INTOLERANCE -- EARLY 20TH CENTURY STYLE

A previous entry in this blog presented our studied selection of the best baseball players by position and within defined era throughout the game’s history. It represents the culmination of having analyzed every individual career hitting and pitching record from the 1870s up through the most current season. Needless to say, the effort has been extremely time-consuming.

While covering the game’s earlier activity years, i.e. from the beginning until circa 1915, we couldn’t help but note the predominance of names like Donovan, Murphy, Callahan, Collins, O’Rourke, O’Shaughnessy and literally countless others indicating Irish ancestry.

With the Smiths, Joneses, Browns, and the like so overshadowed by Emerald Islers, our curiosity became somewhat aroused. What on earth had drawn all those Pats and Mikes to the ballyards?

Having a business colleague on hand a few years back whose surname was as Irish as Paddy’s whistle, we asked him about the whys and wherefores of so many Hibernian tags appearing by score upon score throughout said era. His prompt and straightforward answer came while pointing toward his mouth with one finger, as he said “They had to eat”.

Following a bit of further explanation, we were rather astounded in learning that much strong anti-Irish sentiment prevailed in those days throughout the country. Our super-sophisticated Anglo-Saxon and Germanic origin barons simply refused to hire them for regular trade jobs. As a consequence, many such inferiorized lads possessing reasonable diamond skills thronged to the ball parks in order to earn a decent living.

We’re inclined to suspect that the problem was really rooted in anti-Catholicism. We can’t really corroborate this, however, since very few Italian or other central European names showed up during the period in question. Perhaps the snobbery advocates of the era just didn’t care to associate with people whose ancestors had been failed potato farmers.

It seems worth noting that the fate of the Irish during the century’s aught and teen years bears comparability with so many young blacks being forced to seek boxing careers in the 1920s and 1930s, due to sheer prejudice.

By way of closing comment, any perusal of today’s major league baseball rosters will show so many Martinez’, Rodriquez’, Gonzalez’, Fernandez’, Hernandez’, Sanchez’, Lopez’, Cabreras, et al that we have difficulty distinguishing one from the other. We can proudly say that they didn’t become diamond aces due to ethnic intolerance, but simply well above average playing skills. That fact, in itself, seems to indicate progress.