Beyond the Margin

By Joe Spear

Baseball parks across the U.S. of A. are the setting for Fourth of July celebrations.

And rightly so.

Baseball is our game. Volunteer firefighter and bank clerk Alexander Joy Cartwright codified the rules of the American game. History.com says Abner Doubleday’s credit for inventing the game was, you might say, out in left field.

But we’ve grown the game, cherished it, and, like many an American tradition, we’ve made it into a multi-billion dollar industry that has a faithful audience.

All manner of sports equipment came out of baseball’s popularity. But we don’t buy the product of baseball like Dove soap. We go to baseball games for a respite from all our troubles. The rhythm of the game is calming.

Baseball is a game of spirit. It is a game of skill. It is a game of endurance. There is no other game that requires the hand-eye coordination of baseball.

It is a game of incredible innovation and invention. The sliding curve. The knuckle-ball. The four-seamed fastball. The screwball, the slider and the splinker (a hybrid of the splitter and sinker).

So we go to baseball games on the Fourth of July.

The Declaration of Independence might as well be the box score or the lineup book, where strikes, balls, hits, outs and “Ks” are duly recorded.

There is not a game more democratic than baseball. Everyone has a chance to win the game, no matter creed, color or nationality.

The playing field is level, with the exception of the years before 1947, when Black players were not allowed.

Major League’s first Black player Jackie Robinson was our down payment to “all men are created equal” as dictated by our Declaration signed by a lot of white men who owned slaves.

Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey brought Robinson to his all white team in an all white league in 1947 because he was a good baseball player. And because he would help Rickey make money.

Rickey told his critics within his own organization that the color of money was not black or white, but “green.” “All money is green,” Rickey said in the movie “42” about Robinson’s life.

But it wasn’t the only reason Rickey took a chance on Robinson, who most don’t realize was a UCLA multi-sport graduate. Rickey knew what he and Robinson were up against in the racism of 1947 that still existed even after thousands of African Americans risked their lives in World War II.

Robinson, said Rickey, would face horrendous and blatant racism and had to have the “guts” to “not fight back.” Like the Lord. Turn the other cheek.

We know how that story ends. Robinson broke the so-called “color barrier” in baseball, opening the way to many other talented players behind him.

Robinson won Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, was chosen for All Star games, helped his team win championships and entered the Hall of Fame in 1962.

But Rickey and Robinson also made a statement to the America people of 1947. If we could defeat racism in baseball, maybe we

could defeat it elsewhere.

Robinson suffered horrific abuse from players, coaches and fans alike. But he endured and won a battle in the war America still faces today.

Some 75 years after Robinson’s debut, former Twins and current Yankee Josh Donaldson recently taunted Chicago White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson, calling the advocate for Blacks in sports “Jackie,” in reference to Robinson. Donaldson said he didn’t mean it in a racist way. He was suspended for a day.

Dodgers shortstop Pee Wee Reese seemed to understand racism better than Donaldson 75 years earlier. Reese supported Robinson when other Dodger players signed a petition saying they wouldn’t play with him.

Reese reportedly told Robinson: “Maybe one day we will all wear 42. That way they won’t be able to tell us apart.”

In the movie “42” there’s a scene with a young Black boy coming to a Dodgers game and predictably worshiping Robinson. Robinson throws the kid a souvenir ball as the train leaves the station.

The kid puts his ear to the train track rail as the train goes into the distance and says, “You can still hear him.”

Will the soul of America and the soul of baseball bring us a field of dreams or a field of nightmares.

It’s up to us to listen for the sound of Jackie Robinson on this Fourth of July. And hear him.

Joe Spear is editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at jspear@mankatofreepress.com or 344-6382. Follow on Twitter @jfspear.