A Colored Past ... In Honor Of Jackie Robinson Day - April 15 ...

It is well-documented in the history of baseball's storied and colorful past that it's once longstanding color barrier was soundly shattered on April 18, 1946, the day Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson, born in Cairo, Georgia to a sharecropping family on January 31, 1919, was signed to play with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization by owner Branch Rickey, becoming the first African-American of the 20th century to join Major League baseball. Robinson made his first appearance with the Montreal Royals in the International League, and after just a single season with Montreal, the gifted athlete made his big league debut as a Brooklyn Dodger on April 15, 1947, when he played first base against the Boston Braves at Ebbets Field. Jackie Robinson helped catapult the Dodgers to the National League Pennant, and earned National League Rookie Of The Year honors.

During those early years, Jackie Robinson endured hardhearted mistreatment from fellow ball players and baseball fans alike, all with quiet dignity, but his entrance into America's favorite pastime had served to spin rusted tumblers in the doorlocks of prejudice thereby enabling access by other players of color such as Don Newcombe, Roy Campanella, Joe Black and Larry Doby, the first black star of the Cleveland Indians. By 1952, more than 150 black players comprised of the "cream of the crop" from Negro League rosters had been enticed to join organized baseball's integrated majors and minors. However, few people have given much thought as to how Robinson came to the attention of major league scouts, where he had played before joining the Brooklyn Dodgers, or what the nature of baseball might have been in the black community before integration in the major league. I would like to take a brief journey back in the history of American sports and society to the fascinating era of the Negro Leagues, and explore the events that brought about the great Jackie Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers ... and white America.

The original National Association of Base Ball Players, which formed in 1867, had banned all black athletes, but by the late 1870's, many African-American players were on active rosters of white, minor league teams. In the North, between the end of the Civil War and 1890, a good number of African-Americans played alongside their white counterparts on major and minor league teams, but following brief stays with white teams, most of these players felt the hurtful sting of regional prejudices, along with an unofficial color ban. However, there were some notable exceptions who built long and successful careers in white professional baseball.

In 1884, John W, "Bud" Fowler, an African-American with more than a decade of experience as an itinerant, professional player, was signed by the Stillwater, Minnesota club in the Northwestern league. Fowler preferred to play as a second-baseman, but played virtually every position on the field for Stillwater, further heightening the reputation that had brought him to the attention of white team owners. Bud Fowler's baseball career continued through the close of the 19th Century, much of which was spent on the rosters of minor league clubs in organized baseball.

In 1883, Moses "Fleetwood" Walker, a former Oberlin College star, began his professional baseball career with the Toledo club, also in the Northwestern league. Almost from the beginning of his career, Walker was a better than average hitter, and was considered by many to be among baseball's finest catchers. In 1884, the Toledo club joined the American Association, and Walker became the first black player to play with a major league franchise. By 1886, many black players were playing with teams in the "outlaw" leagues and independent barnstorming clubs along with Fowler and Walker, including George Stovey and Ulysses Franklin "Friendly Frank" Grant. The best black players found a measure of tolerance, if not acceptance, in white baseball in the North and Midwest until the end of the 1880's. But that situation made an abrupt change in 1890.

In 1890, as the season began in the International League, the most prestigious of the minor league circuits, there were no black players. With no formal announcement having been made, a "gentlemens' agreement" was made which barred black players from participation for the next fifty-five years. For a time, African-Americans were able to find work in lesser leagues, but within only a few short years no team in organized baseball would accept black players ... the color barrier was firmly in place by the turn of the century.

As Walker, Fowler and Grant, along with many others struggled to find a spot (and keep it) in organized baseball, other black players were pursuing careers with the more than 200 all-black independent teams that performed throughout the country from the early 1880's forward. Through the close of the century, powerful Eastern teams such as the Cuban Giants, Cuban X Giants and Harrisburg Giants played both independently and in loosely organized leagues. Professional black baseball had began to blossom throughout America's heartland, and even in the South by the early 1900's.

