Date: Fri 18-Apr-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KIMH

Quick Words:

Harmon-Column-Robinson

Full Text:

Kim Harmon/On Sports - Consciousness Is Fleeting

It really is nice that major league baseball, its players and coaches, and

fans all across the country are paying homage to Jackie Robinson, the great

Brooklyn Dodger baseball player who broke down the doors of a white

institution and almost forcibly promulgated the desegregation of America's

pastime.

The tributes, the full-page features in daily newspapers across the country,

the first pitches thrown out by Bill Clinton and Jackie Robinson's grandson,

the proclamation to permanently retire Robinson's No. 42 throughout baseball -

it's all grand, a fitting gesture to a man who is not only a Hall of Fame

baseball player but one whose character and inner resolve is without reproach.

But I wonder if any of it matters. Any of the tributes. Any of the gestures.

Will any of it mean anything to any of these kids, these ballplayers, who were

born only 23, 24, or 25 years ago?

Major League Baseball may be raising the consciousness of its players in this,

the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's breaking down that so-called color

barrier, but consciousness can be oh so fleeting.

If you think about it, the way society - especially the modern day baseball

player - seems to be so entrenched in the here and now, you have to wonder how

important history is to some people. The way most people figure it, it is not

important where someone came from, how they became who they are, as long as

the person they have become is basically good and decent. The same goes for

institutions like major league baseball - who cares what throes of agony it

had to endure to become what it is now as long as it is here and is paying

average ballplayers millions of dollars a year.

I wonder if players like Ken Griffey or Delino DeShields or Deion Sanders

really understand what Jackie Robinson had to do just to play baseball, the

hatred and racial abuse he had to endure every single day just to play

baseball?

How could they really understand? That was 50 years ago. Sure, there is still

racial hatred seeping through the cracks of human society today, but back then

there were no laws to stop it from infecting an entire industry. To really

grasp what Jackie Robinson had to suffer, one would have to have been there.

Players like Griffey and DeShields and Sanders owe everything they have to

Robinson, who suffered so they could compete on the baseball field with white

players, and I really wonder if any of them get it.

Do they get it at all?

MLB is raising their consciousness, trying to explain to them what one man did

for them, but consciousness is so fleeting. When the next contract comes, will

any of that matter?

Does any of what Curt Flood did matter to any of these ballplayers - white or

black? Flood - and his challenge of the major league baseball reserve clause -

is the reason why Albert Belle is making $11 million this year and the reason

why Gary Sheffield could sign for $61 million over six years and the reason

why a Greg Maddux could tour the country looking for a baseball team with deep

pockets.

Does anyone remember Curt Flood?

Does anyone care?

All of this stuff, the paying homage to Jackie Robinson and all, is great. I

just hope some of it sticks with these players and they get a better

appreciation for something a lot of them seem to be taking for granted.