One of the baseball players I admire and respect the most
was the great Cardinal pitcher Bob Gibson. Gibson was one of the most dominant
pitchers of the 1960s and possibly the most fearsome one in baseball history.
The latter is said by all of the players who played alongside him and those who
had the misfortune of batting against him.
In his career from 1959 to 1975 Gibson won 251 games and struck
out 3110 batters. When he retired that number was second only to Walter Johnson
in the all-time record books. Gibson managed to win 20 games or more five times
during his career – not an easy feat considering that the Cardinal offense was
incredibly stingy when he pitched. This could not be made more clear in regard
to his historic 1968 season, when he registered the lowest ERA in National
League history: 1.12. He threw thirteen shutouts,
struck out 268 batters and threw 28 complete games. He went 22-9 mainly because
the Cardinals were only able to average three runs every time he started. Had he
gotten four runs in each start, he would have gone 30-2.
Even in the era of the extended postseason it is highly
unlikely many of the marks he set during the three World Series he played in
will ever be broken. He set a record for most strikeouts in the 1964 World
Series with 31 against the Yankees, a record he broke against the Tigers four
years later with 35. He struck out 17 Tigers in Game 1 of the 1968 World
Series, a record that will surely stand forever. He won all seven of his World Series
starts consecutively – each of them a complete game. He threw eight complete World
Series games, two shutouts and in the 1967 World Series won three complete
games in which he gave up just fourteen hits total. In all of the World Series
history only Christy Mathewson matched him when he threw three shutouts in five
days. For his efforts Gibson is one of only three men in history to win the MVP
in two World Series, a record that has only been matched by Sandy Koufax,
Reggie Jackson and Cory Seger.
Gibson would never be able to have the record he did today
for another reason: he threw at batters. A lot. And he went out of his way to hit
them. Bill White had been Gibson’s roommate when they were on the Cardinals.
However when White was traded to Philadelphia he knew the first time he faced
Gibson, White was going to hit him. And it didn’t surprise him. Gibson was
telling him: “We’re not roommates anymore.”
Gibson was also the first African-American pitcher to earn
the label of superstar. And he could be fierce with everybody. This included
the media. In a world where race was becoming more and more a militant issues among
African-Americans Gibson was not particularly political. In fact after
attending a Black Power meeting during the 1960s, he made it clear that wasn’t
for him. “Really sounds like Black Power isn’t really any different from White
Power,” he is quoted in David Halberstam’s iconic baseball book October 1964.
This was keeping much with the attitude of baseball as a whole not just in
the 1960s but historically: Baseball was America’s game but it was never as
political as so many other sports were becoming.
What made Gibson polarizing - at least among the media – was that he was
never humble about his achievements, never polite. Roger Angell remembered
after what was his crowning achievement: after setting the strikeout record in
Game 1 of the 1968 World Series. Everyone believed Gibson would be humble or
modest having set this mark. Instead in the press conference afterwards he was
exactly the same.
A reporter asked him: “Are you surprised by what you did
today?” Gibson didn’t pause. “I’m never surprised by anything I do.” According
to Angell, the entire crowd of reporters went dead quiet as if everyone was
thinking: “What did he say?” In the aftermath of a World Series win, you were supposed
to be humble and polite. This victory did nothing to soften Gibson’s edges.
But for all Gibson’s brilliance, I am always impressed by
his bluntness and his candor. There’s a remark he made when a reporter decided
to ask him if he considered himself a role model. And he took it very
personally.
“Why should I be a role model for your kid? You be a
role model for your kid.”
I really think that is the only answer any athlete in any
profession should ever have to give. It is hard enough to make it to the
professional in any sports, harder still to become a regular, even harder to
become a superstar. Trying to be a professional athlete takes a level of
dedication that most of us can’t even conceive of. To ask them to do anything
more – particularly when it comes to such issues as politics – has always
struck me as going to far, and for an African-American athlete in white America
– particularly professional sports which is still almost entirely controlled by
white men – has struck me as the kind of risk most athlete shouldn’t be asked
to take. They have nothing to gain from it, and everything to lose.
Gibson is never listed among the athletes known for his
political views but he wasn’t blind. He would have seen the consequences that befell
Muhammad Ali when he refused to fight in Vietnam and John Carlos and Tommie
Smith when they raised a black power salute at the 1968 Olympics. He also knew
that while the times they were a changing, in baseball in the 1960s, nothing
had at all. Baseball players were still horribly underpaid due to the reserve
clause and had no power with management. Before spring training Sandy Koufax
and Don Drysdale had engaged in a hold out from the Dodgers where they demanded
a million dollars apiece, wanted to be dealt with through their agents, not
with them and as a unit, not separately. Koufax and Drysdale had collectively
won 49 games in 1965 and the Dodgers had narrowly won the National League
Pennant by 2 games and had won a total of three of the World Series game over
the Twins in 1965. They rightly concluded without them pitching, the Dodgers
would finish in the cellar.
But Walter O’Malley the Dodger owner refused to even
entertain the idea. Because of the reserve clause no other team was going to
even considering making an offer for either pitcher no matter how much they would
have wanted them. The fact that the Dodgers would be out of contention without
them was irrelevant: owners would rather lost the pennant then give the players
any freedom and with the reserve clause, they had the ability to just wait them
out. Which is exactly what happened. Drysdale and Koufax eventually gave in and
at considerably less than what they wanted.
Things have improved immensely for athletes at a financial
level, no one will argue that now. But what hasn’t changed for any professional
athlete is the window you have to be a success. It will depend on the sport you
play – for baseball or basketball, you might have fifteen or twenty years; for
football, you’re often lucky to have ten – but it’s never as long as you want
and there’s only so much money you make.
