Staff Report

 

SOUTH POINT — They came, they played, they taught.

The Anderson Monarchs made a stop at the South Point Little League on Sunday as part of their cross-country barnstorming tour.

The Monarchs are a team of 14 boys and a girl who are 10 and 11 years old traveling across the country in a symbolic tour similar to that of the 1947 Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues.

A member of the 1947 Monarchs was Jackie Robinson who became the first African American to play in the Major Leagues, thus opening the door for others who had been banned from the big leagues.

The traveling youth team is comprised of players in the Philadelphia Anderson Youth Leagues.

They have been riding an authentic 1947 Flxible Clipper bus during their 22-day, 4,000-mile tour. And just like the 1947 bus, this model doesn’t have air conditioning or a restroom.

The team played an area all-star team of 10-14-year-old players called the River Cities Vipers.

After the Monarchs played a South Point youth soccer team at noon, they had lunch and then took on the Vipers. The game went down to the final at-bat as the Vipers scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to win 10-9.

But the team’s main goal of learning about the history of the Negro Leagues and teaching the story to those along their tour proved to be the real success story.