Friday, June 18, 2004
I didnt want you anyways Barry
Barry Bonds has said he will never play in Boston because “Boston is too racist for me.” Rather than cite any specific incident, he says he has heard from word-of-mouth, and that the same rumors were going around about my hometown when his pops was playing and “It ain’t changing.” Barry needs a hug. I think he feels underappreciated, and for good reason. He’s definitely the second-best athlete of my lifetime behind Jordan, yet is way behind Jordan in terms of endorsements, cultural relevance, and idolization. Barry has decided that this has nothing to do with him being a surly asshole, and much more to do with the fact that he is black. Fair enough, we are all entitled to our opinion.
But what about the charges leveled against my hometown? I don’t think Boston is any more racist than other cities. I may be biased by living in the most racially diverse part of the city, but the only other city I lived in, (St. Louis) had a much greater segregation of residence (where the color of the city changed the second you moved north of Del Mar Boulevard or east of the Church’s Chicken.)
Of course, I am certain that Bonds has not done research on Boston’s residential patterns, or interviewed minorities living in Boston, but is rather relying on the historical racist image surrounding the Red Sox. Sadly, the perception is deserved. The Red Sox were the last team to have a black player, waiting all the way until 1959 12 years after Jackie Robinson. In that time we passed on signing Robinson himself and Willie Mays (Bonds’ godfather.) Even after that, theories abound that there was an unofficial limit on the amount of black players on the team at 5. Charges of organizational racism did not end until the Duquette regime of the mid 1990s, and we’ve still never had a minority manager.
More important from Bonds’ perspective is the tenuous relationship Boston sports figures have had with the media and fan base. Certainly this antagonism has extended to Boston’s white players as well: no player has been the subject of more hatred than Roger Clemens. But there is a tension with regards to the minority players that shouldn’t be there. Part of this is the nature of the accusations: minority players like Pedro, Manny, Jose Offerman, are inevitably accused of being lazy or spoiled by newspaper columnists and the talk-radio crowd. Manny has been a case-study in unintentional race-based stereotyping: portrayed as a naturally talented, if lazy and absent-minded, player who often doesn’t play the game the “right way.” Of course, we really have no idea how hard Manny works on the game, or how smart he is. No one has quoted his SAT scores or IQ. He does things like not run out grounders, or have a drink with his best friend who happens to be on the Yankees, and the media (and then the fans) go crazy. Meanwhile white players like Trot Nixon and Jason Varitek are portrayed as hustling players, adding “intangibles.” Trot had a play where he threw a ball into the stands with two outs, and it got little mention. If Manny had done this, it would have been frontpage worthy.
Part of this is due to Red Sox fans sick need to turn on their stars after a few years, when they inevitably decline. (Fans can’t get over the fact that Pedro is no longer pitching like the greatest pitcher of all-time as from 1998-2001, but only the best pitcher in the league, as in 2002-3.) Then, the players leave the team with bad blood, and two years later fans and sportswriters are reminiscing about how we should have kept them. It’s a sick cycle, one which I refuse to participate in. That’s why I want to keep both Pedro and Nomar, if just to break this trend. To prove that stars don’t have to leave the Red Sox dissatisfied, as Clemens, Boggs, Vaughn did, and as it appears Pedro and Nomar will. Because whether or not Boston is a racist city, the perception is out there that it is not a good environment for minority athletes to play in. And it will take a shift in the behavior of fans, management, and the media to accomplish this. Sadly, it’s a shift that I don’t see happening anytime in the near future.
But what about the charges leveled against my hometown? I don’t think Boston is any more racist than other cities. I may be biased by living in the most racially diverse part of the city, but the only other city I lived in, (St. Louis) had a much greater segregation of residence (where the color of the city changed the second you moved north of Del Mar Boulevard or east of the Church’s Chicken.)
Of course, I am certain that Bonds has not done research on Boston’s residential patterns, or interviewed minorities living in Boston, but is rather relying on the historical racist image surrounding the Red Sox. Sadly, the perception is deserved. The Red Sox were the last team to have a black player, waiting all the way until 1959 12 years after Jackie Robinson. In that time we passed on signing Robinson himself and Willie Mays (Bonds’ godfather.) Even after that, theories abound that there was an unofficial limit on the amount of black players on the team at 5. Charges of organizational racism did not end until the Duquette regime of the mid 1990s, and we’ve still never had a minority manager.
More important from Bonds’ perspective is the tenuous relationship Boston sports figures have had with the media and fan base. Certainly this antagonism has extended to Boston’s white players as well: no player has been the subject of more hatred than Roger Clemens. But there is a tension with regards to the minority players that shouldn’t be there. Part of this is the nature of the accusations: minority players like Pedro, Manny, Jose Offerman, are inevitably accused of being lazy or spoiled by newspaper columnists and the talk-radio crowd. Manny has been a case-study in unintentional race-based stereotyping: portrayed as a naturally talented, if lazy and absent-minded, player who often doesn’t play the game the “right way.” Of course, we really have no idea how hard Manny works on the game, or how smart he is. No one has quoted his SAT scores or IQ. He does things like not run out grounders, or have a drink with his best friend who happens to be on the Yankees, and the media (and then the fans) go crazy. Meanwhile white players like Trot Nixon and Jason Varitek are portrayed as hustling players, adding “intangibles.” Trot had a play where he threw a ball into the stands with two outs, and it got little mention. If Manny had done this, it would have been frontpage worthy.
Part of this is due to Red Sox fans sick need to turn on their stars after a few years, when they inevitably decline. (Fans can’t get over the fact that Pedro is no longer pitching like the greatest pitcher of all-time as from 1998-2001, but only the best pitcher in the league, as in 2002-3.) Then, the players leave the team with bad blood, and two years later fans and sportswriters are reminiscing about how we should have kept them. It’s a sick cycle, one which I refuse to participate in. That’s why I want to keep both Pedro and Nomar, if just to break this trend. To prove that stars don’t have to leave the Red Sox dissatisfied, as Clemens, Boggs, Vaughn did, and as it appears Pedro and Nomar will. Because whether or not Boston is a racist city, the perception is out there that it is not a good environment for minority athletes to play in. And it will take a shift in the behavior of fans, management, and the media to accomplish this. Sadly, it’s a shift that I don’t see happening anytime in the near future.
# posted by Marmaniac @ 11:22 PM 
