Page 6 Poftland ObMwer Thursday, October 5. 1978
Sfinii "Jolk
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Boston, Massachusetts, from its
very beginning has been known for
its great institutions o f higher learn
ing. W ithin a twenty mile radius
and can easily find some o f the finest
universities in the land. Harvard,
Boston College, Tufts, M iT to name
a few.
And one would think that with all
the intellectual a ctivitie s und
presumably the com m unities in
volvement with all this intellect that
some would rub o ff, right?
Don’t believe a word o f it. Boston
is the most racially prejudiced city in
all o f professional sports. We could
cite many instances to support our
allegations but let's just use Mr. Jim
Rice, outfielder supreme fo r the
Boston Red Sox. During the 1977
campaign Rice led the Sox in vir
tually every department, finished
fourth in league balloting for MVP,
but the Boston fans chose C arl
Yastremski, the aging, but good old
outfielder as their MVP. This com
pletely infuriated the young M r. Rice
and prompted him to say, “ Boston is
probably the most prejudiced city in
the world.
It’s impossible,” he goes
on to say, “ for a Black athlete to
play here.” Boston was the last
major league team to integrate and
through the years have allowed only
a few Black faces each year.
Therefore it’ s easy to pull against
them each year. I t ’s unfortunate that
a player as great as Jim Rice has to
play in a s orrow ful city such as
Boston.
Rice almost singlehandedly carried
the offensive punch o f the Red Sox.
He was their batting at .314, led the
league in homers with 46, und was
tops in RBI's, had 210 hits, while
playing in all 162 games. Considering
all these feats you’d think he would
be a unanimous choice as the most
valuable Red Sox player, right? Well,
last week the Boston fans voted and
Carlton Fisk not Jim Rice was the
winner.
Rice m ight s till become the
league’s MVP, but not the team’s . ,
. ironic? No, just another Black
mark on the City o f Boston.
What is an October player? Reggie
Jackson says he’s one. But what is
Reggie? Jackson is perhaps the
greatest pressure player ever to lace
on a pair o f spikes. It just so happens
that the playoffs and W orld Series
happen to both fall during the month
o f October. And i f they would delay
this big event (W o rld Series) to
Novem ber, then Reggie w ould
become a great November player . . .
I t ’s the pressure and that is what Mr.
Jackson is all about. And in the
opener against Kansas C ity it was
beautiful to see Jackson against the
Kansas C ity ace reliever A1
Hrabowsky.
Hrabowsky, the man called “ The
Mad H ungarian,” and 1 call the
“ Mad M a n ” paced behind the
mound in his own inimical style, get
ting ready, or trying to psych Reggie
by Ron Sykes
Sports Editor
SHOP
out. Meanwhile back at the plate
Reggie stood cool, calm and collect
ed. Pacing Hrabowsky and waiting
patiently for the delivery, and on the
second pitch . . . Reggie h it a
towering shot to right center for a
three run shot. Right on Reggie!!!
A nd w ho’ s going to w in the
Series? Well, my pick is the Ameri
can League. I t ’ s iro n ic that the
N a tional League has the better
players and,
seemingly,
the
American League has the best team .
. . the Yankees. However, I ’ m not
writing Kansas City off. My belief is
that either the Yankees or Kansas
City w ill beat the National League.
In the National playoff look for the
Dodgers to again prevail. And
t w ouldn't the Yanks, w ith all their
super talent, have been even greater
i f commissioner, Bowie Kuhn had
not vetoed the sale o f Vida Blue to
the Yanks?
And what about those so-called
“ o ff the c u ff remarks, or comments
made on Blacks* sex and salaries by
Minnesota Twins president Calvin
G riffith . Speaking before a small in
fo rm a l group at a L ions C lub
meeting G r if f it h said that Rod
Carew was a “ damn fo o l” fo r
signing a contract for $170,000, that
his reason for moving his Minnesota
Twins from Washington, D.C., to
Minnesota in 1971 was that M in
nesota only has 13,000 Blacks.
