GMS/TEAMS
SEASONS
CAREER STATS
July 21, 1912
Sometimes it is good to be an outsider. Sometimes one sees things from the outside that a person in the midst of things cannot see.
This is the first season in which the Caterpillars have employed Negro players. One might expect there to be some tension, and that has been the case. Some of my teammates have embraced the concept; others are sullen but keep to themselves. Still other white players accept them with the caveat that the Negroes are somehow subservient to them. Can you imagine- asking a pitcher of such superior talent as Joe Williams to perform menial errands for a utility player, simply because that player happens to be white? It goes beyond ignorance. As for Williams, he holds his tongue, but I can see the man within seething.
I see these things because my position on the team is unique; neither black nor white. My complexion is a shade darker than, say, Tris Speaker’s. I lived in Cuba, and many in Cuba are Negroes. Hence in the eyes of some, I must be a Negro as well. I try to inform them that my family is from Castille, in Spain; that my ancestors may have included the conquistadors who helped conquer this benighted hemisphere and make it safe for this race of dough-faced plowboys to populate the continent. They listen, but do not understand. So be it; one cannot fight true ignorance.
Speaking of ignorance, it came as a shock to several of my more rural teammates that our Negro players could actually vote in the upcoming presidential election. As spring has turned to summer, the locker room conversation has changed from discussing the great English ship that hit the iceberg to the upcoming race between Wilson, Taft and Roosevelt.
“So, who are you gonna vote for, Joe?”, a teammate asked Williams curiously. Williams replied that he had initially supported Wilson, but was beginning to consider Roosevelt.
“Well, either way you and I are gonna cancel each other out”, said Guy Zinn. “In my book, Taft is worth both of them put together.”
“The only way Taft is worth both of them put together”, said Larry Gardner, “is if you’re trying to balance the three of them on a seesaw!”
The locker room erupted in laughter. At such moments we are a team, black and white and brown together, and nothing that separates us is as powerful as what binds us together: the desire to have fun and play the game we love.
AS
Armando Marsans