America's Other National Pastime: A History of Racism in Baseball

With the 107th World Series underway, check out some of the ugliest moments in hardball history.

October 20, 2011

Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Intro

Baseball! As American as apple pie, hot dogs, and “Colored Only” water fountains. Say what?!? That's right, America's national pastime has more than a little racist effery in its past (well, no shit you say). It's not really baseball's fault—anything that's been around this blessed and damned country of ours since the 19th century is bound to have been tainted by America's other national pastime (it's not like the rest of the country was a bastion of fairness the whole time).

Still, dig this: the game is 142 years old, and for more than a third of those years, blacks were excluded from playing because of a “gentlemen's agreement” (the “gentlemen” were too cowardly to even make it an official rule). And it's not like baseball immediately cleaned up its act when Jackie Robinson started playing—you'd be surprised how many moments on this list are from the past 30 years. So, as we celebrate the World Series this week, we also educate, with A History of Racism in Baseball...*cues the Das Racist playlist*

Cap Anson

"Get that n*gger off the field!" - Cap Anson

Year: 1887
When you're referred to as the "Father of Segregated Baseball" then you probably were one of the most racist figures in baseball or sports history. Cap Anson refused to take the field anytime blacks were included on the opposing roster, famously shouting "Get that n*gger off the field!" before a game in 1887. Instead of owners doing the logical thing like telling Anson to go fu..., uh, find himself something better to do, they obliged his demands, and within 10 years baseball's "gentlemen's agreement" would be in place. It's somewhat unfair to say Cap Anson was most significant figure behind segregation in baseball but there's no doubt be played a role.

Ty Cobb

Year: various
Even though his accomplishments on the diamond were well-documented, he was also known for his off-the-field antics which included slapping a black elevator operator for being "uppity" and stabbing a black night watchman. As the times changed and acceptance of other races grew, the Hall of Fame outfielder remained the same and had a sign posted outside of his funeral that stated "No Darkies!" Talk about sticking to your convictions.

Jake Powell's Nightstick Comments

15. Jake Powell's Nightstick Comments

Year: 1938
During a 1938 pregame interview, WGN Radio announcer Bob Elson asked Yankees outfielder Jake Powell what he did during the off-season to stay in shape. And very casually, Powell replied that he was a policeman in Dayton, Ohio. OK, no one can be mad at that. But then he added that he also cracked blacks over the head with his nightstick. C'mon man, just play baseball and leave that other stuff to the pros. You know, the equally racist, power-abusing pros.

Ford Frick, Tom Yawkey, Philip Wrigley

Ford Frick, Tom Yawkey, and Philip Wrigley

Year: 1946
Familiar names right? Bu after all that Jackie Robinson did to break down the color barriers, it may be hard to believe that there was once a letter called the "steering committe report" drafted by these three stooges (N.L. President Ford Frick, Red Sox executive Tom Yawkey, and Cubs President Philip Wrigley). The letter was sent to all MLB owners at the time asking to block Jackie from being admitted into the major leagues. One of their main gripes was that black ballplayers "could conceivably threaten the value of Major League franchises owned by these clubs.” You know what we say to that claim? Jordans. #nuffsaid

Enos Slaughter

Year: 1947
How ridiculous was the animosity for Jackie Robinson during his rookie season? That year, some St. Louis Cardinals players attempted a strike to protest Robinson's breaking of the color line. This strike was led by right fielder Enos Slaughter. Though the Phillies were unsuccessful with their strike attempt, Slaughter would intentionally spike Robinson later on that season. #smh #hatersgonnahate

Ben Chapman

Year: 1947
Ignorance and hate runs deep in baseball history but few figures were as blatant with their racism as Ben Chapman. While managing the Philadelphia Phillies in 1947, Chapman made his opposition to Jackie Robinson joining the MLB loud and clear. He'd spew insults to Robinson from the dugout and even ordered his pitchers to bean the young rookie on 3-0 counts rather than walking him. Eventually, Chapman's antics caused many in baseball to sympathize with Robinson and even prompted this photo op in an attempt to ease tensions. Dixie Walker, a teammate of Jackie's, lent this dose of ether when referring to the incident: "I never thought I'd see old Ben eat shit like that." Burns slow, don't it?

