The Indian Head Rockets were an African American and Latino baseball team that played in Saskatchewan starting in 1950 through 1954.
Willie Reed was amazed by the reception he and his teammates received when playing in the prairies.
"I was so pleased with the fans, the fans are nothing like the fans in California. Canadian people really love baseball and they treated us like we've been here before," Reed said on the SportsCage. "It wasn't a surprise to them, but to us it was."
Reed's teammate Nat Bates shared similar sentiments.
"Like Willie indicated, we were from California where racial tension was not as bad as it had been in the southern part of the United States: Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi. When we got here to Canada, the interesting thing was that your ancestors showered us with nothing but appreciation, respect, and love," Bates explained.
"Something that we hadn't experienced to that degree, even in California. To go out and pitch in front of a fan base like that, it was fantastic. Not only did they support us 100 percent when we went home, but we'd travel to Swift Current, Lethbridge, Edmonton, and the fans would follow us -- it was like family."
The Regina Red Sox, who play in the Western Canadian Baseball League, honoured the Indian Head Rockets for the team's 75th anniversary. Looking back, Bates recalls different teammates he played with and how the Indian Head Rockets were assembled.
"We had a fairly successful season with Medicine Hat at the time, they were Mohawks, now they've changed it to Medicine Hat Mavericks. Five of us were Contra Costa College athletes. Willie Reed then we had Pumpsie Green, who later went to the Boston Red Sox, Emmett Neal, who unfortunately was killed in Korea, Winters Calvin and myself," Bates said.
"When we joined the Indian Head Rockets, all we wanted to do was play baseball. We didn't have any idea it was going to be an all-black team. When we got there, the players started coming in. We said: 'Well, where's the rest of the players?' And they said: 'This is it.' It's an all-black team, we just want to play baseball and pursue our career as far as we can."
Bates took pride in the brotherhood the Rockets developed.
"We didn't fight among ourselves, we rooted for each other, the fans rooted for all of us. We would go into Saskatchewan, Lethbridge, Moose Jaw, Swift Current and the fans appreciated us and they didn't boo us. Some teams in the United States, you either fought them or were against them, you booed the visiting team and you root for the home team. Canadian fans were very appreciative of it. If you did a good job, they appreciate it and they would applaud the visiting team, just like it was their own team."
Bates had some inspiring words for whoever wants to take up baseball.
"My first comment would be play the game as hard as you can. Learn from the game, respect your coaches, learn discipline, learn control, learn how to respect your players because you're on a team with individuals who have different backgrounds and different ethnicity groups. More importantly, we can all win, we take wins for granted, but also be strong enough to know how to take a loss," Bates said.
"In life, we're not going to win every time we try to achieve something. Don't be bitter, be humble, don't be egotistical, just play the game as hard as you can, go as far as you can. More importantly, not everybody's going to make it to the Major Leagues, but the experience you learn in baseball, in sports in general, is how to work with other people to be successful later on in life. Whether you're a school teacher, a police officer, whomever, those are attributes that will make you successful in life."
