Personal Pain – National Gain

Let’s use this opportunity to move beyond the lowest common denominator…after all the U.S. is supposed to stand for the United States, not US vs. Them.

Hear hear! But with regard to Henry Aaron breaking Babe Ruth's record, I was severely conflicted. It had nothing to do with race. Heck, my childhood heroes included guys like Satchel Paige (his biography was the first actual book I ever read for no other reason than I wanted to, lol!) and Roberto Clemente (he was the kind of ballplayer I hoped someday to become). But at the same time I was a HUGE Yankees fan. And on that score, to challenge The Babe on the record he was most famous for was pretty close to sacrilegious.

To me it didn't have anything to do with black vs white. It had everything to do with Yankee vs Not -- or even more to the point, between Ruth vs Not. In a way I guess you could say I was pre-conditioned for what was to come when Roger Maris was chasing The Babe's single season home run record. Had it been Mickey Mantle, no problem (and for most of the 61 season they were neck and neck). But Roger Maris? That was hard. In the faux crystal clarity of my 8-year-old head, he was "not worthy". He happened to play for the Yankees, but he wasn't a real Yankee. He played for other teams, fer krissakes, for longer than he was a Yankee. He was a freakin' mercenary! In those days it was an important distinction, lol!

On the other hand, even at the tender age of 8, I found the level of animosity heaped upon Roger Maris totally unacceptable. Sports writers and columnists of the time were merciless. They acted more my age than I did! That was the first time in my memory where I thought grownups didn't always act like grownups. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be the last.

By the time Henry Aaron was making his run at Ruth's all time home run record I really was a grown-up -- at least physically. By that time I had outgrown the throes of the Yankee mystique, but not that of The Babe's. And I simply had no connection with Aaron. Had he ever played for the Yankees, or even the Mets, or the Dodgers, or the Giants, or (shudder) the Red Sox, maybe. But he played for freakin' Atlanta. And they pretty much sucked. They sucked when he (and they) played in Milwaukee too. So no, I wasn't rooting for Hammerin' Hank to break Ruth's record. On the other hand, the ruthlessness (pun alert!) he encountered while he was chasing Ruth's record was totally uncalled for.

Nonetheless, Aaron persevered, as did Maris -- as did Jackie Robinson. In each case, before the fact, the very notion that they may succeed was unconscionable to many. But in retrospect the fact that they met with such resistance seems downright silly. With that in mind, yes, I think "Personal pain, national gain" is a good way to characterize it. I hesitate to add that Jackie Robinson wasn't the most qualified member of the Negro Leagues to make the jump to the MLB. The only reason he was the first was because Branch Rickey decided he had the most potential. I also hesitate to add that Jackie Robinson did not, single-handedly, change the concept of Us vs Them. No one person should be saddled with that onus. He was, however, instrumental in the pursuit. And he certainly didn't fit the notion of the least common denominator.

Let's ask the other obvious question. Can the Left accept the fact that if Obama isn't elected, it was more about his politics than his race? My guess is no.

If that does comes to pass, we will be subjected to such a non-stop lecturing of ourselves by the media as a country for failing to live up their mandate of HAVING TO ELECT OBAMA BECAUSE HE IS BLACK. I am already dreading the possibility.