Cardinals and Racism

by birdsonbat on Jan 18, 2009 3:05 AM EST Comment 14 comments

I have never really thought about this since reading Will Leitch’s "God Save The Fan" last year and now, since I have had a few of St. Louis's greatest export, I thought I would post few thoughts...

What impact, looking back, did growing up with the 80's Redbirds have on our perception of race? I will freely admit that my Grand-Parents, God bless them, were racist. They were people that didn’t read much and were focused entirely on providing for their families...when it came to "race" (black folks), it usually began with one member of the local African American community that was the "exception". With the 1980's Cardinals it was interesting.

The first case that jumps in my head was my sister, Kasey. I was the oldest and she was the youngest in 1986. She was 5 years old and apparently tired of all the attention that I (I was a year older) shared with my father rooting for the Cards, she proclaimed that she was adopted. In fact her biological father, according to her, was Ozzie Smith. I thought this was funny, not for anything relating to race, so I humored the thought. My parents also thought it was funny, so they, while denying it, also kept reminding Kasey of her opinion that she was Ozzie Smith's long lost daughter.

In 1988 I read a whole bunch of books for a charity in the hopes of the grand prize: meeting Ozzie Smith. I read 56 books (they were short) that summer and was rewarded with "dinner" with the Wizard. Of course, when I showed up the "dinner" was Dominos Pizza with 150 other kids, but I met Ozzie (and Jim Hart, who I had never heard of) so I was thrilled (In fact, I am looking at a pic of the encounter on my fridge as I type). However, Kasey's reaction was something else...it was the first time (some how) that she had realized that Ozzie was African-American. It was visible that it had hit her like a ton of bricks...she had always assumed that he looked like she did (being Caucasian) and she was embarrassed. I never thought anything of it.

This story has always made me think about the impact the 80's Cardinals had on my, and other folks, perception of race. I am from Southern Illinois (Murphysboro to be exact) and while I always had a diverse population of classmates, my family (or at least grandparents) were not exactly tolerant. But I have always had posters of African Americans on my wall...Ozzie, Willie and Vince (and later, Bo Jackson). Even then, when I focused on learning about the past Cardinal greats it was Gibby, Lou and Curt Flood.

It is clear to me now that baseball had a huge impact on me in regards to race. I am interested to hear your thoughts.

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i was born in the early eighties in memphis, and settled in to alton, illionois in the late eighties, and have lived there since, mostly. my single mother never raised me to think differently of a person based on the color of their skin.

growing up in alton, which is nearly 20% african american, was no big deal for me as a child. i’d had friends in memphis who were black. i even had a friend in izzy’s hick ass hometown of brighton who was black during the brief period i had lived there. i was pretty well accustomed to seeing black people. it wasn’t until i reached about the age of 8 or 9 and my white classmates starting informing of the so called “differences” between us and them that i even realized there was such a thing as prejudice.

the thing is, you have to be raised to be racist.

i wasn’t raised that way.

as i grew i older, i had to start coming to terms with the fact that most of my family (outside of my mother) were not so tolerant. even my grandmother, the biggest cardinals fan i know to this day, refers to any black person not in a cards jersey as a “colored person”. she has ozzie smith memorabliia all over her apartment, but shit, he could play a mean shortstop, so he’s okay. so, yeah, the cardinals have effected some people racially, such as my 82 year old grandmother.

as far the regular populace goes, no.

there is still a huge racial divide in the city i live in, about twenty miles from busch stadium, and if it’s happening here, than i’m pretty sure it’s happening throughout 99% of the rest of what is considered “Cardinal Nation”.

the days of even considering that sport will bridge the gap between rational thinkers and bigots is long fucking gone, my friend.

if you’re religious, pray for President Obama.

"I'm as nauseous as I've ever been. I have a terrible headache. My head is pounding. I feel like throwing up and I'm having trouble swallowing. And the beauty of it is, you want to feel like this every day." - Tony LaRussa

by adiueordie on Jan 18, 2009 8:30 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Baseball fandom and race

