HANOVER COUNTY, Va. — Tony Atlas loves baseball.
He always dreamed of meeting Major League Baseball players while listening to his transistor radio at night as a little boy.
His children’s book, “32 Letters," details his persistence growing up in Los Angeles as he worked to earn the attention of his baseball heroes.
Atlas and his wife, Julie, wrote about his history-making journey to become the first full-time African American bat boy for the California Angels - now called the Los Angeles Angels.
“Tony’s efforts stood out and he was hired as a bat boy for the 1978 season,” Julie read to a group of children and their parents at Hanover’s Atlee Library on Monday.
The special reading and author chat was organized for Juneteenth, the day commemorating the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States.
Eric Armstrong brought his daughter.
“It’s really inspirational that African American stories are American stories. And to see a success story, it’s not always the focus,” Armstrong stated.
Tony shared the message of perseverance to the younger generation closely watching and listening to his every word.
“Truly because of the country we are in and the kind of opportunities there are - truly if you stay with your plan and you put your heart into it then something good is going to happen,” he recalled. “It may not be the thing you’re working toward. But something positive will come out of your tenacity.”
Tony then went on to play collegiate baseball before rising through the ranks as a lieutenant colonel in the Army.
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