The East-West
Classic, the clash of the best African-American baseball players from across the
United States. In the 1930’s at the height of the Great Depression the
East-West Classic brought together the African-American community for one day.
There were players that even the casual baseball fan has heard of such as
Satchel Paige, and then players that even the biggest fans of today’s game
would not recognize such as Buck O’Neil who said the classic was, “something special,”
on page five of the A Perfect Baseball Day article.
Page six
of the article states, “Coming from all over the country every year, so many
African Americans scheduled their vacations around the event that the Illinois
Central and Union Pacific trains even had to add extra passenger cars.” When thinking
about the article, I really couldn’t put a finger on a comparable American
event today. Only certain groups of people like certain sports, the all-star
games in all of the sports are jokes today and the fact that the media puts
such a huge role on home field in the World Series for the Major League
All-Star game is a disgrace.
Journalists
at black newspapers had to beef up their coverage and inflate the market with
stories about the East-West classic, as they had a financial means backing the
game. The job that was done building up this game each year and attracting the
crowds they did at the time was unbelievable.
The
final thing I wanted to touch on was from the Carroll article, a quote in
particular on page 15. Carroll says, “The passing of the hero’s baton, from
businessman to athlete, is evidenced in the illustrations black newspapers
published with columns and articles.” This started in the 1920s, but still
today if I polled 100 kids across the nation asking who is your hero, Bill
Gates or LeBron James I would say around 90 out of the 100 kids polled would
say LeBron James. This is what the media has done to society whether it be for
better or for worse, this is the world we live in today.
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