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A Dissent from the Universal Casting of Shame and Blame on Kenesaw Mountain
Landis for Baseball’s Failure to Sign Black Players Before 1946
Norman L. Macht
brought to you by The SABR Office
This article is adapted from a research presentation given at the 2007 SABR annual convention.
AT SABR’s 2006 convention one speaker analyzed the commissioners of baseball and rated Judge Landis the best of all. In the questionand-answer session that followed, a member of the audience challenged the speaker: “How can you stand here in the year 2006 and praise Landis, who was so nstrumental in keeping blacks out of Major League Baseball?”
Had I been the presenter, I would have replied, “How do you know that Landis was so instrumental in barring blacks?” How do we know anything that we think we know? By what means do we know it? By taking somebody else’s word for it? By reading it in two or three or six places and concluding that it must be true? Or by researching and analyzing the pieces objectively and independently?
What we think we know about the past is laced with uncertainty. There’s very little we can be sure about. We must be open to challenging what we think we know when we come across contrary evidence, or across something that doesn’t quite fit. That’s not easy. Once we form an opinion or reach a conclusion, it’s natural to stop searching and therefore stop thinking. The mind stays closed and refuses to accept other findings that might discredit that opinion.
In medicine this is called confirmation bias: confirming what you expect to find in your research by selectively accepting this or ignoring that and clinging to a single explanation arrived at earlier without considering other possibilities.
Then I would have reminded the judge’s critic that, yes, it’s precisely because we are standing here in 2006, and Landis and baseball’s club owners were operating in a different time and a different society. A historian who judges a man in the context of today’s time and standards and not the standards and conditions of the time in which the subject lived commits a scholarly sin. The attempt to understand people in their context and on their terms requires that we temporarily suspend judgment. Understanding the America of the 1920s and ’30s and ’40s obliges us to make the effort of not judging it by the standards and values of today. Their values were their values, not necessarily ours. As Gibbon wrote of the Roman general Balisarius, “His vices were the vices of his time; his virtues were his own.” This forces us to remove the halo of thinking our values are eternal. They are not, and that can be troubling to us.
There is a vast, unbridgeable distance between what we like to believe we always were as a society and what we really were. Most of us never knew that pre–World War II society, never lived there. I ask you to join me now in trying to cross that bridge, leaving behind the baggage of your values and biases and what you think you know about other people inother times.
“Baseball led the nation, integrating ten months before Harry Truman became the first president to send a civil-rights message to Congress, a year before integration of the armed forces, three years before the first black player was taken in the NBA draft, and way ahead of the nation’s political mood. Washington was still sharply segregated. Throughout Jackie Robinson’s first year with the Dodgers, there was not a single mention in any Washington newspaper of any statement by any congressman – from anywhere- that was critical of segregation policies still in effect in the capital. Baseball….deserves recognition for leading-dragging-the rest of America a little closer to the ultimate goal of equality and opportunity,” Reported Mike Bauman from the civil rights game.
The MLB civil rights game was a commemorative celebration honoring racial equalities integration into society and the importance of civil rights. With the integration of the Negro league into the MLB in 1947 it marked a vital event in the civil rights movement and a show of equality.
The civil rights game also featured a speech from former president Bill Clinton and his words of wisdom in recognition of baseballs part, “Baseball is a social institution with very important social responsibilities, and on behalf of baseball I am proud to honor those who fight for civil rights and improve our society. I’m proud of the role baseball has played in giving people of all creeds, races and colors the chance to enjoy the life that freedom brings.”
Anaheim-Los Angeles Angels
The Angels obtained their nickname after moving into the American League in 1960 to their home of Los Angeles, the City of Angels.
Baltimore Orioles
Many other minor league clubs have been known as the Orioles as well, but after moving from St. Louis the Browns were named after the state bird of Maryland.
Boston Red Sox
The Red Sox originally named the Somersets after the club owner had a number of other nicknames throughout their MLB career including the Puritans, Pilgrims and Plymouth Rocks. Finally in 1907 they became the Red Sox after an obvious stocking uniform change.
