NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Nat Bates stands alongside Medicine Hat Mavericks owner and GM Greg Morrison at Athletic Park Tuesday afternoon.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
It had been 70 years since Nat Bates had played baseball in Medicine Hat when he made his return Tuesday.
The 90-year-old played for the Medicine Hat California Mohawks in 1950 before joining the all-Black professional baseball team, the Indian Head Rockets the next summer, who were inducted into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend.
In the 1950s, Indian Head, Sask., was home to two baseball tournaments that brought in 22 teams from around North America and offered large cash prizes for the winners.
Bates is one of the few surviving players from the Rockets. He said he was honoured to represent the team at the hall of fame ceremony but wished there were more of his teammates who were still alive and could be in attendance.
“We were 18 and 19-year-old kids just enjoying the game, trying to hone our skills and hopefully tried to make it to the major leagues,” Bates said. “We had no idea the kind of attention that we later received for the induction into the Saskatchewan Hall of Fame. I’m just sad that many of the players who contributed to the game are no longer with us. Willie Reed and I are the only two remaining of the ’52 Indian Head Rockets.”
Bates, along with his son and great grandson, received a tour of Athletic Park on Tuesday from Mavericks owner and general manager Greg Morrison. The California product said it was a pleasure to see how the park looked.
“I just see the tremendous improvements that you’ve had over the years compared to 1952, it is a beautiful, beautiful ballpark,” Bates said. “I know we would have loved to play out here with the nice grass compared to the dirt fields and they have a fence, where we played there was no fence, sometime cars was parked out in centre and left field and a ball would hit a windshield and crack it. So this is an outstanding field that they’ve been able to put together.”
Bates laughed when asked if he was responsible for any cracked windshields but said he couldn’t recall any while pitching and playing the outfield. While reflecting on his summers in Medicine Hat and Saskatchewan, Bates said they were showered with affection and appreciation, which was a change for young, black baseball players from the United States.
“We were like heroes, kids would come up and ask autographs and families would invite us to their home for dinner. It was just something that we never experienced and never anticipated,” Bates said. “We just wanted to play baseball and that was the extent of what we thought we were going to be receiving. But I can indicate that the Canadian people, especially being African American, black, we weren’t exposed to that kind of reception and it was just something that words can’t express.”
Bates served in the United States Army before becoming a councillour in Richmond, Calif. for six years. He ran for mayor in 1971 and was in office through 1973. Then he was elected again for a four-year term in 1979 until the end of his term in 1983. Bates ran again in 1995 and won a four-year term being re-elected in 1999, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2018 and is running for office again this fall.
He said his autograph was better when he was a player than as a politician. Bates said over his political career he’s been associated with 12 different presidents, including a friendship with Barack Obama.
“I had just direct contract with George Bush, Jimmy Carter but Barack Obama was honestly my favourite,” Bates said. “To be invited to the White House, where I took my daughter because my wife had passed away, to be able to sit there and communicate with him and joke, it was fantastic. I can say to a large extent, even going all the way back to Richard Nixon and one of my other favourites was Ronald Reagan, because Ronald Reagan was governor of California when I was a mayor of Richmond. With Barack Obama and the rest of them, I can say with one exception and I won’t name that person, almost every president had a sense of humour. They didn’t wear that position and ego on their shoulder.”
Bates’ advice for those playing baseball at the college level is to simply chase your dreams.
“Not everyone’s going to make it to the major leagues. Enjoy life and chase your dream because I found as a politician, just playing the game of sports, being involved and people that are different than you, look different, speak differently, you develop a relationship and you learn as a team,” Bates said. “It’s life skills that enhance you to be a better person and a more successful person in life and go for it. If you can make it all the way, great. You’re not a loser if you don’t make it because those skills will translate into you being successful somewhere else.”
When asked if he could play on the Mavericks next season, Bates said his fastball has diminished to the point that he called it a “putter.”
Morrison said he always appreciated people wanting to reminisce at Athletic Park and enjoyed how Bates spoke about community, and he sees that in the game today.
“So much has changed but so much has stayed the same in a good way that baseball is a sport that brings people together from different cultures and countries,” Morrison said. “That’s what I was really lucky for being able to be a part of playing with L.A. and Toronto and their organizations that just and him bringing that up, that’s what it was about that he’s held to his career of being exposed to different people and that’s what baseball it’s a worldly game.”
