Posted By:
Al C.risafulliI understand that many people around the turn of the century were racist.
There is, however, regardless of the time, no justification for physical assaults on people - particularly for the reasons Cobb did it. Jumping into the stands and beating a fan, stabbing someone, et cetera - those are crimes today, just as they were crimes in the early 1900s.
The implication that a person was justified in beating people because times were different back then doesn't hold water with me.
Yes, overt racism was more prevalent then - and in many circles, it was acceptable behavior. But I don't know that there's any justification for the physical element of it.
Thankfully, we get to judge Ty Cobb on his phenomenal baseball playing ability instead of his personality issues.
Hopefully, history will let us do the same for Barry Bonds.
-Al