The saying that baseball is America's sport carries an unintended truth. This country has a long and not glorious history of excluding and mistreating even really talented athletes of color. Younger readers will get a sense of this in Traci Sorell's Contenders: Two Native Baseball ⚾️ Players, One World Series.
Charles Bender spent much of his youth at a year round boarding school. He learned baseball from the older boys. John Meyers lost his father when he was seven. Having to work kept him from finishing school. He started playing baseball on his reservation.
In 1911 they had made it to the pros and were facing off in the World Series, Bender pitching for the Philadelphia Athletes and Meyers catching for the New York Giants. On and off the field they were total professionals...
...Which can not be said about many of the managers, sportswriters, other players, and fans they encountered. Contenders combines a fast paced sports narrative with some hard truths which todays kids deserve to know...
...because over a century later not all that much has changed.
On a purrrsonal note I can't believe I've only read 122 books this year. With school starting up so soon I may not even make 200.
A great shout out goes out to Indigenous athletes who persevere.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone
No comments:
Post a Comment