Any Reaction to Legendary Auction Prices

[turtleguy64]

Great true story which appeared in a recent book about black baseball superstars and the prejudice they experienced on the way to and during their big league careers.Gibson on that Vietnam tour with other big league stars in '70s.Mets travelling secretary arranged hotel accommodations for the group.Graig Nettles publicly berated Mets secretary for the hotel rooms they were booked into and ended his diatribe with a derogatory term usually directed at those of the Jewish persuasion.Gibson overheard this exchange and afterward warned Nettles that in the future should he ever come to bat against him on the field,he was going down on the first pitch.This is what we call a mench.That book is a must read but darn it...I cannot remember the name right now.I loved that Gibson story.

[RichardSimon]

Good guys = turtle guy, Bob Gibson, Hank Greenberg (Greenberg was one of the first to take a stand with Jackie Robinson).
"great guys" = Craig Nettles, miscellaneous Legendary persons.

[turtleguy64]

Thanks for including me in that company of real heroes but I'm not worthy of that class.Greenberg fought almost as much prejudice in his time as Jackie did due to his ethnic background.Remember he had 58 dingers one season and just got walked again and again as he approached the 60 hr plateau.Were the pitchers simply "protecting" the Babe ?

[sagard]

Originally Posted by turtleguy64

Thanks for including me in that company of real heroes but I'm not worthy of that class.Greenberg fought almost as much prejudice in his time as Jackie did due to his ethnic background.Remember he had 58 dingers one season and just got walked again and again as he approached the 60 hr plateau.Were the pitchers simply "protecting" the Babe ?

Babe was walked at a higher rate in most of his seasons compared to Greenberg during his massive season. I won't argue his getting discriminated against at the end, but over the course of the entire season I would argue he had more opportunities to hit than Ruth.

[thekingofclout]

Originally Posted by turtleguy64

Thanks for including me in that company of real heroes but I'm not worthy of that class.Greenberg fought almost as much prejudice in his time as Jackie did due to his ethnic background.Remember he had 58 dingers one season and just got walked again and again as he approached the 60 hr plateau.Were the pitchers simply "protecting" the Babe ?

Greenberg 1938 Season - AB-556 HR-58 BB-119

Babe Ruth 1927 Season _ AB-540 HR-60 BB-137

Plain and simple, the numbers don't lie.

I also don't buy into that "Greenberg fought almost as much prejudice in his time as Jackie did due to his ethnic background"

I don't think it was even close. As a matter of fact, Greenberg retired from the field to become the Cleveland Indians' farm system director and two years later, their general manager and part-owner along with Bill Veeck. During his tenure, he assembled more African American players than any other team executive in the Majors

I don't recall Jackie getting any offers quite like that after he retired unless you consider an executive position at "Chock full of Nuts" on par with being named Director of Farm Systems for a major league team and then two years later being named General Manager and PART OWNER for the same club.

So as anyone can plainly see, no case can be made whatsoever for the claim that "Greenberg fought almost as much prejudice in his time as Jackie did due to his ethnic background"