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COMPLEXION TODAY
The widows of both Jackie Robinson and Elston Howard were on hand at the baseball writers' dinner to accept honors for their husbands. |
It was clearly on view
at the writers' dinner
of TheColumnists.com
All Gaul is divided
into three parts. All New York baseball is divided into two parts.
The first consists of spring training, the 162 game season, the
playoffs, the World Series, a usual Yankees win and a post mortem
in losing years.
The second part of New York baseball occurs on a frigid night
in January when the award winners and the past heroes gather
in a midtown ballroom for dinner and reminiscences. Despite what
Mark McGwire said to a Congressional committee, baseball is really
about the past.
This New York baseball Writers dinner has been going on since
a cold night in 1923 when some sportswriters decided there was
too much time in between the World Series ending and spring training's
beginning without a party. New York is all about parties, banquets
and balls.
Some of the honorees of years gone by include living legends,
Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb (he padded his expense account), Ted Williams,
Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Pete Rose,
Sandy Koufax and Stan Musial up to 2007 winners Ryan Howard,
Frank Robinson and St. Louis Mighty Mite David Eckstein.
One special celebration marked the 2007 dinner before 1,200 enthralled
guests willing to cough up $200 a ticket for filet mignon and
a chance to stare at dais Hall of Famers Cal Ripken, Jr., Tony
Gwynn, Reggie Jackson and Frank Robinson.
Sixty years ago, about this time, Jackie and Rachel Robinson
set out for spring training with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Brooklyn
boss Branch Rickey knew it would be tough for the first Negro
in the 20th century big league scene.
“Are you married?” he asked Robinson when he first
interviewed him in Brooklyn late in 1945.
“No, I’m not but I have a girl,” he said.
“Get married,” Rickey advised the newest member of
the Dodgers.
Rachel and Jackie Robinson shared that life path until Robinson’s
untimely death in 1972. Now Rachel carries the flag forward through
the Jackie Robinson Foundation, sending minority kids through
college, and with frequent appearances to recall his deeds.
“Without Jackie Robinson,” Jesse Jackson once said,
“there never would have been a Martin Luther King.”
Robinson integrated baseball in 1947 and in a truer sense integrated
America. Baseball was everything to everybody in those days.
Later that year Larry Doby integrated the American League with
the Cleveland Indians. Monte Irvin came along in 1949 to integrate
the New York Giants.
It was 1955 before the Yankees integrated the Stadium with Elston
Howard. Boston was the last team to sign a black player, the
immortal Pumpsie Green in 1959.
Widows Rachel Robinson and Arlene Howard were on hand to receive
the plaudits of the crowd for the accomplishments of their husbands.
In his last public statement, Jackie Robinson implored baseball
at the 1972 World Series to advance a black man to a leadership
position in the game. Robinson died a few weeks later. It was
1975 before Frank Robinson, no relation, was named the manager
of the Cleveland Indians.
“I played one season in the big leagues while Jackie was
still there,” said Robinson. “It was 1956 and he was
going out and I was coming in. I had a few conversations with
Jackie. We talked a bit about his problems in the old days and
he encouraged me to play hard and keep my mouth shut. We had
something else in common, our names.”
Frank Robinson became a Hall of Fame player with Cincinnati and
Baltimore, an MVP in both leagues with the winning Reds and Orioles.
Now baseball and all sports (note the Super Bowl coaches) are
as integrated as America gets.
Reggie Jackson talked of how much he was inspired by Jackie Robinson
and how much he meant to the game and to America.
“I think we have finally come to the point, as Dr. King
suggested, that only ability counts,” said Jackson. “I
have more white friends than black friends because there are
more of them, the white kind.”
Arlene Howard talked of how the Yankees waited a long time before
they signed a black player because they didn’t need one.
“They were winning all the time anyway,” she said.
“Now they have players from all over.”
The Yankees pitching rotation in 2007 will consist of one Caucasian
American, one African American, one Cuban, one pitcher from China
and one pitcher from Japan. Wouldn’t Jackie Robinson be
surprised?
Even the current award winners presented at the dinner represented
the truest integration in American life. English and Spanish
were equally spoken from the dais. Both the Yankees and New York
Mets executives indicated they were off on trips to China and
Africa to bring baseball to rural areas in those parts of the
world.
Omar Minaya, the general manager of the Mets, a native of the
Dominican Republic and a longtime resident of Queens in New York
City, said he was excited about his first trip to Africa.
“The game is truly becoming global and we are very proud
of our contributions to that,” he said.
The dinner ended, as it has for 84 years, with a countdown to
spring training. Only 16 more days before pitchers and catchers
report. The welcome mat is truly opened to all.
©2007 by Maury Allen. The Maury Allen caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. This column first posted Feb. 5, 2007.
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