Soderholm-Difatte: Alvin Dark and the persistence of racial stereotypes
From SABR member Bryan Soderholm-Difatte at Seamheads.com on November 20, 2014:
It was inevitable that Alvin Dark obituaries after he passed away on November 13 would include the controversy provoked by a pair of Long Island (New York) Newsday columns in the midst of the 1964 pennant race in which, as manager of the competing San Francisco Giants, he was quoted as saying that “Negro and Spanish-speaking players on this team … are just not able to perform up to the white players when it comes to mental alertness.” Coming at a time when black and Latin players were among the very best in the game, and as integration was being consolidated in the major leagues with increasing numbers of minority players making big league rosters as core regulars on their teams, Dark’s comments were a reminder that major league baseball was still grappling with the race issue.
Dark’s ill-fated remarks were made to Stan Isaacs, a respected sports columnist who was out West on assignment (meaning he was not there to cover the Mets), on July 22 after the Giants had lost seven of nine games. The Giants were playing badly and Dark clearly felt his team could have been, indeed should have been, maybe two or three games up in the standings instead of in second place, one game behind the Phillies. He specifically singled out Puerto Rican-born Orlando Cepeda and Dominican-born Jesus Alou for “dumb” base-running mistakes.
Giants regulars who were “Negro and Spanish-speaking players on this team” also included shortstop Jose Pagan from Puerto Rico and pitching ace Juan Marichal from the Dominican Republic, not to mention Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and 1964 rookie sensation Jim Ray Hart (who missed out on NL Rookie of the Year honors only because Philadelphia’s Dick—then known as “Richie”—Allen was even more sensational).
Aside from the public relations firestorm Dark, as quoted by Isaacs, created for the Giants, the team’s Latin players in particular were incensed by their manager’s opinions of them, which primarily concerned their baseball work ethic. Said Dark: “You can’t get Negro and Spanish players to have the pride in their team that you can get from white players.” … “You can’t make them subordinate themselves to the best interests of the team.” … “They [their mistakes] are not the kind of things a manager can correct–missed signs and such–but they are inabilities to cope with game situations when they come up.” And he topped it off by saying, “I only know what I’ve seen on this team and other baseball teams.”
Read the full article here: http://seamheads.com/2014/11/20/alvin-dark-and-the-persistence-of-racial-stereotypes/
Originally published: November 20, 2014. Last Updated: November 20, 2014.