This was passed along to us, courtesy Mongo. It’s Branch Rickey’s scouting report of Dodger Hall of Fame pitcher Don Drysdale from back in 1945 when Drysdale was coming out of high school. Standard fare for a scouting report, we suppose but then we ran across this: “Intelligent face and manner. Shows good breeding.” dude....
Since this is the same man that also signed Jackie Robinson a few years later, we can only assume that the manner of speech employed by Rickey was from a period in this country’s history when “breeding” was not freighted with the social significance it would be today.
And this reminded us that its coming up on the 20th anniversary of then-Dodger general manager Al Campanis’ infamous remarks on “Nightline” that blacks “lacked the necessities” to be managers. Video here. Campanis was forced to resign his post shortly thereafter and for a man who played for and ran the front office of one of the most progressive and successful sports franchises ever, he will always be remembered more for those comments than of his professional acheivements. And if we can engage in a bit of analytical self-pity, it is no coincidence that our Dodgers gradual descent into mediocrity over these past 20 yrs. started precisely the moment Campanis stepped down.
Like Rickey, Campanis was neither a racist nor a bigot but rather he was a product of his time when any prejudices or held stereotypes no matter how benign, were just matter-of-fact beliefs (Blacks can’t swim because they aren’t as buoyant… no biggie.) that were easily-held because they were never seriously challenged.
Anyway, didn’t really intend on going all there when we first started posting… just thought you’d enjoy something from America’s Pastime archives.
Since this is the same man that also signed Jackie Robinson a few years later, we can only assume that the manner of speech employed by Rickey was from a period in this country’s history when “breeding” was not freighted with the social significance it would be today.
And this reminded us that its coming up on the 20th anniversary of then-Dodger general manager Al Campanis’ infamous remarks on “Nightline” that blacks “lacked the necessities” to be managers. Video here. Campanis was forced to resign his post shortly thereafter and for a man who played for and ran the front office of one of the most progressive and successful sports franchises ever, he will always be remembered more for those comments than of his professional acheivements. And if we can engage in a bit of analytical self-pity, it is no coincidence that our Dodgers gradual descent into mediocrity over these past 20 yrs. started precisely the moment Campanis stepped down.
Like Rickey, Campanis was neither a racist nor a bigot but rather he was a product of his time when any prejudices or held stereotypes no matter how benign, were just matter-of-fact beliefs (Blacks can’t swim because they aren’t as buoyant… no biggie.) that were easily-held because they were never seriously challenged.
Anyway, didn’t really intend on going all there when we first started posting… just thought you’d enjoy something from America’s Pastime archives.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment