FOR THE LOVE OF THE WHITE MAN'S GAME:

AN ANALYSIS OF RACE IN CONTEMPORARY MAJOR LEAGUE

BASEBALL

_______________

A Thesis

Presented to the

Faculty of

San Diego State University

_______________

In Partial Fulfillment

― Yogi Berra

Contemporary Major League Baseball

Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences

San Diego State University, 2022

popularity and financial success. This paper will seek to recognize the largely unknown

history of “color line” breakers prior to Robinson as well as to address the status of race-

based discrimination in baseball in the post-Robinson era, leading up to today. Drawing on

works by Rob Ruck, Adrian Burgos Jr., David J. Leonard, as well as from contemporary

journalism, I will compare and contrast racial divides in Major League Baseball across nearly

a hundred years; I will explore how Ben Chapman’s verbal berating of Robinson in 1947

compares to the Fenway crowd’s hateful jeers towards Adam Jones in 2017, and how MLB

exploitation of talent from the Negro Leagues served as a precursor to the way it currently

“acquires” and compensates international players. Proving the well-known adage that

“history tends to repeat itself,” this thesis demonstrates the persistence of both covert and

ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... ix

CHAPTER

Figure 1. Image displaying a fallen soldier juxtaposed with a Black pitcher. .........................13

Figure 2. Roberto Clemente, 1970. ..........................................................................................22

Figure 5. MLB: The Show 21 cover athlete Fernando Tatis Jr. ..............................................39

Figure 6. Sports Illustrated magazine “The Cardinal Way.” ...................................................50

academic journey: I could not have done it without each one of you.

7

Grant”). Frank Grant’s success consequently earned him the record for playing three

continuous years (1886-1888) with an all-white minor league team, a testament that largely

defies racial discrimination in the nineteenth-century context. The career of Moses Fleetwood

Walker is also most crucial to include, as his inclusion on the 1884 Toledo Blue Stockings is

historically acknowledged as the first time a Black athlete played professionally in the then-

recognized Major Leagues. Rhoden explains that Walker’s professional debut did not spur a

rush to sign further African Americans to major-league teams. Additionally, during Walker’s

time with Toledo, he faced harsh racial discrimination—yet still was allowed to play. Walker

was the catcher for the White pitcher Tony Mullane, “who conceded that he did not like

The following season, the Newark Little Giants did indeed field both Stovey and Walker,

forming the first all-Black battery in organized baseball in the year 1887 (Riley). In that same

season, during a July 1887 game between the Newark Little Giants and the Chicago, that a

color line was established, although it was rarely acknowledged and was most often

characterized as a “gentleman’s agreement” rather than strict policy. As per a Newark

Evening News report, “Manager Charles Hackett (of Newark) received a telegram from

Captain Cap Anson (of Chicago) saying that the Chicago Club would not play if Stovey and

8

demanding that the integrated black players be released or ‘voluntarily’ quit (Mancuso).

Through these events in 1887, the color line in Major League Baseball was officially put in

effect.

1896 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Plessy v. Ferguson, ultimately deciding that racial

segregation was permitted by the Constitution if the facilities for each race were equal in

quality. The establishment and legitimization of Jim Crow swiftly crossed the nation, as

facilities and services were erected for members of non-white races, but they were hardly

equal in quality or upkeep— if they were constructed at all. This de jure enforcement of

and W. E. B. Du Bois founded The National Association for the Advancement of Colored

People (NAACP) on February 12, 1909 (“Our History”). Civil rights ideas such as “double-

consciousness” (1903), as W. E. B. Du Bois first published, described the psychological

ordeal of perceiving one’s Black identity through the lens of a racist society: “measuring

one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity” (Hinchey). Du

Bois, in his book, The Souls of Black Folk, describes this identity as the feeling of “his two-

warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn

asunder. The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife – this longing to attain

self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging

9

Bois’s idea of “double-consciousness” identifies the perceived inferiority of the Black

identity, and in Mignolo’s 2009 article, he adds that ‘in the 16

century, as Christianity came

to be the leading epistemic force in the classification of people and places, slavery became

indistinguishable from blackness’ (175). Mignolo continues, stating that “From then on, it

was a particular framing of social and psychological dimensions where ‘the lived experience’

of the Negro would always be formed by the gaze of the white” (175). Mignolo argues that

epistemic disobedience is needed to reject one’s perceived “two-ness,” or more broadly, the

gaze (and centrality) of Whiteness, in order to support and advance non-White knowledge,

values, and lived experiences (161). Through the decolonial process of de-linking

non-white players, forcing many Black or Latin athletes to reconcile their racial identities

much as Du Bois did—wishing their “double selves” could be accepted as equal.