The emergence of potent black teams during the early years of the 20th Century, such as the Chicago Giants, Indianapolis ABC's, St. Louis Giants and Kansas City Monarchs, rose to prominence and presented a legitimate challenge to the claim of diamond supremacy made by Eastern clubs such as the Lincoln Giants in New York, Brooklyn Royal Giants, Cuban Stars and Homestead (Pa.) Grays. Black baseball was also thriving in Birmingham's industrial leagues in the South, and teams like the Nashville Standard Giants and Birmingham Black Barons were establishing solid regional reputations.

Black baseball had become, perhaps, the number one entertainment attraction for urban black populations throughout the nation by the end of World War I. It was then that one of black baseball's most influential personalities, Andrew "Rube" Foster, owner of the Chicago American Giants, determined that the time had arrived for a truly organized and stable Negro league. In 1920, under Foster's leadership, the Negro National League was born in Kansas City, fielding eight teams comprised of the Chicago American Giants, Chicago Giants, Cuban Stars, Dayton Marcos, Detroit Stars, Indianapolis ABC's, Kansas City Monarchs and St. Louis Giants ... "We are the ship; all else the sea" was how Rube Foster described his new league ... that same year, Thomas T.Wilson, owner of the Nashville Elite Giants, organized the Negro Southern League, with teams in Nashville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Memphis, Montgomery and New Orleans. Just three years later in 1923, the Eastern Colored League was formed, featuring the Hilldale Club, Stars (East), Brooklyn Royal Giants, Bacharach Giants, Lincoln Giants and Baltimore Black Sox ... the Negro National League continued on successfully throughout most of the 1920's, until ultimately succumbing to the financial hardships of the Great Depression and sadly dissolving at the close of the 1931 season. In 1933, Pittsburgh bar owner Gus Greenlee organized the second Negro National League, quickly taking up where Foster's league left off, and became the dominant force in black baseball from 1933 through 1949.

From 1920 through the 1940's, the Negro Southern League was in continuous operation and held the position of black baseball's only operating major circuit for the 1931 season. The Negro American League was formed in 1937, bringing into it's fold the best clubs in the South and Midwest, and stood as the opposing circuit to Greenlee's Negro National League until the latter disbanded after the 1949 season ... the three major Negro League circuits had steadily built what was to become one of the largest and most successful black-owned enterprises in America, despite having weathered the storms of the difficult economic challenges thrust upon the entire nation by the Great Depression ... the existence and success of these leagues stood as a testament to the determination and resolve of black America to forge ahead in the face of racial segregation and social disadvantage.

Gus Greenlee had firmly intended to field the most powerful baseball team in America when he organized the Negro National League in 1933 ... and he may well have achieved his goal. In 1935, his Pittsburgh Crawfords lineup showcased the talents of no less than five future Hall-Of-Famers, including the likes of Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Judy Johnson and the great Oscar Charleston. During the mid-1930's, the Pittsburgh Crawfords were black baseball's premier team, but by the end of the decade that title was wrested away by Cumberland Posey's Homestead Grays, winning 9 consecutive Negro National League titles from the late 1930's through the mid-1940's. The Grays had bolstered their lineup with Hall-Of-Fame talent such as that of power-hitting first sacker Buck Leonard, along with featuring former Crawfords stars Bell and Gibson.

During the 1930's and 1940's, the East-West All-Star game, which was played annually at Chicago's Comiskey Park, contributed greatly to the ever-growing national popularity of Negro League baseball. Conceived originally in 1933 by Gus Greenlee as a promotional tool, the game rapidly became black baseball's most popular attraction and biggest money maker. From the first game forward, the East-West Classic regularly packed Comiskey Park while showcasing the Negro League's finest talent ... the demands for social justice had swelled throughout America as World War II came to a close, and many felt that it could not be long until baseball's color barrier would come crashing down. African-Americans had not only proven themselves on the battlefield and seized an indisputable moral claim to an equal share in American life, the stars of black baseball had also proven their skills in venues like the East-West Classic and countless exhibition games against major league stars ... the time for integration had arrived.

