Red Sox Resisted Rights

[Infinite Hope]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Major League Baseball will stage its inaugural "Civil Rights Game" this coming March 31, when the defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals play the Cleveland Indians in an exhibition game at AutoZone Park in Memphis, the home of the National Civil Rights Museum and the city where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

The 5:30 p.m. ET game, which will annually precede the opening of the regular season, will be broadcast live on ESPN, and is planned to culminate a day during which baseball will celebrate the nation's civil rights movement.

Baseball has long been considered to have been in the forefront of that movement because the sport was integrated on April 15, 1947, when Jackie Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers. That act came nearly a decade before U.S. public schools were integrated and African-Americans were allowed to sit in the fronts of buses in the South or were admitted into what were then all-white universities.

"This game is designed to commemorate the civil rights movement, one of the most critical and important eras of our social history," MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said. "I am proud of the role that Major League Baseball played in the movement, beginning with Jackie Robinson's entry into the big leagues on April 15, 1947, and very pleased that we have this opportunity to honor the Movement and those who made it happen."

Baseball didn't become fully integrated until 1959, when the Red Sox, the lone remaining team to hold out, signed Pumpsie Green.

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061204&content_id=1750068&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

[k_jerome]

1. Boston not known for its record on civil rights and racial harmony. nt.

[Infinite Hope]

2. Right, they had bussing issues, among others. This was just an interesting addition. n/t

[k_jerome]

3. among many others. nt.

[CTLawGuy]

10. Yeah, and they didn't elect the second black governor in the history

of the US in November either. :eyes:

[FredScuttle]

13. and their hockey team didn't sign the first black player in the NHL

and their basketball team didn't hire the first black coach in the NBA :sarcasm:

Christ...if you have a problem with a sports team's personnel moves, blame the owners, not the city.

[CTLawGuy]

15. well no

I'm countering the insinuation that Boston is racist by pointing to the election of Gov. Deval Patrick.

[Infinite Hope]

17. Boston has had a history of racism, however...

especially once the Irish began "making it" in society and had to compete with blacks to stay afloat.

[FredScuttle]

18. Sorry, didn't mean you

I was referring to the first response that blamed Boston for the Red Sox's "racism"

[k_jerome]

14. hehe. nt.

[TygrBright]

4. The Cleveland "Indians." In the "Civil Rights Game." Man, you can't make up irony like that. n/t

[Hobarticus]

6. No kiddin', I caught that right away too. Stuff writes itself. n/t

[Bluzmann57]

5. Unfortunately, my Cubs were bad on the integration front as well

The first African-American player they ever signed was Gene Baker, followed soon thereafter by Ernie Banks. In 1953. In fact, there is a story that several Cubs players were going to refuse to take the field against Robinson and his team. Same thing in St. Louis until the Commissioner, Happy Chandler, ordered them to. That is just sad.
on edit- It's sort of ironic that St. Louis is playing in this game, since the players on that franchise resisted playing against Robinson, as previously mentioned.

[chelsea0011]

7. The Red Sox issues with race rest at the feet of former owner Tom

Yawkey. Believe it or not the Sox had a chance to get Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays. It would never come to be with that ownership. Hell, the Red Sox had problems with race in the 70's with Tommy Harper. The Sox hung out at a segregated club in their summer home in Winter Haven, Fla. When Tommy Harper was denied admission he blew the whistle and filed a lawsuit. But the Red Sox have come a long way in the organization but go to any game at any time and the crowd is almost exclusively white. But I think this is an issue with baseball in general these days. There is a much smaller % of blacks in baseball than say back in the 60's.

[Ignacio Upton]

9. You know, maybe that explains the "curse"

Yawkey's stupidity and racism cost the Red Sox TWO of MLB's greatest players of all time!

[CTLawGuy]

11. Well, remember

all New England states other than CT are under 5% black. That would be why there are few blacks at Red Sox games.

(CT is 9% black).

[Infinite Hope]

12. A major reason is...

inner cities used to have baseball parks available to kids. Basketball courts tended to take over and so the inner cities, where Americans of African descent disproportionately are at, have raised fewer Americans of African descent into the baseball ranks.

Charities - many run by baseball stars of African descent such as Torii Hunter - now seek donations to build baseball parks in the inner city.

[JABBS]

8. 47-year-old news?

There's actually a very good book that came out a couple of years ago about the Red Sox and integration, and the fact that the team had the chance to sign Willie Mays but passed.

The Sox's spring training facility at the time, I believe in Mobile or Birmingham, was shared by a Negro League team, and as a result, the Sox had first dibs on any of the players on the Negro League team. Willie Mays was such a player.

The Sox gave Mays and Sam Jethroe a tryout, but it was a farce. They only did it so the local Boston press wouldn't expose how racist they were. But they had no plans to sign the players, who were quickly gobbled up by the NY Giants (Mays) and the Boston Braves (Jethroe).

The Sox owner, Tom Yawkey, passed the buck to the Sox GM, Joe Cronin, and Cronin wasn't interested.

[Doctor_J]

16. Look at the NFL as well

The Redskins had a long down period in the late 50's and early 60's because their owner, George Preston Marshall, was an unabashed racist. The Skins were the last team to integrate and suffered severely because of it.