Baseball

Reading a biog of Roberto Clemente, it is easy to get angry at the treatment of black players during spring training in the South. It was all about segregation, except when it came to getting the players to win games. White players invited to golf outings, allowed to go to movie theaters, eat in restaurants, stay in hotels, etc. Black players had to stay on the bus and hope the whites brought them out some food and could go to the movies only on "colored days."

Clemente was furious at this, in part because of his experiences in Puerto Rico. Segregation and discrimiation were much less evident there. I was thinking....

Why didn't black just say, "No food, no play?" "No movies, no play?" Why didn't the owners just tell the Southern racist communities, "Do you know how much money we bring into your economies? Ease up or we're moving to Arizona or Calif...?" Of course, money...that's the answer. Yet why didn't more, or anyone, take a stand--at least earlier?

And, I wondered, would I, as a white player, have stood up for my black teammates? Would I have said, "Treat them like me or I'm not playing?" I don't know. It's not easy to take a stand. I think of how I went out on limbs when teaching, with few if any support from other teachers, yet I at least tried to do something. Most didn't, hiding behind flimsy rationalizations. What about the baseball segregation and discrimination? Different times....