Virtually all of the Negro Leagues' best talent had either left the league for opportunities with integrated teams or had grown too old to attract the attention of major league scouts during the four years immediately following Jackie Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Black team owners witnessed a financially devastating decline in attendance at Negro League games as a result of this sudden and dramatic departure of talented ballplayers. The handwriting was on the wall for the Negro Leagues as the attention of black fans had forever turned to the integrated major leagues ... after the 1949 season, the Negro National League disbanded, never to return ... after a long and successful run, black baseball's senior circuit was no longer a commercially viable enterprise. Though the Negro American League continued on throughout the 1950's, it had lost virtually all of it's fan appeal, along with the bulk of it's talent. The league closed it's doors for good in 1962, after a decade of operating as a shadow of it's former self ... the era of Negro League baseball had ground to a halt ... "the ship" had sank ... however, it's rich and colorful history had a profound impact, not only on our national pastime, but on America's social and moral character.

Not only was Jack Roosevelt Robinson, son of a sharecropping family from Cairo, Georgia the first African-American to play on a Major League baseball team in the 20th Century ... Robinson was also the first recipient of the Rookie of the Year Award in 1947 ... the first African-American to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962 ... the first Major League baseball player to be honored on a U.S. postage stamp in 1997 ... the first baseball player to have his uniform number (42) retired in perpetuity across all teams by the Major League in 1997 ... the first UCLA student to earn a varsity letter in all four sports: baseball, basketball, football and track in 1948 ... the first African-American baseball player to receive the Congressional Gold Medal in 2003 ... and the first African-American to serve as Vice-President of a major American corporation, Chock Full O' Nuts 1957-1964 ... Jackie was also a recipient of the NAACP Spigam Medal in 1956 ... received an Honorary degree from Howard University in 1957 ... recipient of the Presidential Medal of Honor in 1985 ... and the Rookie of the Year Award was renamed the Jackie Robinson Award in 1987.

Despite a myriad of impressive collegiate and professional, athletic accomplishments over the course of Jackie Robinson's extraordinary and outstanding career, his integrity, courage and character off the field were indispensable attributes, not only in the life of the man, but more importantly in the melioration of the fragmented moral fabric of American society ... he not only possessed the courage to stare racism and hatred directly in the eye--he bravely defied it! ... while serving in the U.S. Army, Robinson was court-martialed for refusing to sit in the back of a segregated military bus ... he was later acquitted and honorably discharged from the Army ... Jackie Robinson endured unspeakable mistreatment, abuse and threats while playing the game he loved ... but endure he did ... the many black players who came before him were genuine pioneers, true Americans (America must never forget them) ... they were steppingstones that led the way from the intolerance and discrimination of the Jim Crow era to the threshold of racial equality and integration in organized, professional baseball ... amid those stones lies a mighty cornerstone ... Jack Roosevelt (Jackie) Robinson (1919-1972) ...

"There's not an American in this country free until every one of us is free." --Jackie Robinson

--sja

Sacks Of Silver ...

Jose Canseco ... "The Bad Boy of Baseball" ... "The Godfather of Steroids" ... one of the infamous "Bash Brothers" ... in his 2005 book entitled, "Juiced," Canseco claimed widespread use of steroids in Major League Baseball, and he named names, some of them superstar players. He also discussed Alex Rodriguez, saying that the perception that A-Rod was "the clean boy" was false, referring to his politically correct personality with reporters as being "insincere" ... Canseco wrote of Rodriguez: "He's not the saint he's perceived to be. Eventually the media will find something nasty to write about Alex Rodriguez, because trust me, they're looking for it." More than 80 players were named in one capacity or another in the Mitchell Report, one of which was Jose Canseco, who was surprised not to see A-Rod's name included in the report. "All I can say is the Mitchell Report is incomplete," Canseco said. "I could not believe that Alex Rodriguez was not mentioned in the report."

