Payback time for big-timers

Many of his contemporaries have fared well. Teammate Joe Black, a Morgan State College graduate when he joined the Elite Giants, advanced to graduate school and eventually became vice president for special markets at the Greyhound Corp. Others landed such jobs as security guard, mail carrier and sanitation worker.

But Mr. Burke is troubled by stories that some former players and their families became destitute. One story going around the circuit is that a man's corpse stayed in a funeral home for two weeks while his family raised money to bury him.

"If the players today helped the Negro leaguers, those guys could be living on easy street," he said. "There are guys like me, and there a lots of guys in wheelchairs."

Is 1 percent too much to ask? It shouldn't be. But Albert Belle and Charles Johnson should consider donating a few innings worth of pay to improve pension plans for their forebears, who need more than the price of a Camden Yards ticket.

Norris P. West is a member of the editorial page staff of The Sun.