Defending the Truth

KnightOfSappho · 07-31-2007, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by highway80west

I guess if this subject needs discussion, I can tell you of a conversation my late-dad, then writing sports for the Arizona Republic in Phoenix, had with Willie Mays back in the 1950's when the New York Giants were in Arizona for spring training.

Willie was talking to my dad about a conversation he had with the Brooklyn Dodgers' Roy Campanella during a game in one of the previous seasons, anywhere from 1951 to 1954.

Campanella, catching behind the plate, jokingly asked Willie: "Willie, do you see that man out there (pointing to Dodgers' pitcher Don Newcombe)? That's big Don Newcombe. He hates ni**ers."

So Willie proceeded to hit a homerun off of Newcombe anyway. I guess the point is that ballplayers like Campanella and Mays can share a few laughs together about their race, even the racists in those days had other names for them, especially once Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.

But did he want to hit those homers out of a desire to prove Newcombe to be 'no more superior than he?' This is one of those questions that is forever lost to history.

Did Mays consider that a laugh about race or was he offended? I'm just curious if your father touched that issue with him at all.

highway80west · 07-31-2007, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KnightOfSappho

But did he want to hit those homers out of a desire to prove Newcombe to be 'no more superior than he?' This is one of those questions that is forever lost to history.

Did Mays consider that a laugh about race or was he offended? I'm just curious if your father touched that issue with him at all.

Actually, I think Willie raised that. Other than that, I don't know what started it, KOS. That's all my dad ever told me. My dad was never a racist, as far as I know.

Willie would homer off any pitcher. He was so good, the "SayHey" kid as he was called.

I guess Willie was resigned to his race, so he didn't worry about it. He didn't take as much heat as Jackie Robinson did. I never met Willie face to face. When my dad interviewed him, it was before my time.

KnightOfSappho · 07-31-2007, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by highway80west

Actually, I think Willie raised that. Other than that, I don't know what started it, KOS. That's all my dad ever told me. My dad was never a racist, as far as I know.

Willie would homer off any pitcher. He was so good, the "SayHey" kid as he was called.

I guess Willie was resigned to his race, so he didn't worry about it. He didn't take as much heat as Jackie Robinson did. I never met Willie face to face. When my dad interviewed him, it was before my time.

It was not my intent to label your Dad a racist. Right or wrong, it was common language at the time. I'm simply fascinated by thought process. This is the unfortunate problem with limited (historical) conversations. They create more questions than they can answer.

In Mays' time he would have been (generally) forced to accept the legal status of race. I wonder what he would have been like in THIS day...

You say that Mays raised the issue. What did Mays say on the subject? I find such things interesting, so I ask.

highway80west · 07-31-2007, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KnightOfSappho

It was not my intent to label your Dad a racist. Right or wrong, it was common language at the time. I'm simply fascinated by thought process. This is the unfortunate problem with limited (historical) conversations. They create more questions than they can answer.

In Mays' time he would have been (generally) forced to accept the legal status of race. I wonder what he would have been like in THIS day...

You say that Mays raised the issue. What did Mays say on the subject? I find such things interesting, so I ask.

I know it was not your content.

That was all Mays talked about with my dad, as my dad told me. I don't know what started it. Maybe my dad was talking to Willie about how the treatment of he and others during the segregation era. I didn't press my dad any further on that.

I wished I could have been there.

Willie was among my idols when the Giants relocated in San Francisco, and I started following baseball in 1965. The Giants were not on TV much, compared to the Yankees (then owned by CBS, who always showed them every Saturday afternoon). If the Giants were ever on, it would be against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Willie hit his 600th homerun vs. the Padres in San Diego in 1969.