Tribune Obscures Racial History of Chicago Baseball

Why would Fred Mitchell associate Jackie Robinson's great achievement with the Cubs when the color barrier in Chicago baseball was broken when Minnie Minoso joined the White Sox? Mitchell has shown over and over again that he's a company man, more than willing to use his column to promote the Tribune Company, the company baseball team, and its neighborhood. We added to the list of his transgressions as recently as April 5. But his latest effort is too ridiculous.

Under the headline, "Robinson an Inspiration to Cubs Greats," Mitchell associates Robinson with other great African American players and coaches for the Cubs, but not once does he mention the other team in town, the one that broke the color barrier. True, a quote in the second paragraph mentions the first black player on a Chicago team, but amazingly — amazingly — Mitchell doesn't mention the Chicago team he played for. The White Sox!

"Minnie Minoso was one of the first [black Latino] players to come over (1949)," Williams recalled. "Then Vic Power (1954), Roberto Clemente (1955) and others. Jackie broke the barrier for people of color, and it just didn't benefit the [African-American] ballplayers."

The rest of the Sunday Tribune also omits the salient fact that the first black players on a Chicago baseball team played for the White Sox.

The Cubune Watch owes this post to a new contributor, Dr. Crawdad, whose commentary can be found regularly on the White Sox Interactive Forum. Here's what Dr. Crawdad wrote to us:

Read the articles in the Sunday Cubune Sports: Two articles about the declining presence of African-Americans in MLB. Fine. Nice picture of a true hero, Jackie Robinson, at The Shrine. Fine.

Then there is Fred Mitchell’s column, "Robinson an inspiration to Cub greats." Here's the passing reference to the man who broke the color barrier in Chicago baseball, Minnie Minoso:

"Minnie Minoso was one of the first [black Latin] players to come over (1949)..."

The Cubune did not acknowledge the White Sox as the first Chicago MLB team to have a “black” player nor as the first Chicago MLB team to have an African-American player.

Chicago’s first “black” player, Minoso broke in with the Sox in May of 1951. Chicago’s first African-American player, Sam Hairston, debuted with the Sox in July of 1951. The Cubs followed the Sox's lead at the end of the 1953 season (September 15th) when Banks debuted with the Cubs.

No mention that, according to some, “blacks” were NOT allowed into Wrigley until Jackie Robinson played his first game there. Apparently after that first game, though, African-Americans were still not welcome at The Shrine. The following is from a Rick Telander story in Sports Illustrated, quoting Michael Wilbon, a sportswriter, a Chicago native, a graduate of St. Ignatius and Northwestern, and oddly, considering his experience, a Cubbies fan:

There is one other factor in determining the Cubs' and the Sox' fan bases. "Yes, it's north and south," says Chicago native Michael Wilbon, a sports columnist for The Washington Post and cohost of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption "But it's also racial." Wilbon, who grew up on the South Side, remembers that black Sox players and even black Cubs players lived near him because they couldn't get housing on the North Side. "My dad tried to go see Jackie Robinson at Wrigley in 1948, and he was turned away, and he vowed he would never go see the Cubs again. Walt (No Neck) Williams of the Sox lived near us, and Ernie Banks lived just east. We'd all take the "L" to Comiskey, like, 20 times a year. But Wrigley, that might as well have been in Minneapolis."

No mention in the Tribune of the fact that Comiskey Park was home to the Negro League All-Star games. No mention of the fact that blacks did attend Sox games well before Jackie's first game at The Shrine, as this 1930s Sun-Times picture documents:

The point is not that the White Sox or Comiskey Park were a bastion of racial harmony. Considering the times, I can’t help but believe that “blacks” attending Sox games (like the men pictured above) had to deal with indignities. The point is, though, that the Sox, Comiskey Park, and especially the first black players in Chicago, deserve recognition for what they did accomplish.

Keith Makenas adds: "I just wanted to add to the lovely Fred Mitchell article. He also forgot to mention that the White Sox appointed Larry Doby as the manager of the White Sox in 1978, Doby was the second African-American to lead a Major League club. The Cubs in 1999 hired their first black manager, Don Baylor, twenty one years later."