Giants established themselves as the original model for Negro League teams as a result of

their sustained success beginning in 1885. They were the first African American team to

fully compensate their players, but ironically, none of the players were actually of Cuban

nationality (Burgos Jr., “Economics” 47). As noted in Bill Kirwin’s 2005 book, Out of the

Shadows: African American Baseball from the Cuban Giants to Jackie Robinson, it is

suspected that their name intended to ‘avoid the opprobrium of hostile white Americans by

“passing” as Cubans even though their ruse hardly deceived informed baseball fans, who

campaign—the nation seeking competition from the likes of Honus Wagner’s Adrian

Demons/Reformers, Frank Grant’s Cuban X-Giants (a branched team from the

aforementioned Cuban Giants, “X-Giants'' referring to being “Ex-Giants”), and Frank

decided to uphold and permit racial segregation, Black baseball was thriving. In 1896, the

Page Fence Giants competed predominantly against the Cuban X-Giants, ultimately winning

their match-up and claiming the title as the best team in Black baseball (Baseball Reference).

Charlie Grant, a former member of the Page Fence Giants, came extremely close to breaking

Major League Baseball’s newly formed color line when he was recruited in 1901 by

my acquaintance and put him on third. Somebody told me that the Cherokee of McGraw's is

really Grant, the crack Negro second baseman from Cincinnati, fixed up with war paint and a

bunch of feathers” (Loew). Used as a strategy to advance into predominantly White systems,

Grant’s attempt at “passing” was quickly muted due his popularity as a Negro League player.

In less than fifteen years of its recognized existence, the color line was already under

challenge by a Black player and a white facilitator; a practice that would be replicated by

Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson less than forty-five years later. This “passing” strategy is

used by people of color or members of multiracial groups in order to be perceived as White

in order to escape oppressive conventions or discriminatory systems. “Passing” has a long

history in America, dating back to the Antebellum period when passing as White was a

official formation of the league provided unified financial and competitive security for all the

involved teams. This agreement also tried to prevent the financial folding of many Black-

owned teams and leagues that had been created prior. Rube Foster opined his frustrations

about the health of Black baseball in the Chicago Tribune between late 1919 and early 1920,

pitching the promotion and organization of Negro Leagues to eventually play white

ballclubs: “Each club will be allowed to retain their players, but cement a partnership in

working for the organized good for baseball… This will pave the way for such champion

team eventually to play the winner among whites. This is more than possible. Only in

uniform strength is there permanent success” (Francis). A 1921 Afro-American column

profession that would equal the earning capacity of any other profession” (Kelly). By doing

so, Foster wanted to substantially “do something concrete for the loyalty of the Race”

the Baltimore Afro-American prefaces an upcoming game between the St. Louis Giants, “this

city’s best colored team,” and the White team in the National League, the St. Louis Cardinals

(“Plays National League Team”). While seeming like an inconsequential local exhibition at

first, this game marks an early 1900s instance in which White teams agreed to play Black

teams. Rube Foster’s written petitions and creation of the organized league was making

significant progress towards integration, and games between Black and White teams began to

gradually become more frequent. Through the Negro National League’s determination, the

person in both the Baseball and Basketball Hall of Fame, Cum Posey was also able to “pass”

as White in certain scenarios due to his light-skinned African American race (McKenna,

