Although baseball is unanimously thought of as this nation’s pastime, it did not always allow the representation of the entire nation’s population. It took many leaders in society to break the abstract barricade that symbolized the separation between Caucasian baseball players and non-white baseball players. Among these advocates for equality was a man by the name of Roberto Clemente. Clemente’s resume runs deep with major recognitions in the baseball world, along with services as a world humanitarian.
Roberto Clemente Walker was born on August 18, 1934. Early in his career, Clemente was relatively unknown and played for minor teams. His career started in his home country of Puerto Rico, where he played for the Santurce Crabbers (Maraniss, 2007, p.23). He was later scouted by the Brooklyn Dodgers and played for the Montreal Royals, which was the Dodger’s top minor league team. Clemente mostly played benchwarmer because the Dodger’s did not want other teams to discover his hidden talents. However, after his single season in the minor leagues, the Pittsburgh Pirates elected to draft him in 1954, thus began his career in the major leagues (Maraniss, 2007, p. 79).
Clemente’s transition to the United States was not met without obstacles along the way. During his first spring training, he would often have to find his own lodging and eat meals on the bus due to the segregation laws placed in that historical context (Maraniss, 2007, p. 144). His rookie salary of $10,000 was a mere fraction of what the white players earned in their first years. Racist feelings towards Clemente manifested themselves on several notes, one of them during the 1960 MVP decision. The Pirates had won the World Series that year and Clemente played a major ro...
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...ng up to the crime, the massive amounts of effort that mentors such as Roberto Clemente have made to ensure that society changes its views would be wasted. Discrimination and racism should not be tolerated, and keeping a keen awareness for it is vital so that our society and its morale compass do not dull and prove to be faulty.
References
Maraniss, D. (2007). Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero. New York City, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Perez, R. (2007). Remembering my father's face: Latino baseball, Roberto Clemente, and an ethics of hospitality. Centro Journal, 19(2), 244-253. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Briley, R. (2007). Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero/The Team that Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates. Nine: A Journal of Baseball History & Culture, 16(1), 104-107. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
He even said that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of his heroes. From the beginning, Clemente believed that race did not play any roles in determining who a person was and how they handled themselves. When he entered the United States, he was introduced to racism especially when he went to spring training in Florida where racism was very much a live and noticeable. He had not experienced racism in his home country like he did in the United States. In Pittsburgh, people either saw you as black or white, not Latino. Since Clemente was a dark skinned Latino, people saw him as black because his skin was dark. Most of the time, when he went places with his team, he could not eat in the same restaurants as his white teammates or even stay in the same hotels as his teammates. He was forced to eat and sleep on the bus most of the time. It reached a point where Clemente was so fed up with the injustices that colored players were facing especially at Spring Training that he finally coerced the Pittsburgh Pirates front office management to allow the black players to travel in their own buses. Clemente made the statement that enduring the racial divide in Florida was like being in prison. For this, Clemente spoke out against the Jim Crow laws, oppression and even marched in some street protests. At one point, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. even went down to Puerto Rico
Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez was a young Latino who had a passionate love for baseball. He was like any normal kid in the neighborhood apart from his strikingly athletic good looks, strong natural leadership and obsession with baseball. “Benny”, as his closest friends would call him, was a true hero to his inner circle of teammates. Especially to Scotty Smalls, as it was Benny who saved Scotty from a life sentence by retrieving his step father’s prized Babe Ruth autographed baseball from the jaws of the notorious junkyard “Beast” and making himself a neighborhood legend.
1910 to 1920 was the one of the greatest decades for Major League Baseball. Many amazing events occurred during this decade; although, some devastating and extremely sad events also occurred. Half of these years were taken up by war, even many Hall of Fame players served. This decade still ended up being a great one for Major League Baseball. From Hall of Fame greats to Negro League pitchers, this decade produced greats. The 1910’s also set up the 1920’s for amazing players too.
I chose this topic because I thought that it was important to highlight the recent successes of the Latino baseball players to show how minority groups can prosper in America. Latino atheletes have gain notoriety and riches through the sport of baseball. These are things that they couldn’t have dreamed about achieving without Major League baseball. Major League Baseball has given Latin Americans the opportunity to better their economic and social situation.