"Juiced" has put it's author and Major League Baseball on the hot seat ... Canseco writes about his 16-year career as a Major League Baseball player, and says that from his first season, to his last in 2001, he continuously used illegal anabolic steroids and human growth hormone ... those illegal drugs helped fuel a larger-than-life career for Jose Canseco, whose many home runs were "monster shots" ... in 1988, he hit 42 home runs and stole 40 bases ... a feat never before seen ... by age 37, Canseco's career wound down, he had played for seven different teams, and hit a total of 462 career home runs ... many of which were likely due to his being "juiced" ... does he have any shame that illegal drugs fueled his career? ... "That's a tough question. Because I tried everything possible to become the best player in the world," said Canseco. "Do I believe steroids and growth hormones helped me achieve that? Yes. Were there a lot of other players doing it that I had to compete against? Yes." Canseco claims he knows more about steroids than most trained physicians, and that he actively counseled other players about using anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.

But Jose, what were your intentions when you were detained for more than nine hours at a San Diego Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in October of 2008 after border agents caught you trying to bring human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) across the border from Mexico? ... a drug that helps produce testosterone in athletes who are cycling off steroids. According to anti-doping expert Dr. Gary Wadler, a prescription is required to use hCG, and Canseco did not have a prescription. HCG is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency in males only, and is considered a Schedule-III controlled substance in New York ... so Jose,were you intending to use those illegal drugs in some sort of anti-doping, educational presentation during your many counseling sessions with other wayward cheaters and illegal drug users and abusers such as yourself?

Just recently, Jose Canseco's attorney Greg Emerson said that not only does the Alex Rodriguez steroid report act as "substantial confirmation" of Canseco's past claims--but that there are going to be future revelations regarding A-Rod and others. "According to Jose, there's a lot more that will be forthcoming," added Emerson, who said that he had spoken to Canseco following the recent revelations concerning A-Rod, and that Canseco reiterated that his claim of steroid use by Rodriguez was "pretty clear to him [Canseco]. " In Canseco's second book, "Vindicated," he indicated that he had introduced Rodriguez to a steroid dealer late in the 1990s. "Obviously it's something that is substantial confirmation of what Jose has said in the past," Emerson said. "It was pretty clear to him that A-Rod was taking them. Of course, A-Rod denied it on 60 Minutes." Emerson added that Canseco continues to look more and more reliable. "And certainly each time these revelations come out, it just provides more vindication for him just in terms of what he said, and the veracity of what he said. I think he has tremendous credibility."

Among Jose Canseco's other prolific accomplishments is a 1989 arrest in California for carrying a loaded semi-automatic pistol in his vehicle ... a 1992 charge for aggravated battery for allegedly ramming his then-wife Esther's BMW with his Porsche ... a November 1997 arrest and subsequent jailing for allegedly smacking his estranged bride of one year ... a November 2001 arrest with his brother after a fight in a Miami Beach nightclub in which he attacked two tourists, leaving one with a broken nose, and the other with 20 stitches in his lip ... and the beat goes on ... thanks to the "juice?"

Alex Rodriguez may never again be viewed as a "saint" or "the clean boy" ... and there may be much truth to Jose Canseco's many allegations as far as naming players who most likely are guilty of using illegal anabolic steroids or human growth hormone is concerned, and maybe that truth should have rightfully been exposed ... but what gives a person such as Jose Canseco the right to blow that whistle and ultimately ruin the lives of countless individuals, even if some are deserving of such? ... his entire career has been based exclusively upon cheating to gain as much money and notoriety as he possibly could ... he has profited immensely from the use of illegal performance-enhancing substances ... now that his baseball career is over, he continues to profit handsomely, albeit indirectly, from that very same thing ... what Jose Canseco has done has absolutely nothing to do with helping to eliminate illegal drug use, at any level, from the game of baseball ... it's all about the cash and the fame, both of which clearly motivate Jose's actions ... but perhaps somewhere down the line, when the sacks are riddled with holes and the silver lies scattered upon the temple floor, when the dusty books no longer sell, when the eager media no longer comes calling with fists full of dollars, when the good looks no longer cast their reflection in the mirror and he's left sitting all alone in the darkness--Jose may then regret those actions ... Jose Canseco may be overflowing with "tremendous credibility"--but he has nary an ounce of trust .. reliability .. honor .. loyalty .. dignity .. or respect ... Jose said he tried everything possible to become the best player in the world ... but did he simply end up being one of the most despised .. narcissistic .. opportunistic .. self-serving snitches of our time? ... a far cry from those who expose wrongdoing for no purpose other than the welfare and preservation of their fellow man.

