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I’ve been thinking about the blog Tony Pierce posted a few days ago which was titled “Garret Anderson Doesn’t Care About Black People,” and although I didn’t initially want to respond to it, I feel that it’s necessary for me to do so. Let me start out by saying that I’ve received a handful comments on my posts that have basically implied that I don’t know what I’m talking about when I’ve expressed my opinions on the Angels, and I don’t respond to them for two reasons. The first is that I don’t see the point in getting into a pissing contest with people I’ve never even met before. The second reason I don’t respond is because I respect a person’s right to their opinion, and even if I don’t agree with them, I don’t think it’s my job to slam them for expressing it. With all that being said, I absolutely respect Tony’s opinion and he has a right to it, but when somebody writes what he wrote about a guy who I feel didn’t deserve to get thrown under a bus, I’ve gotta respond to it.
In the blog in question, Tony wrote that because Garret Anderson is choosing not to wear Jackie Robinson’s number this April 15th, Anderson doesn’t care about black people. The number was retired by baseball 10 years ago, but it’s being un-retired for one day to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball. The idea for un-retiring the number came from Ken Griffey Jr., who called Bud Selig to ask for permission to wear the number on the 15th. Selig loved the idea, and asked Griffey if he would mind other players wearing the number that day. Griffey didn’t mind, and as a result, number 42 will be worn all over MLB on April 15th. Anderson was approached by the Angels to wear the number on the 15th, but he declined. When asked by the media about it, GA responded by saying, "It wasn't my idea, and I'm not the type of person to jump on the bandwagon because someone else is doing something. If I did it just because someone else was doing it, it would seem kind of empty to me."
Although I respect Tony’s opinion, I feel like he responded to the first half of the quote, and ignored the second half of it. Anderson essentially said that if he wore the number just because other guys were doing it, it wouldn’t mean anything to him. To me, it’s as if GA was saying that he thinks that because wearing the number was Griffey’s idea, he should be the only one to do it. I think he’s saying that it means more to him if you have one guy wear the number than if you run 30 guys out there wearing the number. Do I think GA should’ve agreed to wear the number? Yes, however I don’t see how this means that he doesn’t care about African Americans. But to think that Anderson would ever want the attention of wearing the number is ignoring the first 13 years of his career.
Tony, can you, or anybody for that matter, find another quote that Garret Anderson has made since he made his Angels debut in 1994 that gives the impression that GA doesn’t care about black people? Let’s take that a step further, how many Garret Anderson quotes can you find since 1994 that have been inflammatory at all? I’m guessing not that many, because that’s not GA. The fact of the matter is that since 1994, GA’s been a guy who just wants to play baseball, to the point where it’s frustrated the media because when it’s come to quotes and interviews, they’ve always wanted more from him than they’ve received. But that’s GA, he’s always shied away from the spotlight. He’s never done many endorsements because he’s never wanted the attention. To not wear number 42 on the 15th of April isn’t his way of saying that he doesn’t respect baseball tradition (although I don’t see how wearing a number that’s been retired for ten years is a tradition since this is the first number that’s been retired throughout baseball, and they don’t regularly un-retire it for a single day). GA isn’t about all the attention that would come from wearing the number, that’s just not him. 46 years ago there was another guy who got a lot of crap because he shied away from attention, his name was Roger Maris. The media made his life miserable because he wasn’t quotable and didn’t like the spotlight. I can’t imagine what would’ve happened if he’d have played in the age of the internet.
Calling Garret Anderson selfish means you probably haven’t paid attention to what he’s done in the community.The guy donates college scholarships, and has been involved in campaigns for the Boy Scouts, Responsible Fatherhood, and the Boys and Girls Club of America. He’s not donating non-black scholarships, and none of those organizations exclude African Americans. If you were going to write something saying that Garret Anderson doesn’t care about black people, you should’ve done your homework. Half an hour of searching on the internet would’ve shown you that he’s a guy with a history of giving back to the community, and isn’t a card carrying member of the KKK. To write that he doesn’t care about black people because he won’t wear a number is like saying that anybody who doesn’t give money to AIDS charities is pro-AIDS and wants the illness to spread. That’s just not right.
Let’s think about Jackie Robinson for a minute. Do you think he’s looking down right now, upset that Garret Anderson won’t wear his number on April 15th? I think if you could ask Jackie Robinson how he could best be honored, he’d tell you that the best way to do it would be for African American baseball players to bring their A-game day in and day out, and excel at the game that Branch Rickey gave him the opportunity to play at the highest level. And Garret Anderson has excelled at the highest level of baseball in the world. The guy is a career .296 hitter, he’s driven in 1130 runs, and from 1995 through 2005, Derek Jeter was the only player in the major leagues to have more hits than GA. He may not be an obvious hall of famer like Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. will be, but he has something those guys don’t have, a World Series championship ring. And although Anderson isn’t the player he was a few years ago, he’s still only 34 years old, so he’s probably got 5 or 6 seasons left. Will he get to 3,000 hits, probably not, but he definitely has a chance to get close to it. I think that if you could ask Jackie Robinson right now what he thought of Garret Anderson, he’d tell you he was proud to see Garret Anderson, a young African American, spend the last 13 years making the most of his God-given ability and the opportunity he was given.