“Cum Posey”). While this physical quality had its advantages, he still had to tolerate racial

discrimination including segregation in organized basketball, thus forcing Posey to play

basketball under the name “Charles Cumbert” in order to pass as White. In 1911, he signed a

contract to play for the Homestead Grays but by 1920, Posey began a different business

endeavor: purchasing the majority ownership stake in the Homestead Grays, making him the

principal owner (“Cumberland Posey”). Under Posey’s stead, the Homestead Grays became a

powerhouse Negro League team—until 1922, when greater competition created greater

grandfather, Cum Posey, had discussed with Branch Rickey pathways of integrating Major

League Baseball, but Posey untimely passed away in 1946 before seeing his last dream come

to life (Washington).

juxtaposed with a dead soldier; visually depicting the Black identity’s frustrations regarding

their persisting status as second-class citizens. Inserted below as Figure 1, this imagery was

created by Benjamin J. Davis Jr. in his campaign for New York City Council in 1945 (“A

Black Candidate Runs…”). His membership in the “End Jim Crow in Baseball” committee

also spelled support for the Communist Party as well as the New York Trade Union Athletic

Association (TUAA) (Nathanson). Their post-war protests for desegregated baseball

demonstrates the clear connection between African American civil rights activism and its

constant intertwined history with baseball. Overseas, Negro League athletes played

recreational baseball alongside Whites—very similar to the part-time integration that

there is prejudice.” While the probe clearly acknowledges the existence of a color line, the

investigation also concludes that the contractual arrangements between the Negro League

organizations and its players are “loose,” and thus “before anything can be done for Negro

baseball insofar as an invasion of white Organized baseball is concerned, the Negro leagues

must institute a cleanup.” According to Leslie Heaphy’s article published within the book

Who’s on First: Replacement Players in World War II, MLB resisted integrating high-quality

Black players and “instead they turned to men such as Pete Gray, the one-armed outfielder,

and over 400 other men, none of whom were African American. The excuse given almost

universally was that the players did not have the skills; this was quickly disproved when

Jackie Robinson went on to be named Rookie of the Year when he was first given the

truth is that the owners didn't want black players in the majors any more than Landis did”

(Neyer). Landis’s reign as MLB Commissioner came to an unceremonious end when he died

in November 1944, and nine months later, Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson to a minor

league contract. In doing so, it was only a matter of time until segregated baseball became a

relic of the past.

baseball, it is imperative to also acknowledge the price they paid for pioneering pathways

towards equality. Octavius Catto, one of the founding members of the Philadelphia Pythian

Base Ball Club in 1865, was entrenched in civil rights activism in addition to his baseball

(“A Quest for Parity”). However, on October 10, 1879, Catto was shot and killed in cold

blood; “a martyr to racism” on the first day African Americans were permitted to vote

(Elias). Charles Douglass, a contemporary of Catto, had a largely successful career in politics

and as a member of the NAACP. His father’s popularity and influence assisted his career,

resulting in a relatively large number of opportunities compared to most black men at the

time (Swanson 12). Bud Fowler, on the other hand, did not have the privilege of nepotism

and in 1913, died at age 55 with little publicly known about him.

by instead playing the one-armed outfielder Pete Gray and three-and-a-half-foot-tall Eddie

Gaedel, then-Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley created a professional women’s

but African American women were nowhere to be seen. Mami “Peanut” Johnson, formerly of

the Negro Leagues, tried out for the AAGPBL in 1951, but was not selected due to her race

(“Mamie Johnson”). Johnson, a Black woman, was not permitted to play in the women’s

league, yet was allowed to play in the barnstorming Black one. One of the reasons for this

was because the AAGPBL was managed by MLB-affiliated men such as Branch Rickey,

several coaches from the Chicago Cubs, and Max Carey, among others. It became abundantly

clear in their hurried inception and backing from MLB that they were preferred option of

entertainment over the previously established Negro Leagues.

he was admitted into a mental asylum a year later. His tragic death served as a precursor to

the downfall of the league he created, and within five years, the Negro National League was

also finished (Odzer). Josh Gibson, a prolific Negro League athlete, was long assumed to be

the first Black player to break Major League Baseball’s color line in the twentieth century

until his untimely death at the age of 35. Gibson’s athletic prowess overshadowed his

consistent substance abuse and major health problems, ultimately paying the ultimate price

(Hamill). It’s fair to imagine how Gibson’s career would have transpired if he played in

integrated Major League Baseball, but regardless, his baseball achievements continued to

pave the way for the athletic validation and racial acceptance of Negro League athletes.

