On Saturday, Brian Matusz earned his fourth major league win and Melvin Mora had a huge day with a 3-for-4 afternoon plus drove in three runs as Baltimore beat Texas, 5-4, in second contest of a three game set.
Texas jumped all over Matusz to take a 3-0 lead in the first inning and scored again in the thirs, but the Orioles chipped away at their lead and ended up tying the game at four in the bottom of the third inning. Baltimore took the lead in the fifth inning thanks to a Mora RBI-single. He also had a solo home run in the second inning, plus drove in another run in the third.
Before the game, the Orioles honored the Negro Leagues by donning on the jerseys of the Baltimore Elite Giants who played in Charm City from 1938 to 1950 and won the championship in 1949. Living players from the Negro Leagues took the field in a pregame ceremony and played ‘Shadowball’ — a sort of pantomine where players mimiced practice in the field in which they threw an invisible ball around the infield, hit plus fielded imaginary fly balls, and made plays.
It looked very odd for many in the stands to see ‘shadowball’; however, fans paid respect to the players — whom most didn’t get a chance to play the Major Leagues due to prevailing attitudes of that period that barred African Americans from that level of professional baseball before 1947. For one day, at least, it was wonderful to have seen the Negro Leagues honored as they were on Saturday and to have seen the Orioles wearing the throwback uniforms (which by the way, looked very classy).
