Ted Williams, Satchel Paige and the fight to induct Negro Leaguers into baseball’s Hall of Fame

Sixty years ago, the famed Red Sox slugger used his Cooperstown speech to champion Black players who were excluded because of the sport’s color barrier When Ted Williams, the last man to hit .400, was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, he had an iconic career to reflect on. But he decided to dedicate a portion of his speech to championing Black players who had been excluded because of baseball’s longtime color barrier. “I’ve always been a very lucky guy to have worn a baseball…