Finally, its well-known in many scholarly circles that Jackie Robinson had an active political

223). As Burgos Jr. has documented, Clemente was periodically referred to as “Bob” by

American sportswriters. By the early 1960s, however, sportswriters had dramatically upped

the usage and newspapers such as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had followed suit to

Americanize his identity (Jordan). This would continue for nearly a decade, as a fellow

Pennsylvanian newspaper, The Evening Sun, also touted his extraordinary talent whilst, too,

projecting a White perspective of him—demonstrated in Figure 2 to the left (Eck). In his

book, Adrian Burgos Jr. furthers examines Clemente’s racial discrimination, particularly

Clemente’s experiences of racialization and intellectual disenfranchisement by sportswriters.

Burgos Jr. draws on Samuel O. Regalado’s 1998 book, Viva Baseball! Latin Major Leaguers

discrimination in Major League Baseball after racial integration in 1947—and similarities

can be drawn between Clemente’s racialized treatment by sportswriters and Sammy Sosa’s,

nearly sixty years later. In reporting coverage of Sosa’s 2003 corked bat incident, Adrian

Burgos Jr. states that “Sosa’s quote portrayed him as less intelligent than his peers and

unintelligible to readers” (Burgos Jr. 253). Burgos Jr. continues, explaining that “Latino

journalists at the 2003 National Hispanic Journalists Conference decried the manner in which

verbatim quotes of Latino players affect popular perceptions, leading many to see Latinos as

unintelligent regardless of their individual speaking ability” (Burgos Jr. 254).

college football. Troy’s embittered experiences with racial discrimination cause a wedge

between him and his son, as their rocky dynamic is one of the main cores of August Wilson’s

play. In one scene, Troy exclaims his frustration with the timing of major league baseball

integration and Jackie Robinson:

schools and colleges (Muskat). However, O’Neil also recalls ‘what the Negro Leagues were

really like,’ stating that “we had become conditioned to racism,” when recalling a half-

baseball, half-show organization he played for in the 1930’s (Posnanski 23). He continues,

“Hatred will steal your heart, man. You don’t have any fight left in you. You accept what’s

around you. That’s what this country was like. We thought it would change someday. We

just waited for it to change” (Posnanski 22). O’Neil reminisces upon the era of the Negro

Leagues like August Wilson’s character, Troy Maxson, but their attitudes towards racial

segregation are decisively opposite. O’Neil converses with Monte Irvin about timing, a

foundational theme in Fences: “[Irvin] said that had he been born a little later, he would have

play ball, and that’s all I ever wanted to do,’ [Irvin] said. ‘I don’t feel sorry for myself. I got

to play’ (Posnanski 222). The two opposite attitudes of Maxson and O’Neil (and Irvin)

summarize how African Americans generally felt about the color line in Major League

Baseball; either they were proud to have simply played, or on the contrary, they felt unfairly

robbed of further opportunities. As demonstrated by Rob Ruck and Buck O’Neil, Major

League Baseball’s segregated status meant a well-represented league for African Americans

where they could communally participate in an entity that was not dictated by Whites.

However, as shown in August Wilson’s Fences, frustrations regarding the unilateral unequal

opportunities were also prevalent. Even though integration represented progress, the Negro

Leagues and other Black-owned institutions rapidly collapsed after Jackie Robinson’s

saw what hit them until it was too late. Effa Manley, the co-owner of the Newhark Eagles,

said, ‘Our troubles started after Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers.’ Manley, who was

white but often passed for a fair-skinned African American, said ‘[Black fans] are stupid and

gullible in believing that [Branch] Rickey has any interest in Negro players other than the

clicking of his turnstiles’” (Rhoden 119-20). Rhoden continues, establishing that Manley was

naïve in believing that integration would help the Negro Leagues; instead of energizing and

popularizing the league in which Robinson, Campanella, Irvin—and so many others

its premier talent could be poached with relative ease. Sports Historian Dave Zirin adds:

that folded; as Rob Ruck describes, “so did the institutions it had protected. Black hospitals,

newspapers, banks, insurance companies, hotels, and restaurants were often decimated by

competition from better-funded competitors. Many folded as a result. Only eight of over one

hundred black hospitals operating in 1944 remained open fifty years later. The black press

lost most of its circulation and some of its most talented writers; black banks all but

disappeared” (Ruck 116). In examining the consequences of Robinson’s breaking of Major

