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Posted By: Chad

But equating negro league players with minor leaguers, women ballplayers and "band" ball players is pretty condescending. They were major league caliber players who weren't allowed to play against whites. But more than that, the Negro Leagues WERE a major league, especially when the top teams played each other. The Homestead Grays would have been the best team in MLB in their dynasty years. They don't deserve to be marginalized with a special section. And thankfully, they won't be.

Man, I'm really starting to repeat myself. I guess I just don't understand why it's so hard to recognize that these guys were as good as the white players their careers shadowed. If Willie Mays had spent his entire career in Birmingham competing against Aaron and Robinson and Campanella and Banks and Bob Gibson, would he not be as great a player as Mickey Mantle? Wouldn't it ne more iteresting to actually learn something about these guys and the leagues they played in than to dismiss them out of hand? Just because Andy Cooper is an unfamiliar name, does he deserve to be ignored? He wasn't unfamiliar to black baseball fans when he played. That white America wasn't paying attention doesn't decrease their talent or their accomplishments. The sin is ours, not his. Yesterday was a LONG time coming.

And that's it for me. Back to waiting for the next fake Wagner thread.

--Chad