He may be "colorful" and "eccentric" ...

[Salty]

One problem is that segregation only ended for the players;
not the owners- and thats part of whats Boyd is saying; The personality of the leagues was different- and I doubt that all of the things that were done were just for the fans.

The NeL represented a culture- and while it may be great and for the best to integrate, that doesnt mean that something unique wasn't lost.

Also; If the goal was the best playing the best- how would incorporating some NeL teams have changed that?
The NeL teams would have integrated just like the MLB teams, as is evidenced by the story above.

Lastly- if we are relying simply on 'what people want to see' Im sure the Gladitorial arenas would have made a comeback long ago- then you would really see man vs. lion tiger and bear.

[scorehouse]

right on el salty!

[dharmabums]

But even where segregation ends, some things are lost. On the whole, integration is good and is steadily progressing. But what is lost when it happens? And are we willing to accept that loss for the sake of integration? This was one of the major tensions in the civil rights movement (Taylor Branch trilogy is excellent reading), most notably seen in the disagreements between Martin Luther King, Jr and Malcom X. And what about, in baseball as in other areas, when the integration is really only limited to certain economic segments?

[Casey89]

I'm surprised these racially charged comments weren't a hot button topic for sports talk shows and the mainstream media. I just haven't seen anything at all about this in my usual sweep of larger web news outlets. If a presidential candidate or A-Rod said the same thing Oil Can Boyd did, it would be the lead story on MSNBC, Fox, Drudge Report and ESPN for nearly a week.

[Valen]

If any white guy made these kind of statements it would be the lead story and would cost the guy his job, whomever he was.

[quote:5f20959165]Lastly- if we are relying simply on 'what people want to see' Im sure the Gladitorial arenas would have made a comeback long ago[/quote:5f20959165]
And no doubt would if reasonable minded people were not willing to speak out against it. :lol:

And sometimes even though something is unique it still needs to be lost.

[Quincy Wilson]

Holy Socrates,Batman - Mr.O.C. Boyd is a philosopher. He makes a dialectical
statement to the ghost of Mr. Robinson and then drops it. After all. what is
Mr.Robinson going to say- something along the lines of "If it had not been me someone else would have been first, the time was right".Or thereabouts.

The civil rights movement did not start in the 1950's. Check out President
Rooseveldt's executive order 8802 0f June 1941.And President Truman's
famous executive order 9981 of July 1948 which led to desegregation in the
Military.These executive orders were in response to complaints concerning the
fairness of the Federal Government.

[ADRIANGABRIEL]

[quote:871067b361]The civil rights movement did not start in the 1950's. Check out President
Rooseveldt's executive order 8802 0f June 1941.And President Truman's
famous executive order 9981 of July 1948 which led to desegregation in the
Military.These executive orders were in response to complaints concerning the
fairness of the Federal Government.[/quote:871067b361]
Oh, and let's not forget about John C. Fremont's Emancipation Proclamation--freeing slaves in Missouri--of August 30, 1861 when he was head of the Department of the West, at the start of the Civil War.

Lincoln didn't want to anger Kentucky which was both a Union state and a slave state--weird, huh? So he ordered Fremont to rescind the order. Fremont didn't and lost his command over it. The attention-seeking Lincoln stole all the glory for himself when he issued his Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.

White people rule!!!

[supertyphoon]

If true, how come we haven't heard anything at all about this, until now? Is this one of those "whatever happens in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse" unwritten rules of baseball, or is Boyd mis-remembering and twisting the facts again? You decide.

[url=http://content.usatoday.com/communities/dailypitch/post/2012/05/oil-can-boyd-calls-wade-boggs-a-bigot-in-erratic-interview/1#.T6xmOoGQOuJ]Boyd accuses Boggs of being a racist[/url]

:(

[url=http://www.boston.com/sports/blogs/thebuzz/2012/05/wade_boggs_resp.html]Link to audio file for WEEI interview[/url]

[Salty]

TBH-
I have no idea who is telling the truth here.
Cant really tell from reading these articles. Dont think there is anything convincing in either one.
Id expect some of his former teammates to say something at some point, either way.
Stuff comes out long after in many cases- think thats pretty common.

I listened to the both people being interviewed- and again, there is no way to tell just by these narratives what the truth is.

[nevdully's]

Gotta agree with Salt here.

BTW whaddaya expect Boggs to say.

Hell my uncle had a friend that swore he wasn't a racist. Said he treated blacks just like they were people.