It struck me as funny how in Carroll's 'From Pittsburgh to Chicago' piece he talked about the Chicago American Giants and how corruption ran rampant through the black leagues only because they would let anyone with money come in and sponsor the team.
I also liked how in Wiggins' article, he talked about how black baseball players were like the newspaper, in that the public needed to be ready for such a huge change in the business. This is very true because when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, a lot of people were upset. He received enough death threats to make any man go crazy. It is a true statement with anything in life. I guarantee that the next major update Facebook makes, people will be going crazy for about 2-3 weeks, then forget about it. So in that regard, sometimes you have to tell the world what they want and what they need. And the world of baseball sure needed Jackie Robinson.
(On a side-note, I looked at his stats, and for a 10-year career, he wasn't astonishing. I think if he had been a white player, he wouldn't even get a sniff at the HOF. But the fact that he was so influential to the sport rightfully outweighed his stats).
In regards to "A Perfect Baseball Day", I really enjoyed the idea of a black All-Star type game. It gave fans of black leagues and fans of baseball in general a chance to see that the black leagues, while maybe not as good as the Yankees of the 30's, could still produce some truly fantastic baseball players. It wasn't just a game either, it was a social event that meant something so much more to black people than to baseball fans. It was a way to show they belonged.
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