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Community remembers youth baseball players’ moral victory 86 years ago in Deep South

GASTONIA, N.C. — Tony King, of Springfield, Massachusetts, was a white youth league player and won a moral victory in Gastonia 86 years ago.

He stuck up for his black friend during a World Series Regionals game in the Deep South in 1934.

“Said, ‘If he don’t play, then we won’t play,’” retired coach Elmore Hill said. “So, they didn’t play the next day. They got back on the train and went to Springfield, Massachusetts."

>> In the video at the top of this webpage, Gaston County bureau reporter Ken Lemon has the 102-year-old man’s remarkable story about how a game among teenagers became a lesson for everyone.

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