A National Hero
This week The Bahamas celebrated National Heroes’ Day on Monday 11th October. An official National Heroes Day ceremony is usually held with a keynote speech by the Prime Minister, and heroes from a cross-section of civil society are celebrated with a week of activities.
We celebrate André Rodgers the first Bahamian to make it to Major League Baseball. He was a shortstop who played for the New York Giants and the original San Francisco Giants. He also played for the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates. After retiring from an 11-year MLB career, André played one season in Japan with the Nippon Professional Baseball League’s Taiyo Whales.
Born in Nassau, Bahamas André’s career was responsible for opening the door for many other notable Bahamian baseball players and for the sport becoming one of the most popular in the country.
Watch documentarian Gina Rodgers-Sealy, André’s daughter, take a deep dive into the life and legacy of the first Bahamian to play major league baseball in Gentle Giant: The André Rodgers Story.