Thursday, April 05, 2007

Discrimination


There is no room in baseball for discrimination. It is our national pastime and a game for all. ~Lou Gehrig

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well Lou, I'm sorry to say, that that is still a work in progress.

Anonymous said...

Great point and interesting coming from someone in baseball.
Baseball was one of the very first sports to have open teams, but then people got all up tight about it and they caved to the racist pressure. (I believe this was all pre-1900!)
The great, pioneering black players that are so famous today are actually the second attempt to bring black players into the game.
(disclaimer: I don't use the term "African-American" because it assumes that ALL people with darker skin come from Africa, and that is not the case).
Sorry this got so long! I am very interested and passionate about the role that narrow mindedness played in our nation's history- both recreationally and politically.
To our shame, it played a huge role and still does today. Let's fix it, OK? Who's with me?

get zapped said...

brian and lp- I agree wholeheartedly! But, one thing I find interesting; baseball is one arena that hosts a diversity in terms of race, for instance, the Mariners that played yesterday;

Ichiro Suzuki
Willie Bloomquist
Adrian Beltre
Jose Vidro
Raul Ibanez
Richie Sexson
Ben Broussard
Jose Guillen
Kenji Johjima
Jamie Burke
Yuniesky Betancourt
Jose Lopez

Isn't this a lovely list of names! Yet, I imagine the bulk of MLB ownership is Caucasian, as well as the members of the Baseball Commission- those in power. So yes, we have a ways to go...

Icarus said...

Speaking as someone who's soccer team lost a Euro cup game in Seville tonight [but there's still the return in London next week :-))], I have to tell you that I am devoid of any comment on the baseball quotes series. I nkow how to play it, but the whole mystique and history is lacking as it just doesn't happen in Europe. But you must really be into it, GZ, right?

Bar L. said...

Very interesting to see that list of names on that team.

How sad that Lou Gehrig had a disease named after him...well, the sad part is that he got the disease in the first place.

Suzan Abrams, email: suzanabrams@live.co.uk said...

Cool words to think about Getzapped.

You make good clever points, Lizard Princess. :-)

get zapped said...

lp- I meant to thank you for your little history lesson. I wasn't aware of the "second attempt" for equality in baseball.

icarus- sorry to hear your team lost ;(. I do enjoy going to a game, but the team I root for (the M's) hasn't done well the past 4 or 5 seasons and my interest has waned some. Does that make me a fair weather fan???

layla- I thought about how Lou does go down in history with his name related to a disease. I honor him for the enormous struggle he endured, and for bringing awareness to such a crippling disease, but hope his place in baseball stands out too!

Anonymous said...

You can thank my dad for the history lesson! All my life he's been teaching me about baseball!

Willie Baronet said...

Amen. Loving your baseball quotes!!

get zapped said...

lp- you are lucky to have such a great dad!

rrramone- welcome back! Glad you are digging them.