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Your view: What’s in store for Luzerne County voters in 2020

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Angello, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins even the score with Cleveland

He has a plaque in Monument Park, four World Series rings and a guitar that&#8217;s been rocking long after his baseball days were over.Yet, there were times when Bernie Williams found himself between a rock and a hard place.&#8220;I&#8217;ve spent most of my adult life playing in a system that is hard for Latin players and minorities,&#8221; Williams said during a fundraising dinner and auction in Hazleton this weekend. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been through some of these things.&#8221;Think about that.If an All-Star center fielder for the New York Yankees who turned out to be so great the team retired his No. 51 had some trouble finding acceptance, what must it be like for immigrants on the streets of Hazleton who aren&#8217;t on their way to the major leagues?It&#8217;s one of the big reasons why Williams stepped onstage Friday to jam with the B Street Band &#8212; a Bruce Springsteen tribute band &#8212; during a fundraising dinner for native son Joe Maddon&#8217;s Hazleton Integration Project.&#8220;I am Puerto Rican, born and raised,&#8221; Williams said. &#8220;I&#8217;m here at the right time for this.&#8221;But actions speak louder than words.And by his actions, Maddon has made it his mission to unite his hometown of Hazleton.He&#8217;s been doing it for nine years, through a successful run as a manager of a Tampa Bay team that reached the 2008 World Series, as the manager who broke the curse by taking the Chicago Cubs to the 2016 World Championship and now as the newly-named manager of the Los Angeles Angels.Love or loathe his ambition to reinvent the wheel with shifts and and lineup flips and an endless array of position switches &#8212; &#8220;It was interesting how he went against the curve in so many situations,&#8221; Williams said &#8212; you have to admire Maddon&#8217;s desire to bring Hazleton peace.&#8220;We had to create a bridge to get the people on the same field,&#8221; Maddon said.He keeps bringing big stars over that bridge.This year, it was Yankees four-time World Series champ Williams and David Ross, a catcher who won World Series titles with the Boston Red Sox and with Maddon&#8217;s Cubs before recently replacing his old boss as the manager in Chicago. One year, Yogi Berra showed up. Another time, it was Cal Ripken. Last year it was Joe Namath. Before that, it was comedian and movie star and long-suffering Cubs die-hard Bill Murray.They keep showing up at Maddon&#8217;s annual Broad Street Bash, a dinner and aucition that donates all proceeds to the Hazleton One Community Center. The idea behind it is to help fund the Hazleton Integration Project that&#8217;s set up to allow immigrants of different cultures to integrate, pleasantly and peacefully. And it&#8217;s supposed to start with the community center, where children can participate in sports and academic activities with each other, in hopes that their parents will join forces and follow along.We&#8217;re not all the way there yet.On the day of Friday&#8217;s Broad Street Bash dinner and auction were held at the Historic Pines Eatery and Spirits on Broad Street, police were being called to a stabbing in another part of the city.&#8220;There was fear in the air,&#8221; Maddon said was the reason he wanted to do something to alleviate the tension, which he called a disconnect between people who spent their whole lives in Hazleton and people of different cultures moving in.That distrust may never go away.But participation in the programs offered at Hazleton One Community Center is growing, its committee members say, and so is acceptance for various cultures.There&#8217;s no real proof of that, of course, except for what directors, teachers and coaches involved with the Hazleton Intergration Project hear and see on a daily basis.But it makes Maddon believe the whole idea has a chance.&#8220;It&#8217;s not often you see stars committed to the town they grew up in,&#8221; Ross said. &#8220;It only takes a second to realize how passionate he is about Hazleton.&#8221;Could the passion pay off?Williams, for one, thinks so.He told a story about growing up outside the United States before coming to the country to play Major League Baseball.&#8220;Being in the big leagues and winning four World Series&#8217; with the Yankees was the icing on the cake,&#8221; Williams said. &#8220;But along the way, I met a lot of great people.&#8221;That&#8217;s the main idea behind Hazleton One.To get people to meet.Because once people come together through a common goal, it&#8217;s tough to pull them apart.No matter what culture they may be from.<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Former New York Yankees four-time World Series champion outfielder Bernie Williams (center), flanked by Los Angeles Angels manager Joe Maddon (left) and Chicago Cubs manager David Ross, felt he battled through a major league system stacked against Latino and minority players. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_mad5_faa-3.jpg</photo0><caption0>Former New York Yankees four-time World Series champion outfielder Bernie Williams (center), flanked by Los Angeles Angels manager Joe Maddon (left) and Chicago Cubs manager David Ross, felt he battled through a major league system stacked against Latino and minority players. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Paul Sokoloski covers area sports for the Times Leader. You may reach him at 570-991-6392, psokoloski@www.timesleader.com or on Twitter @SokoloskiSports</shirttailMeta></div>

A championship warmth soothes a cold city’s night