Chicago White Sox
Originally referred to as the white stockings the Chicago team later changed its name to the White Sox to prevent confusion with a previous team of the same name in the National League.
Cleveland Indians
In the 1890s the Cleveland Indians began as the Spiders, then called the Blues, as well as the Babe or Broncos near the turn of the century. Also named after Napoleon Lajoie after becoming manager they were referred to as the Naps as well as the Molly McGuires after manager Jim McGuire in 1909. Then in 1915 the finalized version of the team name was decidedly the Indians after a newspaper poll was held and the then star of the team, a Penobscot Indian helped influence the voters decisions.
Detroit Tiger
The Detroit Tigers are appropriately named after the stripped stockings the wore.
Kansas City Royals
Elected by fans the Kansas City Royals were named after the famous Americal Royal Livestock and Horse Show held in Kansas City.
Minnesota Twins
Originally the Washington Senators the Minnesota Twins were names after the city in which the reside after moving to the Twin Cities in 1960.
Former Pittsburgh Pirates‘ pitcher admitted to being under the influence of LSD during his 1970 no hitter against the San Diego Padres. Evidentelly he new just hours before he was going to pitch, having thought he had the day off his girlfriend and trip partner soon realized he was going to be pitching later that afternoon.
The Pirates ended up winning the game 2-0 despite Ellis having walked eight batters and hit a few. It was undeniably a highpoint in his baseball career and it may be stated that it is a high point yet to be outdone in great sports achievements. Ellis had long since been known for his intolerance for slights and questioned racism in the sport of baseball. Despite his overall control issues that game in trying to maintain his no hitting streak within the game after fathoming the thought in just the fourth inning.
On July 19th of 2000 the Texas Rangers traded Esteban Loaiza to the Toronto Blue Jays for Darwin Cubillan and Michael Young. This trade resulted in essentially two mistakes when contracting this trade for Loaiza by the Blue Jays. The first was trading him for a future stud short stop, Michael Young and the second was in letting Loaiza go to the Chicago White Sox where he won 21 games where he improved to well over triple his strikeouts and split his ERA. The Rangers came out of the trade with a five-time All-Star and career .300 hitter for a pitcher that the Blue Jays eventually did not capitalize on.
In 1960, the Chicago White Sox became the first team to place a player’s name on the back of the teams jersey. Mainly the result of the MLB’s continued expansion of teams in the early 60s it certainly was time to cater more to newcomers and die hard fans alike in discerning some of their favorite play makers and being able to track opposing players performance etc. I imagine the broadcast announcers welcomed the addition to MLB jerseys as well.
Anaheim Angels Nickname
Once called the California Angels between September 1965 and November 19th, 1996, the Los Angeles Angels were named after the Los Angeles city, which translates into the City of Angels, they called home after the came into the American League.
In 1929, both the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians first introduced numbers on the backs of mlb jersyes. When originally introduced the Yankee numbers were designed to correspond to a players’ position in the batting order, for example, Babe Ruth, was number 3 follow by Lou Gehrig. By 1932, every Major League team had incorporated this addition to the baseball uniform, a practice that obviously remains to this day.
Aside from the advent of the Boston Red Stockings first introducing the knickerbockers and showcasing their red stockings as a part of their baseball uniform stockings took drastic changes in look. Styles through out the 1900’s included diamonds and stripped stockings ranging in color combination as well as stirrups intended to create distinction from NFL uniforms.
Stockings also aided in spawning some ball club names because of the distinct changes to their uniform and focus on the look of their stockings including the Red and White Stockings as well as the Detroit Tigers as they were nicknamed since somewhere around 1895 becuase of the stripped stockings they wore but would not enter their first major league game until 1901.
Now long gone they days of the pull over fold down collared shirts with a front laced or buttoned jersey but in 1906, the New York Giants became the first team to play without collared MLB jerseys.
It had been nearly a sixty year tradition by then of wearing collared jerseys that resembled something along the lines of a bankers’ outfit. But after this debut by the Giants the Major League players were finally freed from the eternal annoyance of the collared shirt.
During the 1906 Giants season that was rocked by an earthquake the New York Giants strove to a 96 game winning record.