League Baseball’s color line, it’s clear that the Negro Leagues consequently went into a

sharp freefall that negatively affected its non-premier players, its organizations and team

owners, and its surrounding network of Black-owned businesses and communities.

similar pioneers. Once it was ‘the right time’ for integration, however, baseball’s style of

play would be changed forever (Ruck 84). Rob Ruck, in his book, highlights the infusion of

speed and power that Black and Latin players brought to Major League Baseball. Gone was

advancing “base-to-base” and the dead ball and entering was “the consummate speed of a

quality rarely demonstrated since the Ty Cobb heyday” (105). The element of speed and style

added a larger cerebral element to America’s pastime, as different pitching, defense, and

baserunning probabilities would now occur. The ongoing clash between the hegemonically

White style of play and the Black or Latin styles of play—and the racial discrimination that

stems from these differences—will be noted further in the following chapter.

were also subject to racial discrimination due to the color—or lightness of color—of their

skin (Burgos Jr. 12). Afro-Latinos, subjects of dual exclusions, were scrutinized due to their

presumed lack of intelligence as a result of their English language fluency (Burgos Jr. 259).

Additionally, in the 1998 home run race that ‘saved baseball,’ Sammy Sosa was framed as

the ‘happy-to-be-here’ sidekick to Mark McGuire’s archetypal American hero, reinforcing

the centricity of Whiteness as and thus, minorities such as African Americans or Latinos as

inferior (Butterworth). Eurocentricity, as evidenced by this historiography, has perpetually

been the dominant value system and cultural priority in American baseball.

pioneers like Charlie Grant and Moses Fleetwood Walker to the forefront of discussions

therefore do the same in civil society. However, as the twentieth century came, one had to be

perceived as White to play at the highest level—light-skinned African Americans or Latinos

could finesse, via “passing,” an entrance into professional baseball, but darker-skinned

players were shut out and forced to stay toiling in the Negro Leagues. Patty Loew, in her

2004 article, articulates MLB’s color line’s arbitrary nature to perfection: “Hispanics

presented a special challenge to racial purists, who relied more on outward appearance than

ethnic origin. Light-skinned Cubans and other Hispanics were invited to the majors, while

dark skinned Latinos were ushered to the Negro leagues, which was itself not immune to race

blurring…The ironies and inconsistencies of major league baseball's misguided race-based

broke the color-line in 1947, New York Times journalist Brent Staples correctly identified in

1987 that ‘baseball has the longest, most perversing history of discrimination in professional

sport’ (Ruck 190-1). After 75 years of racial integration, non-white players in Major League

Baseball today are still subject to systemic racial discrimination and pressure to play the

“white way.” This de facto rule system is largely gate-kept by white players, managers, and

front offices to maintain control of their ‘national pastime.’ However, decolonial theory

compensation once entering professional baseball. Additionally, I will document the

prevalence of racially coded descriptors for athletes of different ethnicities and discuss how

Major League Baseball’s “unwritten rules” act as a monolithic, de facto system that

effectively maintains Western culture as the superior epistemological belief system and value

system. Lastly, I will identify the racialization of baseball positions and their direct

connection to future interview opportunities and employment. Using documented personal

accounts of athletes, statistics sourced from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport

(TIDES), and theories of Walter Mignolo, Stuart Hall, and Kenji Yoshino, among others, I

contemporary Black and Latin players in Major League Baseball.

baseball athletes in inner cities.

inner-city programs. After spending his teenage years playing for ACE: Amateur City Elite, a