Philadelphia Phillies Front Office in the Late '40s

Year: 1947
Philly sports teams and their fans are known for being among the worst. Hell, they even boo'd Santa Claus. But in 1947, as Jackie Robinson broke into the league, the Phillies the organization added one of the darkest chapters to the city's sports history. The team's front office called Brooklyn Dodgers's president Branch Rickey and told him "Don't bring that nigger here." When the teams eventually met in regular season match-ups, Phillies players beaned, spiked and mocked shooting Robinson with their bats on the dugout steps during games. City of brotherly love? Right, FOH.

Red Sox Epic Fail in the Scouting of Willie Mays

Year: 1949
WIllie Mays and Ted Williams on the same team. Sounds like some video game shit, don't it? Well, there was a possibility of it happening till one Red Sox scout by the name of George Digby killed all chances of that happening. The Red Sox had a shot at owning rights to one of the greatest players of all time for a measly $5,000, but Digby decided it wasn't worth it to wait a rain delay to watch an African-American player like Mays. Between this, Buckner's grounder, and the epic 2011 regular season collapse, a Red Sox Biggest Fails list might be in order.

Battle of Chavez Ravine

Year: 1951-1961
When word got out that the Brooklyn Dodgers would be moving to Los Angeles in 1957, their New York fans were crushed that they would be losing the storied franchise. Year earlier, on the West Coast, many Mexican-Americans were devastated because they would be losing their homes. Literally. Kind of puts things in perspective, huh? Those who didn't take small sums of money to move out were eventually forced out. As expected, this created a feeling of hostility between the Mexican-American community and the Dodgers organization. This feeling would remain until "Fernandomania" took over in the early '80s. Winning cures everything? Not really, but it helps.

Hate Towards Hank Aaron

Year: Various
When a ballplayer finally breaks into the majors, it's a cause for celebration. But from the beginning of Hank Aaron's career, he faced much more opposition than the regular up-and-comer. His manager gave him the nickname "Stepanfetchit" in the newspapers. First baseman Joe Adcock called him "Slow Motion Henry." His name was misspelled on his locker. Later, in the '70s, during his chase to eclipse Babe Ruth's home run record, he received death threats, and even a purported plot to kidnap his daughter. Now he's a baseball icon, and the "true" home run king in many people's eyes. What do the haters have to say now?

Press Treatment of Roberto Clemente

Year: 1950s and '60s
African Americans weren't the only ones who were subject to racially insensitive comments during the 1940s and '50s. Puerto Rican pioneer Roberto Clemente received animosity because he was not only dark-skinned but foreign, too. Writers made sure to always point out his culture in a sometimes negative light with descriptions like "the chocolate islander." They also made fun of his accent and broken English. The media's negative influence may have also been the reason behind him coming in eighth in MVP voting for the 1960 season despite batting .314, hitting 16 home runs and bringing in 94 RBIs. Clemente's white teammate, Dick Goat, who brought in 44 fewer RBIs and 14 less home runs than Roberto was given the award. Though the motive behind the voting was most likely different, this reminds us of that time Big Pun got snubbed at Grammy's. Capital Punishment>>>Vol 2...Hard Knock Life.

Marge Schott

Year: 1984 to 1989
This week Bryant Gumble took some heat for likening David Stern's desire to rule over the NBA to that of a slave master. It's safe to say that former Cincinnati Reds owner, Marge Schott, thought of herself in a similar light. In addition to the disparaging comments made towards people of Jewish faith and the Japanese, Schott referred to former Reds' outfielder Eric Davis as "one of her million-dollar niggers." Don't they do any kind of psychological evaluations before people could become teams sports owners? Obviously not.

Al Campanis' Interview with Ted Koppel on Nightline

Year: 1987
Garbage spewed from this man's mouth for the duration of the interview. He said, "they [blacks] may not have some of the necessities to be, let's say, a field manager, or, perhaps, a general manager." In other words, blacks lack the brain power to do so. He was the GM for the Dodgers before the interview, two days later he was forced to resign. He never worked for the MLB again. Despite the backlash, Campanis would later say "Time has diffused the immediate hurt of [that interview]...It has turned out to be a plus for baseball and myself." Right...keep telling yourself that.