“ Black people d o n ’ t go to ball
games, but they’ ll fill up a wrestling
ring and put up such a chant it w ill
scare you to death," G riffith said.
“ We came here,” G riffith stated,
“ because Minnesota has good, hard
working white people.” I f G riffith did
make these statements, and I ’ m sure
he did, then he should be* run out o f
baseball.
What he’s saying is that Blacks are
o f low intelligence and can only
relate to the lowest form o f sport.
And to publicly assail a player the
caliber o f a Rod Carew is un
believable.
But didn’t G riffith show his true
self when he allowed such good
players as Larry Hisle and the late
Lyman Bostock, both .300 hitters to
play out their options.
He clearly, in my estim ation,
showed a complete disdain for Black
players.
Can you imagine C in cin n a ti
allowing Johnny Bench and Pete
Rose to play out th e ir options,
especially in their younger days, with
out more than a genuine effort to
sign them?
G riffith later apologized saying
that he had had a couple o f drinks
and was only trying to be funny.
Well, to a few of us those statements
weren’t very funny — and Carew and
other Minnesota players are saying
they won’ t play again for the man.
Good.
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Jones defends officials’ calls
by B ill Schaefer
This has been a particularly rough
season for game officials. A major
league um pire was accused by a
member o f the Cleveland Indians ol
making a racial slur. Some National
Football League teams have snatch
ed defeat from the jaws o f victory
because o f seemingly incredulous
calls by officials. And, i f pre-season
w histle to o tin g in the N ational
Basketball Association is any in
dication, we can expect to see a
steady stream o f action from the foul
line when the regulaf*season begins.
A b o u t a ll that can be said in
defense o f these officials is that they
are at least neutral in their mistakes.
But the errors have begun to cast a
crisis in their cre d ib ility and few
voices have been heard in th e ir
defense.
One o f these voices, however, is
that o f Nate Jones, principal o f Mar
shall H igh School. Jones’ views
might be suspect inasmuch as he of
ficiates at NFL and college basket
ball games. But his defense o f his
fellow o ffic ia ls is based on
unassailable reasoning.
“ In fo o tb a ll, each team runs
about seventy plays,” Jones said.
“ A game is usually won or lost
before an official is blamed for a bad
call. There are thousands o f calls
every week and 99 percent o f them
are correct. But when a mistake is
made millions o f people take a look
at it and blame the o ffic ia ls fo r
taking the game away from one o f
the teams. A lot o f factors enter into
winning and losing and I hate to see
the officials take the brunt o f the
blame.”
Despite the recent wave ot
criticism directed at officials, Jones
doesn’ t see any prolonged public an
tagonism toward them.
“ People understand the need for
officials and that they are the only
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NATE JONES
ones who can apply the rules o f the
game fairly,” he said. “ Officials are
highly professional and skilled
people and that goes for people who
officiate at high school games as well
as in professional sports.”
Jones said that the addition of a
third o ffic ia l for NBA and some
college games w ill eventually prove a
blessing and did not think that the
excessive number o f calls in pre
season NBA games would continue
into the season.
“ I had the opportunity to work
with the Trail Blazers in their sum
mer camp and I ’ m convinced the
change w ill help the pro game,” he
said. “ There w ill be a lot o f ad
ditional coverage away from the ball
and this w ill help reduce the physical
activity. You’ re going to see fewer
calls, I believe.”
Jones added, “ In basketball, in
the past, you had two men trying to
watch ten players with nobody there
to look at the action away from the
ball. Now with the third man looking
at the side action they are going to
pick up a lot o f interior stuff. This
should make the players better
defensively because now they know
they can’ t get away with it.”
A th ird o ffic ia l w ill w ork all
Pacific 10 Conference games this
season but Jones won’t be one of
them. When he signed to officiate in
the NFL he had to agree to end his
ties with the Pac 10.
But he thinks the innovation will
work as well in college as it w ill in
professional sports.
“ There w ill be an adjustment to
make but in the long run the games
w ill be covered better,” he said. “ It
was an idea whose time had come.”
./
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