Chicago-based baseball development program intended for young people of color, Howard’s

development, talent, and regional exposure proved major dividends when he was drafted in

the first round by the Chicago Cubs in 2020. Only a couple weeks after the murder of George

Floyd had ignited nationwide protests and sparked conversations about race and racism,

Howard’s first-round selection prompted similar questions regarding African Americans and

baseball, to which he commented: “We’ve all got to come together and realize we’re all the

named John Young noticed the lack of African American prospects–at the time 4% of players

were African American and less than 3% were Hispanic–and put together a league to

“provide disadvantaged youth an opportunity to learn and enjoy the game of baseball”

(“MLB: Youth Baseball”). The program has since graduated notable athletes such as CC

Sabathia, Jimmy Rollins, Carl Crawford, Justin Upton, and Hunter Greene.

resolving; at the time of Opening Day in 2021, African Americans accounted for

approximately 7.6% of all MLB players on active rosters, a slight increase from the year

before. On account of the consistently diminutive number of Black players in MLB, and the

Ace, the average price to play competitive baseball has increased and the average number of

African American athletes are steadily becoming priced out of baseball. When interviewed as

part of a 2003 Sports Illustrated article, a youth baseball coach pointedly contextualized the

increasing financial burden of baseball: “The [rich person's] game was golf when I was a kid.

Baseball is almost like golf was. You've got to have the money or you're in bad shape”

(Verducci). Much like the country club sport, baseball requires about $1000 to construct a

baseball field and the prices run higher for an individual participant: $350 for a single bat (to

eventually out-grow), $400 for a single glove (to also eventually out-grow), $5,000 for travel

ball participation fees and uniforms, and hundreds of dollars for private lessons or

McCutchen continues, explaining that the complex Minor League promotional system also

can be a deterrent to low-income athletes desperate for an often life-changing paycheck. To

McCutchen’s point, one of the best places to be seen on a baseball field is by participating in

high school or college athletics. In a 2001 article published by The Journal of Blacks in

Higher Education, the author explores the low numbers of African Americans in college

baseball and ultimately concludes that “basketball has become the sport of choice among

black inner-city youngsters. Because of the space required, baseball fields are becoming

increasingly scarce in central city neighborhoods… In addition, while basketball is a game in

Fernando Tatis Jr.

becoming the new ‘changing face’ of Major League Baseball (Wendel). In 2021, Fernando

Tatis Jr. and his bat-flip graced the cover of San Diego Studios’ video game MLB: The Show

21; the game sold more than two million copies and numbered over four million players

themselves, ultimately achieving a massive following across the world. This cover image,

Figure 5, is inserted to the right (“MLB The Show”). Juan Soto of the Washington Nationals

might soon earn over $500 million in his next contract and is arguably the best player in

baseball at the time of this writing. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Ronald Acuna Jr. are re-

popularizing power and speed (and swagger) like their Afro-Latino predecessors. Their

players at the top of the talent spectrum, it is important to identify the mass quantities of

multicultural athletes who didn’t achieve similar success. The current international signing

system is foundationally built on the exploitation of incoming athletes, as organizations fully

understand that most Latin players originate from poverty and therefore sign them—and tens

of others—to undervalued deals every single year. The system enables teams to spend

miniscule amounts of money on international players, cheaply filling their minor league

organizations with players who may not understand the nuances of Major League Baseball,

American culture, or have enough money to financially support themselves or their families.

But even those Latin athletes who succeed at the highest level find themselves subject to

Yes, Albies consciously agreed to the “worst contract ever for a player,” but in response, he

stated that he accepted the contract so his family could be financially supported and safe”

(@JeffPassan; @DOBrienATL). Albies’ use of the money is also beside the point; the issue

lies in the proposed, and accepted, contract itself. According to Sports Illustrated, “the

Braves did this because they hold all the power, have all the leverage, and completely control

their players by intentionally offering undervalued contract extensions. And time and time

again, “the fear of the unknown” is shown to be greater in foreign players than the white

players, consequently placing socio-politics and systemic racial discrimination at the center

of debate. It’s why Juan Soto is holding out for a contract he’s worth; he won’t be exploited

any longer.

