Most of us in the US know April 15th as tax day,
the day when federal and state personal income taxes are due. But starting in 2004 major league baseball
declared that on April 15 of each year, every player in every game wears number
42 in honor of Jackie Robinson, the Texas oil baron who sacrificed fame and
fortune to be the first black professional baseball player. No, wait – he was a
research chemist working on a vaccine for leukemia. No, that’s not it either… perhaps he was a
concert pianist and composer who gave up his career for the social advancement
of his race?
Well, actually none of those is accurate. Jackie Robinson was just a good athlete who
was the first black offered money to play baseball. He wasn’t necessarily better than all other
black players before him, it wasn’t that he sacrificed some greater calling to
prove a point about race, it wasn’t that he organized a march on Washington,
refused to give up his seat on the bus, or risked being thrown in jail to be a
historic champion of civil rights. He
just agreed to live the dream of tens of thousands of other kids who wished
they could get paid for playing a game they loved.
So why do we need a Jackie Robinson day? What was the selfless and heroic act he
represented that blazed the way for all future black athletes? Well, racism was definitely strong in major
league baseball in the 1940s. No official rule existed that banned blacks from
joining the league, but no team had been willing to sign black players despite
their demonstrated success in the Negro league.
For sure, Mr. Robinson would face
resistance from fans, players, media, and maybe even his own teammates for
invading a ‘white sport’. But let’s not
forget, he wasn’t picking up garbage or shining shoes, he was playing baseball for money. I have no quarrel with Jackie Robinson; by all
accounts he was a great player, a great teammate, and never folded to the
temptation of lashing out at his antagonists.
Let’s be honest, who had the most to lose when Jackie
Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers? A
strong case could be made for Branch Ricky, a white business manager who took
the risk to break ranks with the fellow owners and league officials by signing
a black man. But you probably never heard of Branch Ricky¸ even though he is
recognized as the innovator of the major league farm system, for signing the
first Hispanic player, for encouraging the expansion of the league by adding
new teams, and for instituting the use of baseball helmets. Rickey was quoted as saying "I may not be able to do something
about racism in every field, but I can sure do something about it in
baseball."
But Rickey’s ambitions put him at odds
with many others in baseball management. Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis,
a judge, opposed Rickey’s proposal for a farm system, thinking it would ruin
the existing minor leagues. But his perseverance ensured the survival of the
farm system, along with many other beneficial changes to baseball including
spring training facilities, batting cages, pitching machines and new
statistical measurements for measuring effectiveness. Ricky’s gamble on Jackie
Robinson paid off with Robinson wining Rookie of the Year honors and his
Dodgers going to the World Series.
Yet Rickey paid the price for making his enemies. He was
forced out of the Dodgers organization and faced resentment from other team
owners and management. So if we define
heroes as those who do something selfless on behalf of others, who is the real
hero who broke the color barrier of major league baseball? Shouldn’t we have a Branch Ricky day?
But that’s not how racism works. Black racists need to take every opportunity
to remind America how underprivileged and oppressed blacks are, and how white
people owe them for the crimes of the past. And white people, trying to assuage a conscience of guilt for not having their own history of oppression,
jump on board to 'atone for the sins' of a generation they neither created or supported. Soon to be released is the movie "42", which will again enshrine Jackie Robinson as the champion of civil rights- the 'David' who slayed the white 'Goliaths' of race. Expect Oscar nominations, no matter how bad the acting or directing actually is.
Wouldn’t it be refreshing if next year on Jackie Robinson
day, if one of the dozens of players interviewed would depart from the script
of “Jackie breaking the color barrier” and give some credit to Branch Ricky for
making it possible? And even more refreshing will be the day when we stop treating black accomplishments like something unnatural and unexpected and instead treat them as ordinary members of the human race.
Posts
