MLB ready to celebrate Jackie Robinson Day: All uniformed personnel asked to wear No. 42

by Titov on Apr 13, 2009 8:16 PM EDT Comment 21 comments

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090413&content_id=4246882&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

While I think this is a great idea-- for once PC Bud and I agree, which is almost scary -- what would be a nice complement to it is a brief ceremony on Wednesday at Cooperstown during which the snuck-in-through-the-back-door bust of Enos "Country" Slaughter is quietly removed.

Yeah, *that* Enos Slaughter-- the one who has no statistical claim to HoF status, having led his league in one [1] major offensive category one [1] time and who was pointedly not voted in for 5 consecutive years, until his eligibility died its natural death...only to be resuscitated and indeed magically exaggerated into Hall-worthy status by the Cronies Committee (aka "Veterans") in 1985, which dragged Slaughter in against both the express will of those job it was to select HoF members and of the overwhelming majority of fandom as well. A neat (dirty) trick, but a really ugly episode for the defenseless HoF.

Why would it be especially good to do this Wednesday? See, ol' Country tried to organize a boycott of Jackie Robinson by white players in 1947. A bad thing, you'll agree-- but not completely incomprehensible in a country that still segregated its armed forces, for example.

But no, that wasn't enough for Enos: after the boycott failed, Robinson went to the HoF and Slaughter sought to join him there (on what basis is unclear-- best brawler?), instead of apologizing, Enos lied about what happened, claiming he hadn't tried to start a boycott at all-- when a simple "I regret what I did" would have helped everybody, and especially him, put that ugliness behind us. But Slaughter lacked the integrity for that.

Even a selective and highly sanitized account of ol' Enos-- as thorough a "Wiki-whitewash" as you're likely to see-- leaves him "the dirtiest player in the league."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enos_Slaughter

In short, everyone would be just a bit better off if the HoF did the right thing Wednesday. It won't, of course, but one day...

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There are worse players in there than Enos Slaughter. Luis Aparicio was Mark Belanger but more famous. Neither of them belong anywhere near the Hall. Slaughter is more or less Jim Rice.

Bad Left Hook
Camden Chat

"If they cut my bald head open, they will find one big boxing glove. That's all I am. I live it." -- Marvin Hagler

by SC on Apr 13, 2009 10:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

"There are worse players in there than Enos Slaughter." Correct, and I have never argued that there aren't.

There may even be worse people (although “worse bigots” may be a stretch); I don’t claim to know. But ol’ Country is a perfect storm of statistical unworthiness combining with explicit and virulently un-American prejudice, making his presence in the Hall as offensive to people inside baseball as out. Now that takes some doing.

Thus his distinction as Most Repellent HoF Member, in my book, and his outstanding candidacy for First HoF Mistake to be Corrected, With Apologies. Not a Mad Dash out of the Hall, but a nice, quiet exit— very low-key, giving Slaughter’s departure from a venue in which he has no legitimate place more dignity than he was willing to extend to others who did and do belong there.

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Churchill,1942-- a rebuilding year.

by Titov on Apr 14, 2009 9:14 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

There may even be worse people

There probably are. Even among the heaviest of the hitters you have Cobb, Rogers Hornsby was a first-rate son of a bitch, and Ted Williams was no peach either. There are plenty of people who question just how awful Enos Slaughter really was given the time and the situation we’re talking about. He wasn’t the only guy that didn’t want Jackie Robinson in the league. He wasn’t the only guy that took a cheap shot at Robinson on the field, either. He is (I think) the only guy that tried to rally his team in protest of Robinson coming into the league, but I wouldn’t feel qualified to really judge him as a person. The guy was born in 1916, in a world that was far different than I can really imagine.

I can only judge him from his numbers, really, and by that token I find it far more ridiculous that the VC put in Phil Rizzuto, Bill Mazeroski and Nellie Fox. Slaughter really shouldn’t be there, and we agree on that, but I’m hardly comfortable throwing him out of the Hall of Fame because he was a racist prick in 1947 in a league that was probably overflowing with racist pricks. If we start talking about stats I just can’t agree to take someone out of the Hall of Fame, because he may be toward the end of the pack, but there are some guys in there who were voted in by the writers that would never be included had they played in different eras (Aparico, Maranville, etc.).