That’s of course, assuming you can remain healthy your entire career which never
happens. It’s risky enough surviving a career as an athlete. So why should you want
to risk it for any outside factor?
Back in 1990 North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, a
Republican senator who could politely be considered polarizing, was up for reelection.
His opponent was the former Mayor of Charlotte Harvey Gantt, an African-American.
Much has been made of the fact that Gantt’s team wanted Jordan’s endorsement
because they belied that the endorsement of Jordan – an African-American from North
Carolina – would put Gantt over the top. Jordan famously said: “Republicans buy
sneakers, too” when he chose to stay out of it.
Many consider that as a sign that Jordan betrayed his race.
I’d argue he was incredibly diplomatic. Jordan knew very well what happened to
African-American athletes who took stands during the 1960s all the way up to 1990.
Jordan was already one of the best basketball players in the game but he was
nowhere near the superstar he would become. Indeed during that same period the
Bulls kept losing to the Pistons in the postseason; they would not get their
first championship until 1991. Jordan had been in basketball for six years, and
he was already one of the games most iconic figures – but he was also very
aware that he served at the pleasure of the owners and not the other way
around.
White ownership in any sports has never been kind to
African-American athletes. (They’re also not kind to white athletes or other
minorities.) Owners have always considered their players employees, albeit very
rich ones. But that doesn’t mean they won’t discard them when they get old, trade
them for younger players, or get rid of them rather than pay their exorbitant contracts
when they become free agents. And they also don’t want to do anything that
might cause their box office to suffer -
and they will do anything when they see something that might hurt it.
Jordan might have been more truthful had he said: “Republicans
buy Bulls tickets, too.” Jordan was not yet in a position to be able to
command the public attention – and to be clear, that was not something
professional athletes did in the 1990s. Jordan’s concerns in the fall of 1990
had to be getting the Bulls to the Finals; whether or not a Democrat could
become Senator in North Carolina had to be at the bottom of his priorities. And
what evidence was there that Jordan’s endorsement would mean anything in North
Carolina? Why wouldn’t it have been met with mutterings that he was a
carpetbagger, interfering with state affairs, or being ‘uppity?” There’s just
as much chance someone working for Helms would have told Jordan to shut up and
dribble. Asking for Jordan’s endorsement cost Gantt’s team nothing. Giving it could
have cost Jordan everything – and there’s no proof it would have worked.
This is a point that Lebron James has made in the last
decade as he has become the most prominent voice for athletes in all of sports.
He even used Jordan’s cowardice in a documentary series he produced for
Showtime called ‘Shut Up and Dribble’. The thing is, it is easy for James and
all of his followers to revere him now and admonish Jordan in hindsight. James
was a child in 1990 and he didn’t live through the eras that Jordan did or have
to see what so many other athletes in that era had to. James can advocate from
his position and I don’t deny he doesn’t have a right to use his platform.
However I would remind him – and indeed all those who argue
athletes should take the same courageous stands that James can now – of the
words of Chris Rock in his 2004 standup special Never Scared.
“If you’re black, you can do well in America.
You can be successful in America. You can even get rich in America. But you had
better not make anyone bad doing it…or you will be cut down in a heartbeat.”
Jordan knew that very well in 1990 and no one will even
pretend its not still true today. For my first witness I call Colin Kaepernick.
Kaepernick might say he’s fine being an icon and celebrated but I will
guarantee you at least once a day he really wishes he’d been willing to just
play ball symbolically so he could play it literally. He will not say so in
public but he must be thinking it.
America will tear anyone down it doesn’t like. And I should
mention this is true on a world stage as well. The silver medalist at the 1968 Summer
Olympics Peter Norman, like Smith and Carlos, was wearing a badge from the Olympic
project for Human Rights, a movement among athletes supporting the battle for
equality. Australia was heavily segregated and Norman was blackballed from
competing in future Olympic events. Australia’s greatest sprinter, he wasn’t
even invited to participate in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Norman was white
but in the eyes of the world he was made just as much an outcast. Taking a stand might be something that puts
you on the right side of history but if you are banned from the sport you love
and can never find work for the rest of your life because of it, the personal
costs may far outweigh what you do.
So when I hear that someone thinks that Caitlin Clark owes
it to the country to make an endorsement in the 2024 election I genuinely
wonder what this person is thinking. Caitlin Clark has been in the WNBA for
less than a year and has already become a polarizing figure among women’s
basketball fans and African-Americans. To call her a superstar at the level of
James is ludicrous on so many levels, not the least of which is the pay
disparity. The highest paid star in the WNBA doesn’t make a fraction of the
sixth man of any NBA team. Clark is supposed to sacrifice her entire career so she can get more followers from the right
people on Twitter? I hate to break it to these people but Clark’s endorsement
has no more chance of turning Indiana blue than Taylor Swift does of turning
Tennessee blue. And don’t pretend for a moment that Clark has anywhere near the
same fame as Swift; she certainly doesn’t have the financial cushion to survive
if she was blacklisted.
It's difficult enough to be a professional athlete; to ask
them to use their platform to try and win hearts and minds is not only unfair,
it’s ridiculous. They have nothing to gain from doing this except being cheered
online in the right circles momentarily. The long term consequences to them are
all too easy to imagine and play out time and again. Their job primarily is to
focus on their team winning and making the playoffs. Everything else not only is
secondary and is too much to ask of them. And it’s not their jobs.
And what is the argument that these people make? That by
endorsing Harris and Democrats they are helping lay the groundwork for a better
nation? Well, I think Bob Gibson said it best and I’ll paraphrase it:
“Why should I make a better world for your kid?
You make a better world for your kid.”
It was true half a century ago. It’s just as true today.
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