is a topic worth a few books. As far as the Cardinals go their history has been on both sides of the issue. I’ve read that the Cardinals, and their fans, were amongst the hardest on Jackie Robinson when he broke in. On the flip side I also remember a story that Gussie Busch, when he bought the team, was so appalled that white and black players couldn’t stay in the same hotel in spring training that he bought a hotel in St. Pete and integrated it. It’s a cool story and I hope someone can verify that it’s true.
One thing that I find interesting in birdsonbat’s piece is that he identified with black players from an early age. I am quite a bit older, I think, (Jesus I’m 60) and I was raised in a small town in upstate New York where there were no black residents and my only exposure to black people was the migrant workers who came every summer to work on farms. My parents were very progressive for their time and I was raised not to be racist and for the most part I wasn’t. However, when I was very young. all of my favorite players were white, I guess because I identified with them because they looked and talked more like me. I assumed that black kids all identified with black players and I felt bad for them because they didn’t have TV and movie characters to identify with like I did. By the time Flood, Brock, Gibson et. al. came along I couldn’t have cared less but I find it interesting that maybe kids of subsequent generations didn’t go through a racial identification stage. I hope some other readers will share their experiences regarding this.

by easy on Jan 18, 2009 11:35 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Remember that until the dodgers and giants moved west,

St Louis was the city furthest west and south in the Major Leagues. I believe Sportsmans Park was also the last stadium in the majors to intergrate the stands, allowing African Americans to only sit in the rightfield pavillion . I cannot remember what year they discontinued this practice.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and sometime it rains.

by garden nome on Jan 19, 2009 1:40 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Racism is..

…a different subject to me than it is the older generations. Being born in 1985 I really missed the most of it. I lived in a small town for a while when I was a kid that was about 99% white. The one black kid in my grade was actually one of the more popular and enjoyed people in my class.

When I look at baseball players, it never even crosses my mind what color they are. Never has, never will. I remember a manager of mine at a job I had in high school said he didn’t like Tony because, according to my manager, Tony was racist because there were no African Americans on the team (he didn’t count blacks from other countries as black people). I told him sure there were, but it was true, that year there wasn’t a single black person born in America on the team. I had never stopped to think about that because I couldn’t have cared less what color they were.

After the small town I moved to a suburb of St. Louis to a VERY diverse school. There was probably a representative from about every country, color, and religion in this world. I loved it. My friends are from all over the place and believe several different things. When ever my friends would come over my mom would nail them with as many questions as I’d let her about their beliefs and cultures.

After moving back to St. Louis after college I went straight to the city. There is very little that I enjoy more than learning about other peoples cultures and belief. Is it beyond shocking to me that racism still exists, but like I said, I missed the worst of racism.

Welcome back Tony, adios Kip.

by warpig2003 on Jan 18, 2009 12:08 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

i lived in Murphysboro for awhile...

… but i grew up in suburban St. Louis, in a 99% Roman Catholic neighborhood. a very white neighborhood.

still, i was never taught not to be a racist. i wasn’t taught anything about racism. i didn’t even know it existed. which made it not exist in my youthful brain. i grew up in 80s, so many of the most prominent baseball players were black. my first Cards jersey was a Gibson jersey, and i bought it without even thinking of race. it still surprises me how many surprised looks i get from older people (of all races) when i wear it to games. it was only later that i learned more of history, and learned what a real problem it had been in our nation’s history, and our nation’s sports.

it is worth remembering that the Cards were one of the last teams to integrate. it is worth remembering that even after “integrating”, black players were kept separate from white, and in worse conditions as well. but it’s also worth remembering the change of culture that occurred in the Gussie years. i wasn’t alive then, but it must’ve been nice to see the Cards dominate baseball in the 1960s, largely because of their African-American superstars.

in the 80s, my dad played in a regular pick-up basketball game at the South County YMCA that was frequented by Vince Coleman in the offseason. he occasionally brought Oquendo and a few other players (Scott Terry came a lot, and i swear he was actually faster than Coleman; McGee came a few times). my dad took me along twice a week, so i got to see those guys, and see how they interacted. it was great: no celebrity, no race, no pretense; just some grown-ups getting together to shoot some hoops. it was a good environment to grow up in.

plus, i forever have the mental image of the Secret Weapon trying to play basketball while wearing tiger-print sweatpants.

by kindred on Jan 18, 2009 1:52 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I would give anything

to see WIllie McGee running up and down a basketball court. I hope most people remember the sight of Willie running out a triple, now I have the memory of that gait transposed to a basketball court.

* sarcasm might be involved in this comment

by mattyfrommo on Jan 18, 2009 2:33 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

The Cardinals have a lot of good history

not just the 80s teams, I think we were one of the first to embrace African American players. Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, etc were just amazing. like what adieuordie said above, I think you have to be raised racist. While I was raised in an area with no black people, seeing them play for the Cardinals, reading comic books like X-Men, etc really raised awareness that even though I heard racist things around me almost on a daily basis, I never believed any of the stuff people were saying.