AP photo by Francis Specker
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maybe it's because i'm black i take this more personally than the average LAist reader or contributer. but for the record i never said that GA was racist. i said, and i stand by what i said, that he doesnt care about black people, in this case Jackie Robinson.
this tribute day isnt for Garret, it isnt for Ken Griffey, it's for the first black man who took great abuse to be the first black baseball player.
in American culture, and especially african american culture, respect is everything, and in sports culture your number means something. to refuse to wear someones number on a day set aside to honor them is pointblank disrespectful.
and to do it to Jackie Robinson, on the 60th anniversary of him breaking the color barrier diminishes everything Garret has ever done on or off the field. which, by the way, pales in comparison to the things Jackie did on or off the field. big time.
im not doing it because im not feeling it, is not a valid excuse. its unacceptable. and it deserved to have bullshit called on it.
its the sign of a deeply flawed character of someone who is so far removed from the african american experience and how it relates to baseball that in hindsight its good that Garret Anderson will not be wearing the number, because he really doesn't deserve to.
the Lord hardened the right heart.
Tony,
Would it change your mind if GA had been asked if he was interested in wearing 42 after only Griffey had decided to wear it? Meaning "Hey GA, wanna be #2?" I agreed with your sentiment until I heard something in the pre-game that maybe GA had been approached very early. Still I think his decision is lame. But then again I think it is totally stupid that ALL of the Dodgers will wear the same #. Ok OK we get it.
GA was probably not the second person asked, Bonds was probably the second person approached. GA probably wasnt even in the Top 5 (im guessing Sheff, Derek Lee, and maybe Carlos Lee since the Astros dont have any black players) either way this isnt VH-1 Divas, this is a tribute to a great American - who got asked first is a whine I could tolerate in the girls locker room, but not from alleged professionals.
Also, it was Griffey's idea. Griff asked permission to wear #42 ten years ago on the 50th anniversary, and he should be congratulated for wanting to share that spotlight with other black stars this year.
Although I lean toward your sentiments about the Dodgers, I think their heart is in the right place.
Dustin, thanks for sending me this link. As I see it, I don't know whether or not Garrett Anderson cares about black people. I think Tony phrased it this way as an intentionally glib Kanye reference for exaggerated humorous effect. To be less exaggerated and more specific, Anderson seems to at the very least not care about honoring Jackie Robinson in this way right now. Why? I'm not sure, and I just don't buy his reason because it's a non sequitor. He's not being asked to do participate because others are, he's being asked to participate to honor Jackie Robinson. I'm going to take a big leap of logic and suggest that only supremely self-centered person would confuse the two. It's not about him in relation to a rather small group of other people, it's about him in relation to Jackie Robinson. Whomever asked him incorrectly assumed he would be inclined to pay tribute in this rather harmless way. I am going to take a smaller leap of logic here and propose that a person who felt a deep appreciation for Robinson's legacy would be eager to participate, regardless of who came up with the idea, since after all he's only being asked to wear a number, not sell his soul to the Devil. Obviously, I think the criticism is warranted. If I were he, I would just wear the d---m number, not because everybody else is, but because I would likely feel that as a successful black baseball player it would be an honor to me and Jackie Robinson. Anderson does not feel similarly and is fully free to be true to himself. If he can weather the criticism, more power to him.
Garrett should be called out far and wide for his comments, which reflects ingorance about the significance of #42, the man and the number. Garrett apparently does not realize the honor of being asked to wear Jackie Robinson's number. Say what you may about Barry Bonds, but he has deep respect for the game, and the legends who came before him to make it possible for Blacks and Latins to play the game today. Any time the Giants honor Mays, McCovey, Marichal and the other Giants black and latin greats, Barry is there. When asked to wear number 42, Barry didn't hestitate. I'm very suspicious of pundits who didn't know or have never spoken with the family or close associates of folks like Martin Luther King or Jackie Robinson when they say "if Martin or Jackie were around todoy, they would have..." The tribute to Jackie Robinson's 60th anniversity was fully vetted with Jackie's widow and his family, and they enthaustically approve what MLB is doing. Garrett's refusal to acknowledge the importance of what Jackie did not just for baseball, but for all sports, is the very reason baseball needs to do something every April 15 to remind the sports world about the importance of Jackie Robinson, particularly when you have young players, especially the japanese and latin players, who have no idea of who Jackie was or that at one time baseball was an whites only game.
Garrett's attitude also reinforces the stereotype of the athlete who's either not smart enough to take a stand on an important issue, or concerned that taking an intelligent, but maybe controversial position on an issue will hurt endor$ement deal$. I'm not talking about making slurs or insults. HBO has a special on now about UCLA Coach Wooden. The film shows that Kareen and Walton, as well as other players under Wooden were very involved in the civil rights and anti war movement. Walton was arrested during anti war protests and the entire Walton team sent an anti war protest letter to Nixon. Blacks on Wooden's UCLA teams boycotted the Olympics in support of the Black power movement. Could you picture athletes, either on the college or pro level, doing that today?
Tiger Woods now realizes the mistake he made in not participating in Jackie's 50th anniversity ceremony. Let's hope Garrett does the right thing by apologizing for saying no to wearing Jackie's number and does something significant to honor Jackie. The Angels are going to be in Boston on the 15th...Boston the was last team in the majors to sign up a Black player...could be interesting