cases than one might originally believe, it was not their hustle that earned them a position on

Major League teams, it was their preexisting talent and organizational investment. I will have

previously detailed the correlation between a (White) players amateur draft selection and

their financial compensation, however, that is not to say that late-round draftees have not

succeeded either. Valuable utilitymen such as John McDonald (12

round), Nick Punto (21

round), Jamey Carroll (14

David Fletcher (6

th

round), and Jake Cronenworth (7

th

round) have carved out productive

careers due to their versatility at various positions (Baseball Reference). In summary,

Pedroia, Punto, Eckstein, and today’s David Fletcher are essentialized based on their stature

Illustrated article, voiced his displeasure with the racial discrimination inherent in these

coded descriptions: “The subtle message is that [black athletes] have genetic talent, but we're

just not intelligent. People have told me I have a gifted body. They always say that to black

athletes. If I were white, they would say I was good because I was a diligent worker”

(Jackson “WE HAVE A…”). Jackson’s article was written as a response to Al Campanis’s

claims in an April 1987 interview that ‘African Americans may not have some of the

necessities to be a field manager or a general manager.’ But Campanis didn’t stop there,

continuing to argue that the number of black ballplayers in the Major Leagues is a direct

result of their ‘great musculature, fleetness of foot, and various other God-given gifts’

(Johnson). Campanis’s statements confirmed the continued existence of a color line in Major

worn orange, black, white, and blue durags whilst pitching—and about two years later, in

May 2021, Arizona Diamondbacks broadcaster Bob Brenly commented “Pretty sure that’s

the same durag that Tom Seaver used to wear when he pitched for the Mets” (Kepner). This

disrespectful attempt at a joke is a cloaked jab at cultural and racial differences between

Stroman and other white, successful pitchers; or put more broadly, intended to detract and

discriminate against those who are unlike the hegemonic baseball population. This was not

Brenly’s first offense either, as he had previously derided Fernando Tatis Jr.’s necklace in

2019, saying that “it might be easier to run the bases if he didn’t have that bike chain around

his neck” (Kepner). This flair, fashion, or general fun that Black or Latin players bring to

quarterback directing the offense, fulfilling the two most common stereotypes of ethnicity in

sports: (a) the perceived superiority of White athletes in measures of intelligence and work

ethic; and (b) the presumed athleticism (‘born athletes’) on the part of Black athletes”

(Leonard 18-9). While these racial narratives are in direct reference to American football,

their existence is echoed in baseball through the ethnic representation of starting pitchers.

The presumed athleticism of black athletes conventionally places them in positions in which

they can utilize their said athleticism, like shortstop or centerfield. In demonstrating this

athleticism on nearly every ball in play, non-white athletes can easier display their skills to

interested teams and scouts—instead of pitching once or twice a week. In 2016, according to

an USA Today article, “forty-two of 69 African American major leaguers - 61% - are

And the general consensus back then was that these men weren’t smart enough to play in the

major leagues” (Nightengale, “As MLB Celebrates…”). Yet, out of the 449 pitchers on

opening-day rosters in 2016, only seven were African American starting pitchers—two of

which are currently part of the fraternity of Black Aces (Nightengale, “As MLB

Celebrates…”). Remarkably, there were also zero African American catchers, and six years

later in advance of the 2022 season, there remain zero. However, there is an silver lining to

the current state of the catcher position; twelve of the thirty projected starters belong to a

Latino ethnicity (FanGraphs). Their likely fluency in two more languages facilitate

communication between the manager and the pitching staff—efficiently conveying

Major League Baseball an indirect result of nationwide economic inequality and player

development systems? Positional depth charts demonstrate that is not the case for Latino

players, but for African American catchers, the disparities in opportunity and perception are

rooted much deeper in history.