--sja

Wise Up Wise Guy ...

Word is that Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) intends on recommending to the congressional committee, which has previously hosted current and past MLB baseball players, that Alex Rodriguez receive an invite to testify about his use of steroids. "I think we're going to have to see what Rodriguez will tell us," Cummings said in a phone interview with Newsday. "He is in a confessing mode, so maybe he needs to put his apology into some meaningful action by cooperating with the committee so we can see if there are things we need to reopen to make sure baseball is doing all that it can to rid itself of this kind of practice."

But Rep. Cummings, hasn't Congress already wasted too much valuable time and taxpayer dollars on this issue? If Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association were serious about ridding the sport of illegal performance-enhancing substances, all that would require is an all-inclusive and panoptic testing program, of which the consequence of any player's clear and definite positive test would result in that player's permanent, lifetime ban from professional baseball ... period. However, we're all aware that when foxes are allowed to guard the henhouse, the outcome can be easily foreseen and expected. The fact is, neither MLB nor the MLBPA have yet to get serious concerning this issue, although the majority of the blame for it lies squarely upon their obviously narrow shoulders. That being a well established fact, along with the evident reality that many of these professional athletes possess neither the morals nor the character to refrain from committing such unlawful or licentious acts under their own volition, some entity somewhere must assume the responsibility of policing them. That entity should be Major League Baseball.

Rep. Cummings, how many more congressional hearings and oversight committees will be needed before Congress simply passes legislation that would essentially force MLB and MLBPA to clean up their acts and forever end the steroid era? It has been irrefutably evidenced that they are not yet willing to accomplish that, and this shameful mess has been permitted to continue far too long. What more could a now proven liar such as Alex Rodriguez possibly tell Congress that would be of any positive value? Anything he might say would merely serve to add to the endless pages of testimony from other cheats and liars already at your disposal. It's time for Congress to either move swiftly and with firmness to resolve this issue, or get off the pot! ... Don't waste another minute or another dollar, for our country is presently facing far too many serious and pressing problems for that. The economy is in shambles, folks are losing their jobs, their pensions, their savings and their homes ... unemployment is rising, the dollar is falling ... folks have to choose between a bottle of medicine or a month's worth of food ... thieves in government and on Wall Street are robbing us blind ... more than a trillion tax dollars are being given to God-knows-who with little to no oversight ... ridiculous rules and regulations are being forced down our throats until common sense no longer has a place in our society ... the list is endless ... the point is, this is not the time for Congress to be wasting time on MLB or steroids, you've had sufficient information and plenty of opportunities to have already dealt with it ... either enact and enforce laws that would compel MLB to wholly get rid of illegal performance-enhancing substances, or drop the subject altogether and move on to solving our country's real problems ... our nation needs your undivided attention ... by the way, Rep. Elijah Cummings, you've been in Congress for several years now, maybe you are one of the many that should be apologizing for the poor condition our country is in today.

Lastly, although he deserves whatever he gets for his use of illegal drugs .. cheating .. lying .. and theft ... I have a piece of advice for Alex Rodriguez ... Alex, when and if you receive that invitation from Rep. Cummings to come before a congressional committee to tell your story ... you should respectfully decline, but if not, by all means keep your mouth shut when you get there ... because if the government can't get you any other way, they will resort to setting you up for a federal perjury charge ... just ask Miguel Tejada, Barry Bonds and soon to be Roger Clemens ... so A-Rod, you need to find a cure for stupid real fast ... so wise up.

--sja