Sorry, I am just tired of romanticising and reliving this particular time in our nation's history. And I am glad the Jackie Robinson experiment worked for Branch Rickey and the boys, but the very idea of having to pick the right Negro who had the temperament to take all the crap thrown his way is a bit unsettling. Sorry Branch, you are no hero, you played right along with the rest of the good ole boys to keep Negroes out of your league until your desire to win and make money got the better of your prejudices.
Wouldn't 'it have been nice if the old Negro Leagues remained segregated and major league baseball would have been forced to start integrating on their terms back then? Maybe even a merger like the AFL forced the NFL to do in football.
If no integration how about paying big dollars to Negro league teams at the time such as the Birmingham Black Barons and Philadelphia Stars to acquire their top players? (Think how soccer leagues across the world do it now.)Satchel Paige,Josh Gibson, and Buck Leonard were some of the best that ever played "America's game", but they never got their just due because it was...well "America's game".
So now we have to watch a movie about the poor "guinea pig" selected to break the color barrier and watch everyone pat themselves on the back because of how far we have come as a country when it comes to race relations. Critics will love the movie (even if it sucks) because it's the politically correct thing to do, and everyone is always on board when it comes to soothing our guilt for past wrongs.
Thank you Jackie, you were a good test subject. I just don't like the results of the experiment.
*Pic from The New York Times.
