Racism and baseball cards

[whitehse]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Except that if you look at the other fighters, they are frequently identified via race or ethnicity as well in the card bios. Ethnic rivalry was great for the box office. It wasn't a denigrating call-out to identify a fighter by race or religion or nationality, it was actually good business. Jewish fight fans, for example, were rabid and numerous, and they would actively support their co-religionists. There was even some attention paid to the fact that Jack Dempsey had a Jewish great-great-grandmother (he mentions it in one of his autobiographies), and Max Baer wore the Star of David on his trunks, ostensibly in honor of a Jewish grandfather but mostly because it was really good business to be seen as a Jewish heavyweight. Italian-American fighter Salvatore Mandala changed his ring name to Sammy Mandell to sound more Jewish. Jimmy McLarnin was nicknamed "Jew Killer" because he KOd a number of HOF Jewish fighters. He got KTFO'd by my cousin, Ray Miller, another Jewish fighter.



Ray in turn lost the battle of Chicago Jewish lightweights to HOFer (and war hero) Barney Ross:

While I wasn't a true Chicagoan (I didn't live in the city) but I spent a great deal of time there and worked on the north side for several years, I had never heard of Sparta Stadium. I had to look it up and didn't realize that there was a stadium at this location.

This was a pretty cool little sports "nugget" of history. Next time I am that way I need to pay more attention and celebrate what used to be there.