March of Champions

Congratulations!

We’ve made it through another bitter, blizzard-filled February (unless you live in some tropical paradise. Bastards). This March not only marks the beginning of spring across the Northern Hemisphere and fall in Australia, but it also marks a somber end of a particularly significant Black History Month, which celebrated the lives and losses of such recently departed visionaries as Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, Richard Pryor, and Luther Vandross.
But we need to move on. We need to be optimistic and look, with affirmation, towards the present. March isn’t only the beginning of a new season of rebirth, it’s also the first of 11 straight White History Months- a 337 day cascade of the important contributions from the special, brave, and triumphant White Men in history who, although the odds were stacked against them, managed to overcome a staggering lack of racial oppression to rise to the status of legends.

This month, aptly named the March of Champions, celebrates the White Men in history who took amazing initiative and showed breathtaking ingenuity in getting very good at sports. These men triumphed over amazing odds and, in the face of immeasurable adversity, managed to rise to the top of their respective games. Men like Rocky Marciano, a man who, although born white, overcame that handicap with a colorblind humbleness, becoming exceptional at punching men of all colors in the face and retired as the only undefeated champion in boxing history. But this isn’t his story.

Back in the 1910s, baseball was split between races, and everyone knew the most talented players played in what was called the “Negro Leagues.” Legends like Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, “Cool Papa” Bell, and even Hank Aaron have set their names in the annals of history as legends whose accomplishments and talent were unsurpassed for their day and age. However a league made up of weaker and slower white players, dubbed the Cracker Leagues, tried its hardest to obtain the legitimacy they believed they deserved. They tried naming their segments the American League and the National League, to try to capture the hearts of a very jingoistic public. But many Americans found the Cracker leagues as racially insensitive. While the Negro Leagues had team names like the Grays, the ABCs (named after a brewery), and the Clowns, names that were harmless and inoffensive, the Cracker Leagues had names like the Orphans, a horribly insensitive reference for the time; the Beaneaters, a name that continued to foster the “all Bostonians eat beans and are gassy” stereotype; and, of course, the Yankees, a name that came as a slur from British troops, and was also used by the Confederacy as a slur in the Civil War (and after). But even with a well planned out PR campaign that reminded the public of the important fact that they were white, they were rocked by a gambling scandal in 1919 and the nations faith in white baseball was quickly fading.

In the mid 1910s a white boy from Baltimore named George finally made his major league debut, after dreaming for years of prevailing over his whiteness and becoming a legend. He worked his way to a small team in the Cracker Leagues and gradually starting establishing himself as a good player with good potential. Then, in a move that forever changed his career, George, in a dehumanizing and degrading fashion, was sold like a piece of meat to one of the “racially insensitive” teams, the Yankees.

George, though, didn’t let this get him down. More determined than ever, George dedicated himself to making a name, not only for himself, but also for White Baseball. He swore he would turn the name Yankee into a positive thing, adopting the franchise as his own. And then he went on to hit 714 home runs, established himself as the greatest player of all time, and, most importantly saved White Baseball, turning it not only into a viable contender, but the nation’s pastime. Most importantly, he taught us that we could transcend negative titles, names, and norms and turn even the most derogatory situation into something legendary. He is a White Hero, and a deserving flag bearing for Month One- March of Champions.

So here’s to you, Babe, wherever you are. This beer’s on me.