August 16, 2004
The Black Rorschach
It all started with this picture above. Cobb argues that this is a litmust test. He's definitely right. You either feel this picture like we do, or you don't. The same way that you either felt Ali back when he first changed his name, or you didn't. The same way you either felt the Fab Five or you didn't. The same way you felt Jack Johnson, or you didn't. The same way you felt Tommie Smith and John Carlos, or you didn't.
Remember the big tiff about how the Harlem League Little Leaguers were whooping it up a bit too much? I didn't think so. I didn't remember it either until I read Ralph.
Make that RE-read Ralph.
But many of these same folks would've cut out their spleen to be there when Babe Ruth called it.
S-Train posts the picture...and gets almost 15 emails telling him to go to hell.
Kid, you should strip those emails of their identifiable markers, and post them mugs.
Damn, I wish Ralph Wiley were still here.
But since he isn't coming back, I'll leave you with an extended quote.
Let me suggest this to you. Babe Ruth was a hot dog. Only nobody ever says he was. They say he ate a lot of hot dogs, but baseball historians, most of them, never say he was one, and TV baseball analysts and commentators unanimously never say he was one.Who was Fernando Frias, knowingly or not, emulating in the first place, when he pointed with his bat to center field? As many times as I've heard it reverently said to be "Ruth's called shot" against the Chicago Wildebeest Cubs in the World Series, nobody has ever called it "hot dogging." And then when the Babe trotted oh-so-slowly around the bases, he was laughing, cackling, pushing out with his arms, signifying, "Get off me, get off me!" You might hear this scenario called "amazing," but not "hot dogging."
No "hot dog." No vitriol. No revulsion. No hate. No editorials demanding someone be held accountable. For what? Hot dogging? Or being poor, non-white, yet still daring to be good at baseball?
He was talking about the Little Leaguers, but what he wrote could've easily applied to mo greene and the rest. This isn't war...it's a track meet. You want them to stop?
Strap on some gotdamn spikes and get on the damn track.
Thought so.
Posted by at August 16, 2004 08:52 AM | TrackBackThere's an investigation underway. I think they're going to wait to see what the results of that are.
Posted by: Lester Spence at August 16, 2004 02:55 PMBarry Sanders scored touchdowns -- plenty of them. When he scored, he tossed the ball to the refs and left the field. Guess he had the attitude that he'd been in the endzone before and it was his job to get into the endzone so there was no reason to "cheeze" and "pose" and act like this was something special.
Class tells.
Posted by: Ward Bell at August 16, 2004 06:28 PMBarry's my man.
But if class tells, then why did he decide to quit a week before training camp, leaving the Lions in the lurch? I'm willing to bet that T.O. wouldn't do that.
Now I PREFER Sanders to T.O. any day of the week. But there's a whole lot of stuff going on between the goalposts, and it can be very difficult to make assumptions based on how someone carries himself after a touchdown. And I think this is part of the problem.
Posted by: Lester Spence at August 16, 2004 09:00 PMThere so much going on here let me try to weight in;I remenber Cassius Clay and how the Bro's and Sister's in the hood love him, but there were some who thought processes geared to the ass licking kind and they hated the Champ,our litmus test.Now lets go to church if you sit in church with no emotion there is no spirit,people of color has exibit that spirit through the ages.
tootsie
Posted by: tootsie at August 17, 2004 09:37 AMTO apparently needs something beyond the recognition of his accomplishments -- so he acts on it. Barry didn't and didn't.
Quiting was apparently a very difficult decision (according to what he said on Monday Night Football last week); so he didn't make it on the Lion's time, he made it on his own timeline. As most teams will tell you when they cut someone at the last minute, "it's a business."
I understand the youthful exuberance displayed by the relay team: I would not do it and I don't approve or like it, but I do understand.
Back to TO again: Was it someone on the Dallas team that clocked him for showing off on the 50 yard line? Got what he deserved, in my book.
Posted by: Ward Bell at August 17, 2004 04:24 PMIt was a VERY difficult decision for Barry. But let's be clear--as much as most of black Detroit understood his decision (white Detroit treated him like white Americans treated Mo Green)--Sanders let down the team. You can't predict much from how one reacts to making a touchdown.
TO didn't get smacked. But he SHOULD have been.
Posted by: Lester Spence at August 17, 2004 04:30 PMAny one see the NY Times article on US women's fencing victories?
ATHENS, Aug. 17 - As Mariel Zagunis yelled in triumph, her teammates charged. Their eagerness to grab her and hurl her into the air after a historic victory was all the more impressive because Zagunis was still wildly waving a sword.I'm waiting for the cries of inappropriate behavior. Follow my link and you'll see the picture of Zagunis being hurled into the air by her teammates. I could care less, except for the double standard. Posted by: Ben G. at August 17, 2004 07:01 PM
I can no longer remember a time when I didn't feel Ali. I felt Tommie Smith when he was a high school senior and, without any supporting cast from his high school, came within a few points of nearly winning the California High School Championship Track meet in Edwards Field one Saturday afternoon. I also felt him and John Carlos that day when they raised their black fisted hands to the sky and drove that racist Avery Brundage further off the deep end. I still feel Ali, Tommie Smith and John Carlos but, no, I don't feel the photograph of the winning 4X100 meter relay team. I was glad they won because they were the best but I don't feel any kinship or pride in the pose they took. In my opinion, they earned the right to pose however they chose to but the stance they adopted is, in my opinion, a metaphor too far from Ali refusing induction or Smith and Carlos reaching for the sky and succeeding.
Posted by: Darryl C. at August 20, 2004 05:53 PMYep, I think I'm going to strip the titles and post all those stupid e-mails. Mos' definately.
Posted by: S-Train at August 23, 2004 01:08 AMThey did it again yesterday. Did any of you see the 100m semifinals, and the NBC coverage?
Posted by: Lester Spence at August 23, 2004 07:47 AMI've had the pic on my front page for over a week now and nary a peep. Don't know what to make of it. But I haven't gotten disparaging email in quite some time. Guess I'm doing something wrong. :-)
Posted by: Juliette at August 27, 2004 05:05 PM
Werd. I'm not feelin' it this year. Especially not after reading about GOP effort to suppress the Black Vote. Why the NAACP hasn't brought a lawsuit is really beyond me.
Posted by: stacius at August 16, 2004 02:44 PM