I get what Fred is saying from a historical perspective. It's really hard to judge a person in 2025 who was a teenager when slavery ended. What I don't think a lot of people consider when they look at the subject is that Europeans put other Europeans in different boxes too during this time. A lot of them back then were 100% of something, first generation Americans mixing with people from different countries for the first time. They often flocked to people from their own country.
I know that my great-grandfather, who grew up with Dots Miller in Kearny NJ, was 100% German, with his parents being born in Germany. Miller was also 100% German. They lived in the German section of Kearny. My great-grandfather lived in four different houses during his life and never left that section of town. Even when my dad grew up 70 years later in the same town, he says there were sections of town where you could find the Irish kids, the Italians, etc. It took a long time for the town to stray from that model.
It was just more natural back then to stay with your own. If you read newspapers from back then, they would tell you the nationality of players all of the time. Many of those times it was not in a nice way. That's obviously less common now, but it was natural then.
As someone who spent a lot of time growing up with my Italian grandmother, her cooking and her extended family, I can put into perspective the writers of the 1920s-30s freely sharing stereotypes about Italian players and not judge the writers harshly. It happened. They didn't start it. They didn't know any different. They weren't being outrageous to prove a point. If it happens now when it's pretty clear it shouldn't happen, then I can judge that person. They don't get a pass because it was accepted 80-100 years ago. Same with Anson. I can put it in perspective because of how/when he grew up and not judge him by today's standards. Do I agree with him? Obviously not, but I'm not going to pretend he was acting wildly irrational for his time.
__________________
Please check out my books on baseball history. They include the bio of star second baseman Dots Miller. A book featuring 20 Moonlight Graham players who got into just one game. Another with 13 players who were with the Pittsburgh Pirates during the regular season, but never played a game. There's also one about 27 baseball families, as well as a day-by-day look at the worst team in Pittsburgh Pirates history. All five can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/John-D...hor/B0DH87Q2DS
|
09-05-2025, 04:05 PM
Similar Threads
Threaded Mode