|
|
Post by Lark11 on Jun 29, 2011 23:23:16 GMT -5
Who was the first Black American to play in a game for the Cincinnati Reds?
Extra Credit - Who was the black Puerto Rican on the Reds who played in the same game?
|
|
|
|
Post by bobroberts on Jun 30, 2011 0:53:41 GMT -5
Chuck Harmon, his rookie card was the prize of my collection growing up.
And yes, I had a pretty shitty baseball card collection.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lark11 on Jun 30, 2011 1:09:28 GMT -5
Chuck Harmon, his rookie card was the prize of my collection growing up. And yes, I had a pretty shitty baseball card collection. Yep, Chuck Harmon is the answer to part 1. Not sure why that isn't more commonly known. I guess because the Reds were so many years behind the curve on that one. |
|
|
|
Post by psuhistory on Jun 30, 2011 8:07:32 GMT -5
Great question, no idea about the second part. Those were some pretty bad teams during the 1950s, though, a lot of forgotten players...
|
|
|
|
Post by schellis on Jun 30, 2011 13:09:39 GMT -5
Chuck Harmon, his rookie card was the prize of my collection growing up. And yes, I had a pretty shitty baseball card collection. Yep, Chuck Harmon is the answer to part 1. Not sure why that isn't more commonly known. I guess because the Reds were so many years behind the curve on that one. It would be more commonly known if Selig did what he should have done and had teams retire the numbers of their first black players instead of 42. |
|
|
|
Post by dukecrunchybagel on Jun 30, 2011 14:52:34 GMT -5
Chuck Harmon wore #10, so it is retired.
|
|
|
|
Post by bobroberts on Jun 30, 2011 22:48:03 GMT -5
Yep, Chuck Harmon is the answer to part 1. Not sure why that isn't more commonly known. I guess because the Reds were so many years behind the curve on that one. It would be more commonly known if Selig did what he should have done and had teams retire the numbers of their first black players instead of 42. That's a great idea if it's only done for teams that were around during the Jackie Robinson era. Otherwise the Tampa Bay Rays would have to retire the jersey of Quinton McCracken... |
|
|
|
Post by schellis on Jun 30, 2011 23:09:10 GMT -5
It would be more commonly known if Selig did what he should have done and had teams retire the numbers of their first black players instead of 42. That's a great idea if it's only done for teams that were around during the Jackie Robinson era. Otherwise the Tampa Bay Rays would have to retire the jersey of Quinton McCracken... If they weren't around then they don't retire a number. I loathe the idea of retiring any number for a player that never played for the team in question. Especially when it was the number for a player that did something that was inevitable. |
|
|
|
Post by Lark11 on Jul 1, 2011 1:09:02 GMT -5
That's a great idea if it's only done for teams that were around during the Jackie Robinson era. Otherwise the Tampa Bay Rays would have to retire the jersey of Quinton McCracken... If they weren't around then they don't retire a number. I loathe the idea of retiring any number for a player that never played for the team in question. Especially when it was the number for a player that did something that was inevitable. The inevitability of it doesn't diminish the difficulty or importance of it. |
|
|
|
Post by psuhistory on Jul 1, 2011 8:44:29 GMT -5
It wasn't inevitable in 1946: baseball integration preceded the more general integration of American society...
|
|
|
|
Post by quantumfootball on Jul 1, 2011 14:36:40 GMT -5
Having looked it up, the Puerto Rican guy only played in 1954 with an OPS+ of 15, so it's not like many of us would've heard of this guy.
|
|
|
|
Post by schellis on Jul 2, 2011 12:17:55 GMT -5
It wasn't inevitable in 1946: baseball integration preceded the more general integration of American society... If Robinson didn't happen someone else would have still done it with in five to ten years. Just because Robinson broke the barrier doesn't mean it was any easier on the players that were first for their respective teams. |
|
|
|
Post by kinsm on Jul 8, 2011 18:53:59 GMT -5
The first Latin players to play for the Reds were in 1911....Cubans marketed as direct descendants of Spanish.
|
|
|
|
Post by psuhistory on Jul 9, 2011 8:48:18 GMT -5
When baseball integrated, the Jim Crow regime defined the southern part of the country and had its influences further north too. Blacks had their own leagues up and running. Apart from the individual decision to integrate in 1946, there's no reason why Jim Crow and baseball segregation would not have persisted together, since they expressed the same apartheid idea...
Interesting situation in Cuba: the professional league integrated in 1900, and the color line marked the boundary between the amateur game, based on exclusive clubs, and the Cuban League. Luque is a good example of a "Castilian" Cuban who could play in MLB because of his light skin...
|
|
|
|
Post by awnawboi21 on Jul 9, 2011 16:06:31 GMT -5
I think it's excellent that MLB puts on such a tribute to Robinson. However, I think it would be more appropriate to have each team display "JR" in blue letters somewhere prominent in their park.
|
|