Jiobu, Robert M., “Racial Inequality in a Public Arena: The Case of Professional Baseball”. Social Forces , Vol. 67, No. 2 (Dec., 1988), pp. 524-534 Oxford University Press
With about 83 players currently to in the MLB, 682 players since 1950, and so far 2 players in the Hall of Fame with much more to get inducted, it’s clear that the Dominican Republic dominates the game of baseball. In the Dominican Republic, baseball is the country’s pastime and official sport. Baseball doesn’t discriminate, regardless of gender, race, and economic status. In my personal view, baseball runs in the blood and embedded in the genetic coding of Dominicans. As a person whose mother and father are Dominican and born and raised in Miami, there seems to be little to nothing that connects me to their culture. Nonetheless, this Miami-born Dominican- American is proud to say that the sport I love the most can connect me to the Dominican
"Over the decades, African American teams played 445-recorded games against white teams, winning sixty-one percent of them." (Conrads, pg.8) The Negro Leagues were an alternative baseball group for African American baseball player that were denied the right to play with the white baseball payers in the Major League Baseball Association. In 1920, the first African American League was formed, and that paved the way for numerous African American innovation and movements. Fences, and Jackie Robinson: The Biography, raises consciousness about the baseball players that have been overlooked, and the struggle they had to endure simply because of their color.
For the better part of the 20th century, African American baseball players played under unequal opportunity. On one side of the field, European descendants were given a license to play this children's game for money and national fame. While on the other side of the field, African slave descendants were also given a license to play - as long as they didn't encroach upon the leagues of the Caucasians. What was left over for African American player in terms of riches was meager at best. Though the fortune wasn't there, the love and fame within the African American communities made the players of the Negro Baseball League legends.
Baseball, America’s pastime, is embedded in the fabric of society. The players and teams have come and gone, but the thing that remains constant is baseball’s ability to unite people as well as families. My own personal experience of this came right after September 11th, 2001. Following the tragedy that was 9/11, the country needed something to help everyone return to normalcy. In our moment of weakness and uncertainty, baseball helped calm my nerves. Fifty three thousand three hundred and twelve brothers stood up in unison and took back their lives. The electricity of that game, the sense of regularity in my life, and the knowledge that millions of people were finding comfort together with me during such a hard time, helped me feel a sense of closure that the worst was behind us.
As a faithful follower and player of American Baseball, this topic was of extreme interest to me. The origins and history of a lifestyle that I have dedicated the overwhelming majority of my life to has always caught my attention. Baseball, being America’s national sport, is a crucial illustration to understand when discussing the overall societal circumstances at that time. One of baseball’s most important tasks was integrating the sport and allowing people of every ethnicity to have a chance to play the sport at an equal playing field. Although we now know that the efforts to desegregate baseball were ultimately a success, to what extent were the efforts a direct success during that time period? Did the unification of different ethnicities in America’s national sport have an effect on the amount of time desegregat...
The films that are dedicated to describing the life of historical figures strive to adhere to the biographical facts and documents to reach the maximum reminiscence of the main character with the real figure. At the same time, the directors of the movies tend to introduce their own plots and ideas to render a specific message to the audience. Sometimes they omit facts or change the chronology to emphasis certain facts and remove those which do not relate to the very idea of the movie. In this respect, two biographical sport dramas – The Express and 42 – focus on famous and outstanding baseball players, the first African-American players who managed to become famous and achieve recognition despite the racial discrimination and tensions on the part of white baseball players who were reluctant to acknowledge the excellence of black baseball players.
Tygiel, Jules. 2001; 2000. Past time: Baseball as history. Oxford England; New York: Oxford University Press.
“Jackie Robinson and the Intergration of Major League Baseball.” History Today. N.p.,n.d. Web 24 Mar. 2014
This game of a stick and ball has captivated the United States during good and bad times. In either time most of us today can remember stories of players from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. These are legendary figures in the sport of baseball that have are celebrated as hero’s and in scandal, i...
To begin with, for nearly 200 years in the United States, the nation was afflicted with slavery. In 1865, slavery was at an end, but professional sports were on the rise, and racism was a severe problem. As of 1946, there were no African-American athletes in Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, or in the National Football League; until Jackie Robinson, that is. The 29-year-old African-American from Cairo, Georgia, became the first ever black professional Major League baseball player. From the time that Jackie Robinson stepped on a baseball diamond for the first time, to 30 years later, in the 1980’s, percentages of black players in the MLB skyrocketed. In the 1987 season, 28 percent of the players in the Major leagues, were African-American (Kahn). In addition to being one of the most important figures in MLB history, Jackie excelled in almost every sports in college, lettering in 4 of them (Salem Press 2336). Jackie Robinson may be the most influential character in the history of sports, changing the landscape of racism forever. Another dramatic change that occurred along the lines of racism in sports, was in the National Basketball Association, also called the NBA. In the 1940’s there were zero black players in the NBA, but by the 1980’s 74 percent of pro basketball players...