[z28jd]

Originally Posted by ajjohnsonsoxfan

I don't think I knew that there were African American ball players before JR. Very cool. What happened to our country that it was ok in the late 1800's but not after until Jackie broke the color barrier again? So unfortunate not to have all the great black players play alongside Cobb, Ruth, Mathewson etc.

I think it should be called the African-American barrier because a lot of dark-skinned Cuban players were in the majors before Robinson. Look at a picture of Tommy de la Cruz from the 1944 Reds. He had African heritage and looked the part, but he was from Cuba, so he was allowed to play.

Even before him, the original Bobby Estallela(grandfather of the Giants/Phillies catcher) was part African and he put in eight seasons of baseball before Robinson supposedly broke the color barrier. Robinson broke the African-American barrier.

Color barrier makes it sound like only white players were playing before 1946 and we know that plenty of Latino and Native American players were also in the league during that time. I don't think they would have classified themselves as white.