John Rocker's Sports Illustrated Interview

Year: 1999
In an interview with SI, when asked if he'd ever play for the Mets or Yankees, John Rocker responded with a racist and homophobic rant including infamous soundbites like: "It's depressing... The biggest thing I don't like about New York are the foreigners. You can walk an entire block in Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English. Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything up there. How the hell did they get in this country?" For his comments, Rocker was suspended with out pay for the first 14 games of the 2000 season. Needless to say, the Braves reliever caught lots of flack while on the road especially during games at Shea Stadium. Rocker's stats began to decline as well and he was out of the league all together by 2003. What's that saying? If you don't have anything nice to say then...just STFU.

Oakland Fans Throw Ice Cubes and Coins at Ichiro

Year: 2001
You figure a region as open-minded as the Bay Area would be welcoming of all races participating in sports, right? Wrong. When the Mariners faced the A's at the Coliseum--during Ichiro Suzuki's rookie season--a group of fans threw ice cubes and coins at the outfielder. Apparently the reasoning behind this was a connection between the harsh feelings that remained over World War II and the growing number of Japanese players playing in the MLB. We've heard of the Bay going dumb but this is just asinine. Also, payback's badass when you have a cannon like this.

Scoop Jackson's ESPN Article on B.J. Upton

Year: 2008
It's obvious that we support new media 'round these parts and when it comes to new media figures in sports, Scoop Jackson is one of the most well-known. But homie was dead wrong in his piece on B.J. Upton during the 2008 World Series. Saying African-Americans will gravitate towards Upton because he's lazy is just ignorant and reckless. We'd go in on Scoop for this statement but writer Jason Whitlock had already done that a couple years earlier. Jesus. Tell us how you really feel, J.

Lenny Dykstra's Racist, Sexist, and Homophobic Magazine Rant

Year: 2009
Apparently, Lenny Dykstra isn't satisfied until eveyone hates him. Back in the day, Dykstra ran a magazine called The Players Club (no relation to the Rappin' 4-Tay classic) and while looking over one of the magazine layouts, Nails said that it looked "faggy." Later on, the former outfielder stated that "nobody can call me a racist--I put three darkies and a bitch on my first four covers" when referring to the first four people on the covers of The Players Club magazine: Derek Jeter, Chris Paul, Tiger Woods and Danica Patrick. So, let's get this straight, you offended the gay, female and black communities all in one soundbite. Did you miss any? Oh we're pretty sure you'll get 'em next time.

"Black Latino Players Are Impostors"- Torii Hunter

Year: 2010
In an interview with USA Today, Torii Hunter referred to dark-skinned Latin players as "impostors." The center fielder went on to say, "As African-American players, we have a theory that baseball can go get an imitator and pass them off as us...It's like, 'Why should I get this kid from the South Side of Chicago and have Scott Boras represent him and pay him $5 million when you can get a Dominican guy for a bag of chips?'" A quick history lesson would tell Hunter that dark-skinned Latinos faced the same discrimination that black American players did while trying to break the color line. All of which makes it more ridiculous that Sammy Sosa would go the Casper-route after making a name for himself in the Big Leagues.

Detroit Tigers Announcer Rod Allen's "Rice and Beans" comments

Detroit Tigers Announcer Rod Allen's "Rice and Beans" Comments

Year: 2011
During a game this past summer with the Detroit Tigers playing against the Twins in Minnesota, Tigers TV analyst Rod Allen made note that with the addition of Wilson Betemit that the starting squad was predominantly Latin. Then he proceeded to put his foot in his mouth with this comment: "[The Twins] are going to have to get some rice and beans for the post-game spread tonight." The next night, Allen added some explanation by saying that he was referring to his experiences with Latin players such as Miguel Cabrera, Ramon Santiago and Big Papi mentioning how they preferred to frequent Latin restaurants while on the road. While this gave some context to his remarks, stereotyping is never a good look. Word to Fuzzy Zoeller.

Tony Bruno's "Illegal Alien" Tweet

Year: 2011
You know those folks from Philly take their sports real serious. So, after Giants pitcher Ramon Ramirez hit the Phillies' Shane Victorino with a pitch, which led to a benches-clearing brawl and the ejections of Ramirez and Victorino, radio talk show personality Tony Bruno went on a verbal rant on Twitter. While Bruno later stated that the tirade was taken out of context, it is hard to believe since it's all there in black and white. Wait! That last statement was taken out of context.