4B - beer baseball bands blog

by Cards Fan in Chitown on Jan 18, 2009 7:13 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

i love the story about Auggie buying the hotel in Florida where the team stayed during spring training

he bought it when he found out the black players were not allowed to stay there. how the team handles their players race it’s just another reason to be proud to be a Cardinal’s fan.

I'm going to go try to find a puppy and kick it. - Brad Thompson AND THAT'S A WINNER!

by gdm426 on Jan 18, 2009 7:50 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs

Pre-Lou

It is nice to support a franchise who embraced african american players (unlike the Red Sox…yikes), however, I will admit it was a tough pill to swallow to hear how Enos Slaughter (and other Redbirds) treated/talked about Jackie. I am sure (I would like to think) that he came to terms with his ignorance growing old watching amazingly gifted black players join him in the Hall of Fame.
It is also interesting to read how the American League suffered for twenty years because of their failure to embrace black ball players. Social implications aside, I love to see the AL suffer.

by birdsonbat on Jan 18, 2009 10:46 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I've also heard stories about Stan

telling the Cardinals who were talking down about jackie to cool it. Probably impossible to site, but I hope they’re true.

hecanthithecanthithecanthithecanthit

by Alxfritz on Jan 19, 2009 1:10 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Two stories about Stan the Man

I think they could be true. Whether they are or not, here are two stories about Stan and black ballplayers. The first is from Joe Posnanski’s blog (in a long appreciation of Musial):

Joe Black used to tell a story — he was pitching against the Cardinals, and as usual the taunts were racial. "Don’t worry Stan," someone in the Cardinals dugout shouted, "with that dark background on the mound you shouldn’t have any problem hitting the ball." Musial kicked at the dirt, spat, and faced Black like he had not heard anything. But after the game, Black was in the clubhouse, and suddenly he looked up and there was Stan Musial. "I’m sorry that happened," Musial whispered. "But don’t you worry about it. You’re a great pitcher. You will win a lot of games."

This is from the Royals’ Web site (from 2007, I believe):

There’s nothing like a good behind-the-scenes baseball story, and Denny Matthews heard plenty last July at the National Baseball Hall of Fame induction weekend.

Matthews, the Ford C. Frick Award winner for outstanding broadcasting in his 39 years with the Royals, was headed for the induction ceremonies on a bus from the Otesaga Hotel. Willie Mays happened to sit next to him across the aisle.

They got to talking and Matthews, who grew up listening to Cardinals games, asked about his father’s favorite player, Stan Musial. Mays’ eyes lit up and he paid homage to his fellow Hall of Famer’s playing abilities. Then Mays told this story, as related by Matthews:

"All-Star Game, late Fifties. There were seven black players on the National League All-Stars. We were in the back of the clubhouse playing poker and none of the white guys had come back or said, ‘Hi,’ or ’How’s it going?’ or ‘How you guys doing?’ or ‘Welcome to the All-Star Game.’ Nothing.

"We’re playing poker and all of a sudden I look up and here comes Stan toward us. He gets back to where we’re playing poker, grabs a chair, sits down and starts playing poker with us. And Stan didn’t know how to play poker!

“But that was his way of welcoming us, of feeling a part of it, making us feel a part of it.”

Then Willie’s face got real serious.

“I never forgot that. We never forgot that.”

About then, the 15-minute ride to the ceremonies was almost over.

“And I’m thinking I’ve never heard that story. I may be the only person other than Willie Mays and Stan Musial that knows that story,” Matthews said. “I’m thinking, darn, I wish this bus ride was about five hours.”

It was a special moment in a special weekend for Matthews.

“That’s not a story that’s going to change world events,” he said, “but it does say a lot about the times and about Musial and Willie Mays and the way things were. I was just fascinated by things like that.”

by Youneverknow on Jan 19, 2009 2:30 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I screwed up my own post, slightly

When I wrote “They might be true,” I was referring to the stories Alxfritz had heard.

The stories I posted are true, as long as you trust Joe Posnanski and Denny Matthews (and, by extension, Joe Black and Willie Mays).

by Youneverknow on Jan 19, 2009 2:32 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Check out "October 1964" if you haven't already

Halberstam sort of draws parallels between the 1964 World Series and the Civil Rights Era struggles… like the progressive, racially integrated Cardinals taking on the old-guard, (mostly) lily-white Yankees.

5 O'Clock Blogger | Anonymous Communist

by Anonymous Communist on Jan 19, 2009 4:22 PM EST reply actions 0 recs