Actually most interesting to me is the VC itself, which started as a great idea that did a lot of good (it was the VC that put in the more-than-qualified Three Finger Brown and Wahoo Sam Crawford years and years after their careers were over, for instance) and has become nothing more than a bunch of old dudes jerking off.

Bad Left Hook
Camden Chat

"If they cut my bald head open, they will find one big boxing glove. That's all I am. I live it." -- Marvin Hagler

by SC on Apr 14, 2009 12:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

ha...

mordecai three fingers brown almost deserved induction for is bad ass name alone. i mean, you just hear the guy’s name and you think, oh…pre war baseball!

"If they pitch to you, make them pay."

--Diamond Dave to the Phenom

by j.q. higgins on Apr 14, 2009 12:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

We've talked about this before, and I won't belabor the issue further. Or much further.

Agreed, we can’t hold Slaughter accountable for the times he lived in or for his regional and ethnic origins. But his life spanned enormous social changes in this country, and many people of Slaughter’s age and background found themselves able to adjust, grow and even apologize, when it made sense to do so. Enos did not, and indeed chose to try to deny/disguise his own misdeeds rather than face up to them. Criminy, even Cobb said, “I wish I’d made more friends.”

As to other statistically-regrettable HoF members: No argument on a fair no. of these duds. Rizzuto is basically there, I think, for announcing; Mazeroski for a single play (and in that sense a kind of parallel to Slaughter’s Mad Dash, which some people cite as the “reason” he’s in the Hall…‘cause he, wow, scored from first once on a double); and Fox is there because he was, erm, extremely colorful. Which 2nd basemen traditionally aren’t. Big freakin’ deal. And yeah, Aparicio remains baffling. If we’re going to extrapolate from/legitimize the “great fielder for whom there just aren’t adequate stats” category, what’s wrong with Belanger?

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Churchill,1942-- a rebuilding year.

by Titov on Apr 14, 2009 3:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

dude

Tinker to Evers to Chance

They got in because of a poem and I think also because of Sinatra.

The stock market will never recover, our armies will never again be #1, and our children will drink filthy water for the rest of their lives - HST

by the fix is in on Apr 15, 2009 10:13 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

This may have been done before...

but I’d like to see a negro leagues day of sorts where teams where old unis…or new unis that look like old unis.

Always trust your cape. -Guy Clark

by BPinOK on Apr 13, 2009 11:36 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

i believe some teams have done this...

i think the nats had an old school day where they wore grays unis.

"If they pitch to you, make them pay."

--Diamond Dave to the Phenom

by j.q. higgins on Apr 14, 2009 11:02 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Nats and Pirates did last year.

Nice-looking unis, too.

"You have to discipline yourself so you don't come out with something just to say you made a trade. You have to make sure you come out better than you were before." - Andy MacPhail, 7/31/08

by getxstoked on Apr 14, 2009 4:39 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I want to see

the Orioles dress as the Bingo Long All-Stars and Traveling Motorcade.

Always trust your cape. -Guy Clark

by BPinOK on Apr 14, 2009 4:59 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

O's have done it

Not Bingo Long, but they’ve worn Baltimore Black Sox unis a few times, and as recently as a 2007. I know I’ve got some cards from 1994 showing them in just the hats, too.

"The United States is the New York Yankees of countries...powerful and respected until the year 2000." - Homer J. Simpson

by Brotz13 on Apr 14, 2009 11:09 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

i am spartacus!

can kirk douglas be honorary chairperson? wait…is he dead?

"If they pitch to you, make them pay."

--Diamond Dave to the Phenom

by j.q. higgins on Apr 14, 2009 11:03 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Nope, still kickin'

Matt Wieters took batting practice this morning. There were no survivors.

by duck on Apr 14, 2009 11:08 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I thought last year was a better way to do it

Let one, really cool, player on each team wear 42.

The stock market will never recover, our armies will never again be #1, and our children will drink filthy water for the rest of their lives - HST

by the fix is in on Apr 15, 2009 10:14 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Have you SEEN

the commentary over at Big League Stew on Yahoo? It is insane what people are willing to say in blog comments that they would most likely never say out loud. That it’s even occurring in some of these people’s minds is reprehensible:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/News-and-Notes-Today-s-going-to-be-a-special-sc?urn=mlb,155943

For some reason I can’t hyperlink this for you…sorry.

by blawk359 on Apr 15, 2009 5:17 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs