot of money,” Williams said. “I just had fun playing baseball.”

Williams said his favorite memories are playing in the Negro League All-Star games in 1959 and 1960. The All-Star games were played in Major League stadiums before crowds of 25,000 to 30,000 people.

“I even remember playing at Ebbets Field before it was torn down in 1959,” Williams said.

Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, N.Y. was the home field of the Brooklyn Dodgers and where Jackie Robinson made his major league debut.

McIntyre has known the Morris brothers since they started attending summer baseball camps and clinics as young children in Oakland.

McIntyre said he was proud to be part of an event that teaches people about the history of the game.

“I didn’t teach him that,” McIntyre said laughing as he watched Donte Morris, who was playing for the Larks, get run down and tagged out between first and second base in the bottom of the first inning.

The teams, made up of Sac State students and friends of the Morris brothers, wore the 1940s-style uniforms of the Larks and Sea Lions that the Morris twins had specially made for the event – although, the Sea Lions uniforms actually had the name of San Francisco’s defunct minor league Pacific Coast League team, the Seals, on them.

The Larks and the Sea Lions were members of the West Coast Negro Baseball League that began in 1946 and disbanded in 1949.

Donte Morris said he and his brother came up with the idea of a tribute game during a Black History Month planning meeting for the campus group Africans For Re-Education, Innovation, Consciousness and Achievement.

The Morris brothers said they learned about the West Coast Negro Baseball League when they began doing research in preparation for the event.

Dominic Morris, who played for the Sea Lions, said they decided to represent the Larks and Sea Lions as opposed to more well-known Negro League teams like the Monarchs or the New York Black Yankees to give the game a local feel and honor the little known West Coast Negro Baseball League.

Patrick Marshall, senior criminal justice major and president of AFRICA, said the event was special because it featured future leaders of the black community honoring those who came before them.

The crowd cheered wildly at the top of the fourth inning when Dominic Morris scored the Sea Lions’ first run of the game, stealing bases from first base to home plate on an overthrow.

“That’s Dominic, that’s Dominic,” shouted Sherri Morris, mother of the Morris brothers, as Dominic Morris rounded the bases.

Sherri Morris, who drove to Sacramento from the Bay Area to watch the game, said the twins were the definition of perseverance. They don’t know the meaning of the word “no,” she said.

Paul Morris, the brothers’ father, agreed with his wife. When Dante and Dominic failed to make the Sac State baseball team, they still wanted to play baseball, so they started their own league.

“People always get turned down in life,” Paul Morris said. “When it happened to the boys, they were able to turn it around.”

The Morris brothers founded the Morris League in spring 2007. The Morris League, which plays its games at McAuliffe Field, is for Sac State students who want to play organized baseball.

Donte Morris said he and Dominic decided to form the league as they played catch in front of the campus residence halls. Donte Morris said they saw other people outside playing catch and realized there were a lot of guys who still wanted to play ball.

Last season, the Morris League had 25 players divided between two teams. The league hopes to add more players and teams in its next season, Dominic Morris said.

The announcer for Saturday’s game, Jim Lortz, president of the Sacramento Men’s Senior Baseball League and manager of McAuliffe Field, was impressed with the brothers’ work with the Morris league. Lortz said he donated the use of the field free of charge because he thought it was an important event and the twins did a lot of hard work to put it together.

“I wouldn’t do that for anybody else,” Lortz said. “But these two are like lightning in a bottle.”

Most of the fans began to leave the game in the sixth inning as the rain became steadier and heavier. The game was called after the seventh inning on account of the rain. The Larks beat the Sea Lions 12-4.

“We let them win,” Dominic said, expressing a little sibling rivalry after the game. “We could have beat them, but we wanted them to feel good about themselves.”

“He said that?” Donte said as he rolled his eyes, shook his head and smiled on hearing his brother’s remarks.

“We had to win,” Donte said, laughing. “We looked better in our home, white uniforms.”

Todd Wilson can be reached at [email protected].