clause—risking Flood’s playing career in the process. While they ultimately lost the lawsuit,

the results of the decision soon brought forth a player’s right to free agency and salary

arbitration (Snyder). In the new system, baseball organizations and its players exchange

proposals regarding the individual’s salary and if they’re unable to mutually reach an

agreement, it is determined by a neutral arbiter. The problem, in short, with this salary

do you think you hardly ever see any black bench players? You better be a star, or you're not

making this team… Because you've got to be twice as good as anyone else. If you're not, you

just won't make it” (Moore). In a 2009 Los Angeles Times article, former African American

infielder Orlando Hudson recognizes this same crisis of Black bench players, listing several

African American starters and pointedly asking, “Can y’all name one?” (Hernandez). In a

report from the same year, the average salary for baseball players reached $3.6 million, and

according to Rob Ruck, “discrimination did not disappear, but it did ease, especially for top

players. Race likely mattered more for marginal or bench players, where teams seemed

inclined to stock white players instead of blacks or Latinos” (Ruck 183). All four

observations and African American players still continue to fight for opportunities at the

Major League level. In advance of the 2022 season, much to Ruck’s observations, racial

discrimination does not affect the top talented African American players like Mookie Betts or

Byron Buxton, but rather the near or below replacement level players fighting for roster

spots, such as Tim Beckham or Travis Demeritte. Regardless of their career achievements,

MLB organizations are quick to replace aging, African American talent with young,

optionable Latino talent—unless they possess extraordinary speed. Speed and skill for

stealing bases can increase the longevity of one’s career and even accumulate valuable

jewelry doing so; at the time of this writing, African American players Jarred Dyson, Billy

Hamilton, Dee Strange-Gordon, and Terrance Gore have accumulated for 953 career stolen

In this 2015 Players Tribune article, Bautista challenges the dominant style of game and

argues that baseball’s drama can be stylistically demonstrated in other ways. In contest of the

“unwritten rules,” Bautista challenges the “country club,” or White, style of play that is

historically conventional. His bat-flip sparked national conversations like, “what is proper

sportsmanship?” and “what does sportsmanship look like in different cultures?” ultimately

addressing a crucial decolonial topic: the centricity of Whiteness. In the heat of the moment,

Bautista exerted outward passion, boisterous celebration, and individual style—three

2010 decolonial concept of epistemic disobedience; an intentional de-linking from

Eurocentric thought. In his article, Mignolo converses with Santiago Castro-Gomez’ 2005

postcolonial concept of “zero-point hubris,” essentially stating that Eurocentric (“First

World”) beliefs are superior forms of knowledge that places other cultures (“Third World”)

in the margins (Mignolo, “Epistemic Disobedience”). Jose Bautista and his Latin

counterparts face a epistemological crossroads in Major League Baseball—conform to the

hegemonically white-benefitting “unwritten rules,” or continue his visually-expressive,

brazen cultural style of play (or general demeanor) and face public scrutinization and

organizational discrimination. For example, players participating in the Dominican Republic

Professional Baseball League (LIDOM) demonstrate exuberant amounts of passion and

United States’ cultural fabric—one woven by their definitions of professionalism, respect,

tradition, and expectations that all “Others'' will homogenize into their “same” dominant

culture (Mignolo, “Geopolitics”). Connecting this geo-political clash with Mignolo’s

epistemic disobedience, it’s clear that Latin players like Bautista are actively decolonial

when they reject or challenge the Eurocentricity in Major League Baseball. More and more,

Latin athletes are playing the game their way, with on-field emotion and accessorized fashion

and animated competition, and largely do not assimilate to classified white standards. Their

versions of civil disobedience on the nationally broadcasted stage aims to achieve a cultural

re-centering; a reformative effort to uplift non-white, “Third World” cultures and reject the

mean using more data to shift guys on the infield. I’m talking about the way people say, ‘He

played the game the right way’ when what they mean is ‘He played it the white way.’ What

they mean is they don’t like the flair that Black and Hispanic guys bring to the field”

(Sabathia and Smith). As one of the few members of the Black Aces, Sabathia endured an

all-too-common demographical dilemma—being the one, or one of the few black players on

his team at a given time—over the course of his nineteen-year career. Sabathia’s outspoken

nature towards covert and overt racial discrimination points to the clear behavioral binary

present in Major League Baseball: Us versus “the Rest.”

twentieth century as frequently as possible. While it is collectively understood that