Bill White, who would later become the first black MLB television broadcaster in 1971 when he worked for the New York Yankees, played for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1959-65 and was a member of the 1964 World Series champion team. He returned to St. Louis and played in 48 games, mostly as a pinch hitter, in 1969.
White, second baseman Tommy Herr and pitcher John Tudor are now members of the Cardinals Hall of Fame – and White is puzzled as to why.
In fact, longtime Cardinals columnist and sports writer Rick Hummel reported last week that White tried several times to have his name removed from the ballot.
“My honest feeling is I shouldn’t be in,” White told Hummel.
“There are guys who have done a helluva lot more than I did. I don’t have the stats to be in. I didn’t play long enough, didn’t get enough base hits, didn’t drive in enough runs, didn’t hit enough home runs. Whatever.”
White is downplaying his success with the Cardinals. While he wasn’t here his entire career, White’s production during six seasons make him, at least, a qualified candidate.
First, he won six Gold Gloves. This was in an era when there were excellent defensive first basemen throughout the National League.
In 1,113 games as a Cardinal, White hit .298 with 140 home runs and 631 RBIs.
1962, White collected 200 hits and batted a career-high .324 with 27 home runs and 109 RBIs. During the 1964 championship season, White hit 21 home runs and drove in 102 runs.
Regardless of statistics and longevity with the team, White deserves his honor as much (or more) for his off-field performance as he does for on-field.
In 2011, White said in a column for CNN.com that the Cardinals, like most MLB teams, allowed black players to be treated as second-class citizens in the South and other parts of the country when he was in the minors in the New York/San Francisco Giants organization and after he was traded to St. Louis in 1959.
White wrote, “I vividly remember having to eat my dinner on the team bus while my white teammates (on a minor league team from Iowa) were eating in a ‘whites only’ restaurant during a road trip in Kansas in 1954.”
“Even black major league players, men at the top of their profession, weren’t spared those kinds of indignities. When I started playing for the Cardinals in 1959, the team’s black players – great players like Bob Gibson, Curt Flood, George Crowe and others – weren’t allowed to stay in the team hotel during spring training in St. Petersburg, Florida. Instead we were put up in a boarding house in the ‘black section’ of town.
“Many white players and team owners were indifferent to the restrictions placed on black players. The prevailing attitude was, “That’s just the way it is. We’re not politicians or lawyers. There’s nothing we can do.'”
Calling it “a difficult time,” White said Gibson, Flood and other black players on the Cardinals and throughout MLB began speaking out against the segregation and Jim Crow laws that baseball accepted during Spring Training in Florida.
“It wasn’t an easy thing to do. This was before baseball free agency, a time when the “reserve clause” gave team owners complete control over a player’s career. A player who was thought to be too outspoken – the word ‘uppity’ was sometimes used – ran the risk of being sent down to the minors or released. But we felt it had to be done,” he wrote.
“It worked. As the story went national, pressure built on major league teams to do something. In the Cardinals’ case, when the team hotel in St. Petersburg still refused to admit blacks, the team leased a small beachfront motel for the entire team.”
More MLB teams changed their policies and the Players Association voted unanimously to refuse to play in any city that required black and white players to use separate living facilities.
A decade later, Flood was dealt to the Philadelphia Phillies, even though he was not under contract. He legally challenged the “reserve clause,” ultimately losing his case at the U.S Supreme Court. It cost him the latter years of his baseball career, but it opened the door to free agency and the multi-million-dollar guaranteed contracts MLB players now sign.
White closed his column by stating, “Looking back on it a half-century later, of all the things I did in baseball, being a part of that (Civil Rights) struggle is the thing of which I am most proud.”
Seeing he did many of those things as a Cardinal, he should be more than proud to be in the franchise’s Hall of Fame. His devotion to equality in baseball should also be mentioned early and often during the Hall of Fame celebration in August.
The rise of Troy
NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent is tired of excuses when it comes to minority hiring in the NFL.
He told Peter King of Football Morning in America, “The facts are, we have a broken system Do I take it personal? Yes, I do.
“It’s my responsibility as a professional athlete, as a man of color, as someone who bleeds the National Football League, bleeds football, it’s part of our responsibility to continue what we believe is right for our game. “
He called out some owners and general managers for their continued sidestepping on the issue of too few black coaches and GMs in the NFL.
“[S]itting in these meetings, listening, hearing people give different excuses, like: ‘This is not the right platform,’ or ‘Troy, Commissioner (Goodell), I hear what you’re trying to do — not sure this is the right vehicle but we understand.’”
“Those are the same words that they told people in my community in the fifties, the forties, about integration of school systems, housing — but not giving us any solutions. “
You go, Troy.
Standing up for Stanford
Stanford coach David Shaw was a four-year letter-winning receiver at Stanford (1991-94) before becoming an NFL assistant coach for nine seasons.
Shaw’s name comes up annually as a candidate for open NFL positions, but the African-American leader of the Cardinal football program takes a “been there, done that” attitude when asked why he isn’t champing at the bit to interview for a job.
“Two years out of college I was coaching in the NFL. So, I had nine years of NFL experience, and so I know what that’s about,” he told NBC Sports Network’s ‘Lunch Time Live.’
“It doesn’t hold any, ‘Oh my gosh, I wonder what that feels like.’ I know what it feels like. I’ve been there. I coached Hall of Fame players and great players and coached in everything but the Super Bowl, so I know what that feels like. That’s number one.”
He’s not eager to leave the “destination job,” he holds at Stanford.
“I love being at Stanford because I get the brightest guys, I get the most competitive guys on and off the field. I still tell people I write more recommendations than any football coach in America for graduate school, for job opportunities. I’ve helped guys get to the point where they’re starting their own companies,” Shaw said.
“I love the passion. Not to mention we’re coming off a pretty darn good decade and ready to start the next decade on a high note also. “
It sounds like he’s going nowhere – at least until too much money to turn down is offered.
The Reid Roundup
Joe Flacco, who had neck surgery a few weeks back and might not be 100 percent come September, was signed to a contract by the New York Jets to serve as backup to starting quarterback Sam Darnold. Meanwhile, Cam Newton remains unsigned… NFL.com has updated its player base and changed Colin Kaepernick back to a free agent after listing him as “retired.”… Patrick Ewing, the former Georgetown and New York Knicks star and current Hoyas coach, is recovering from COVID-19 at his home… Michele Roberts, executive director of the NBA Players Association, said players “really want to play,” but want details on health safety and finances before the season resumes at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando. “Let’s just get it out there, because our guys need to know,” she said. “Certainty will be good.”… Troy Aikman says he thinks the Dallas Cowboys and quarterback Dak Prescott will agree to a new contract soon. “I’ve maintained that I strongly believe that they’ll reach a deal, and he’ll have a long-term contract as opposed to playing under the franchise tag this year,” Aikman told 105.3 The Fan in Dallas… It being reported that the Kansas City Chiefs and superstar MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes are now in contract extension talks that will make him the highest-paid NFL quarterback in history… Mahomes delivered a virtual commencement address to Texas Tech graduates last week and said, “Whatever plans lie in front of you, I have no doubt that you will go out there and show the world what it means to come from Lubbock, Texas. Go out and win your Super Bowl. Congrats, Class of 2020. I can’t wait to see what you do next.”
Alvin A. Reid was honored as the 2017 “Best Sports Columnist – Weeklies” in the Missouri Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest and is a New York Times contributor. He is a panelist on the Nine Network program, Donnybrook, a weekly contributor to “The Charlie Tuna Show” on KFNS and appears monthly on “The Dave Glover Show” on 97.1 Talk.” His Twitter handle is @aareid1.
