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On April 15, 1947, Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson became the first African-American to play major league baseball. On July 21, 1959, Elijah Jerry "Pumpsie" Green became the first African-American to play major league baseball -- with the Boston Red Sox. Thus the Sox became the last major league baseball team to integrate.
On April 11, 1997, Green and the late Robinson's daughter, Sharon, each threw out the first pitch at Fenway Park. The occasion was to commemorate the revered achievement of her courageous father 50 years earlier. Green would later acknowledge his heartfelt gratitude for what Robinson so bravely did for him, and for all the members of his race.
Except for the killing of people, glorifying what Jackie Robinson did for baseball is tantamount to the showing of admiration for the survivors of the Holocaust. It pays homage to a proud man who conquered a pre-conceived belief of negative feelings towards him and his race because of his race itself. It is the celebration of a major injustice paid to thousands of young men for over sixty years, and the subsequent ramifications of Robinson's triumph over prejudice.
In the abstract, it is the overcoming of one of man's most putrid qualities. That is why it compares to the hatred of Jews during World War II.
And in a perfect world, wouldn't it be better to see a child who beat cancer thanks to the Jimmy Fund throw out the first ball, rather than two people who are there because of sick, twisted opinions of people like Cap Anson, Ty Cobb and Pinky Higgins?
To add further irony to this extraordinary sight at Fenway, the fact that Sharon Robinson came to Boston to celebrate the anniversary of her father's first game is quite mystifying.
Boston has taken a bad rap over the years as being a racist city. Green himself is a symbol of the fact that the Sox were the last team to field their first black player. In 1945, Robinson, Sam Jethroe and Marvin Williamson were given an informal tryout at Fenway Park, but that was done merely to pacify the Boston City Council and the three men never made it to Fenway. In later years, Earl Wilson, Tommy Harper and Jim Rice all experienced race-related problems with either Red Sox management or the people of the Boston area. And then there's the Judge Garrity landmark bussing decision in 1975.
Trying to explain why people don't like blacks, or Jews, or Hispanics, or Orientals, or whites is better left for the sociologists and the psychologists. I'd rather stick to more mundane viewpoints. Like, for example, Josh Gibson might have broken Babe Ruth's home run record before Henry Aaron did. Or, try this: Damn you, baseball, for never giving Gibson the chance to do it.
What are we celebrating by parading Sharon Robinson and Pumpsie Green to centerstage at Fenway on Opening Day? Is it supposed to be "just absolutely fantastic" to see the daughter of Jackie Robinson? Or gosh, now I can say I've finally seen Pumpsie Green in person?
What we are "celebrating", if you can call it that, is something that any kind-hearted American would wish had never happened. I don't call that celebrating.
Why was Robinson elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame? In a ten-year career (the minimum number of years to be eligible, unless you're Sandy Koufax), Robinson hit .311 with 1,518 hits and 137 home runs. He also stole 197 bases. He won the NL MVP in 1949. By today's standards, these numbers are ordinary and would not get anyone elected. One might guess that Robinson was elected because he broke baseball's color line.
Those people who know the game, and who saw Robinson play every day, will tell you that his intensity for the game is what won over his teammates early in 1947, and what defined him throughout his career. He played on the only Brooklyn Dodgers World Series winner in 1955. His personal integrity on and off the field enhanced his non-Ruthian baseball stats, and therefore made his Hall of Fame selection worthy.
This is the only way that Robinson ought to be remembered. As a great ball player, not as the first black ball player.
Pumpsie Green? In 1970, Carl Yastrzemski had 186 hits in 566 at-bats. Yet he lost the batting title to California's Alex Johnson. Johnson had 202 hits in 614 at-bats. Johnson's .3289 beat Yaz at .3286. Those numbers I recite from memory, and I have done so since I was in junior high school. Green inspires no such stat memory on my part, except that he's the first Sox black player.
Green played in Boston from 1959 to 1962. He hit .244 with 12 homers and 69 RBIs. Oh, he does have some claim to fame. He ranks eighth all-time in pinch-hit at-bats by a Red Sox player with 88, and ninth all-time in pinch-hits by a Sox player with 23. Staggering. No wonder he got to help toss out the first pitch.
Green, however, did get to play for a manager who was quoted as saying "There'll be no niggers on this ball club if I have anything to do with it!" And they say it takes a lot of guts for a left-handed batter to face Randy Johnson.
Like Ms. Robinson, Green is there for only one reason.
In this 50th year since Jackie Robinson made his major league debut, we absolutely should salute him for what he did. Not only for baseball, but for the fabric of our society. To say he belongs aside Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King is like explaining why George Washington belongs on Mount Rushmore or the dollar bill. He defined "dignity with bravery", he and his whole family.
But to call this a "fiftieth anniversary celebration" with sleeve patches and tributory commercials pays more tribute to the legions of racists in our society, both today and yesterday.
What the ball players are "thanking Jackie for" in the commercial is for having to endure and conquer something spiteful, distasteful, something we wish had never happened. No one in Boston celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of Ted Williams' rookie year in 1989 with patches or TV commercials. Absent of a color barrier, Robinson's debut in 1947 would have been as unremarkable as Williams's, or Yastrzemski's in 1961, or Mo Vaughn's in 1991.
Racism has been, and always will be, a devisive, insidious and unwelcome facet of our society. What Jackie Robinson and Pumpsie Green did deserves our eternal adulation. What racists have done to Jackie Robinson, Pumpsie Green, and all the members of their race, and all other races who have suffered from equivalent persecution, deserves no forgiveness. That is the main reason why I see no "celebration" for what Robinson did fifty years ago.
Despite all this, it's good to see ol' Pumpsie at Fenway again. And, here's to you, Ms. Robinson. We all love you more than you will know.
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© 1997 by Bob George. All rights reserved.