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CALLING SIGNALS |
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Fussman's new book
captures Robinson era
of TheColumnists.com
Cal Fussman delivers
a full account with “After Jackie” (ESPN Books, $24.95).
He fires over the plate: quoting Hank Aaron on head-jarring racism;
hearing Yogi Berra on Robinson’s steal of home in the 1955
World Series.
And high and tight: making President Andrew Jackson seem like
Rotten Hickory; slapping Cap Anson for how he “bleached
the game for six decades”; calling the end of the Negro
Leagues “catastrophic” for black business.
In all, Fussman pitches 244 pages of BBs—baseball, bitterness
and buoyancy.
His assortment includes a battery of sources 60 years after Jackie
Robinson became the first black player in modern big-league baseball.
And that’s Fussman’s forte. He was pitching his peppy
personality when we were Mizzou pals three decades ago. In his
years at Esquire, his approach caught on big time. Jimmy Carter,
Tom Hanks, Muhammad Ali , Shaq—you name him—joined
Cal’s “What I’ve Learned” lineup.
He’s still drawing them in, this time for one of the great
subjects of all time: Jackie Robinson.
Here are some of the people and their points that make this oral
history such a gem:
Monte Irvin: The Dodgers sent one of their top scouts to see
me and asked me to sign with them. This was 1945. Maybe I would’ve
been the first instead of Jackie. But I had to tell Branch Rickey
that I just wasn’t ready. It took me a while to get back
to where I was before I went into the service. But by the time
I was ready—I hit .401 in 1946—Rickey had settled on
Jackie.
Don Newcombe: And Kenesaw Mountain Landis once said, "As
long as I'm the commissioner of baseball ..." — and
here Landis used the n-word — "will never play in the
major leagues." Thank God, he died in 1944. I didn't know
who he was, didn't know where he came from, didn't know a thing
about him. But I was glad when I read the bastard had died. If
Kenesaw Mountain Landis had lived another 20 years, you never
would have seen me or Jackie in baseball.
Dick Allen: On September 1, 1971, the Pittsburgh Pirates …
(had) an all-minority lineup. First time it was ever done in
the big leagues. Those guys turned out to be the Lumber Company.
They put some wood on your ass. They put more wood on your ass
than Howdy Doody had. Won them a World Series that year, too,
am I not correct?
Maury Wills: Oh, man, I know exactly what Jackie went through—except
I failed utterly. What I don’t know is how he succeeded.
Buck O’Neil: Truth is, the death of the Negro Leagues just about
killed the center of the black community.
Lou Johnson: And after Jackie died, Rachel carried the torch.
She magnified what her husband had done. It doesn’t get
any better than that. Do you understand?
Jim Brown: When a black man supports a Republican, most people
don’t understand it. So there was controversy about Jackie
working for Nelson Rockefeller as his special assistant for civil
rights. He was also a friend of Richard Nixon. But so was I.
We’ve got to tell the truth here.
Cal Fussman did, that’s for sure.
©2007 by Bucky Fox. The book cover
illustration is courtesy of ESPN Books. This column first posted
April 23, 2007.
You can visit Bucky Fox's
website at www.BuckyFox.com
You
can comment on this column online. Please address your message
to either "The Editors" or Bucky Fox. To send an email,
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