Decision 2024: Its Hard Enough Being A Professional Athlete Without Being Political
Or No One’s Going To Vote A Certain Way Because Caitlin Clark Says So
One of the baseball players I admire and respect the most was the great Cardinal pitcher Bob Gibson. Gibson was one of the most dominant pitchers of the 1960s and possibly the most fearsome one in baseball history. The latter is said by all of the players who played alongside him and those who had the misfortune of batting against him.
In his career from 1959 to 1975 Gibson won 251 games and struck out 3110 batters. When he retired that number was second only to Walter Johnson in the all-time record books. Gibson managed to win 20 games or more five times during his career — not an easy feat considering that the Cardinal offense was incredibly stingy when he pitched. This could not be made more clear in regard to his historic 1968 season, when he registered the lowest ERA in National League history: 1.12. He threw thirteen shutouts, struck out 268 batters and threw 28 complete games. He went 22–9 mainly because the Cardinals were only able to average three runs every time he started. Had he gotten four runs in each start, he would have gone 30–2.
Even in the era of the extended postseason it is highly unlikely many of the marks he set during the three World Series he played in will ever be broken. He set a record for most strikeouts in the 1964 World Series with 31 against the Yankees, a record he broke against the Tigers four years later with 35. He struck out 17 Tigers in Game 1 of the 1968 World Series, a record that will surely stand forever. He won all seven of his World Series starts consecutively — each of them a complete game. He threw eight complete World Series games, two shutouts and in the 1967 World Series won three complete games in which he gave up just fourteen hits total. In all of the World Series history only Christy Mathewson matched him when he threw three shutouts in five days. For his efforts Gibson is one of only three men in history to win the MVP in two World Series, a record that has only been matched by Sandy Koufax, Reggie Jackson and Cory Seger.
Gibson would never be able to have the record he did today for another reason: he threw at batters. A lot. And he went out of his way to hit them. Bill White had been Gibson’s roommate when they were on the Cardinals. However when White was traded to Philadelphia he knew the first time he faced Gibson, White was going to hit him. And it didn’t surprise him. Gibson was telling him: “We’re not roommates anymore.”
Gibson was also the first African-American pitcher to earn the label of superstar. And he could be fierce with everybody. This included the media. In a world where race was becoming more and more a militant issues among African-Americans Gibson was not particularly political. In fact after attending a Black Power meeting during the 1960s, he made it clear that wasn’t for him. “Really sounds like Black Power isn’t really any different from White Power,” he is quoted in David Halberstam’s iconic baseball book October 1964. This was keeping much with the attitude of baseball as a whole not just in the 1960s but historically: Baseball was America’s game but it was never as political as so many other sports were becoming.
What made Gibson polarizing — at least among the media — was that he was never humble about his achievements, never polite. Roger Angell remembered after what was his crowning achievement: after setting the strikeout record in Game 1 of the 1968 World Series. Everyone believed Gibson would be humble or modest having set this mark. Instead in the press conference afterwards he was exactly the same.
A reporter asked him: “Are you surprised by what you did today?” Gibson didn’t pause. “I’m never surprised by anything I do.” According to Angell, the entire crowd of reporters went dead quiet as if everyone was thinking: “What did he say?” In the aftermath of a World Series win, you were supposed to be humble and polite. This victory did nothing to soften Gibson’s edges.
But for all Gibson’s brilliance, I am always impressed by his bluntness and his candor. There’s a remark he made when a reporter decided to ask him if he considered himself a role model. And he took it very personally.
“Why should I be a role model for your kid? You be a role model for your kid.”
I really think that is the only answer any athlete in any profession should ever have to give. It is hard enough to make it to the professional in any sports, harder still to become a regular, even harder to become a superstar. Trying to be a professional athlete takes a level of dedication that most of us can’t even conceive of. To ask them to do anything more — particularly when it comes to such issues as politics — has always struck me as going to far, and for an African-American athlete in white America — particularly professional sports which is still almost entirely controlled by white men — has struck me as the kind of risk most athlete shouldn’t be asked to take. They have nothing to gain from it, and everything to lose.
Gibson is never listed among the athletes known for his political views but he wasn’t blind. He would have seen the consequences that befell Muhammad Ali when he refused to fight in Vietnam and John Carlos and Tommie Smith when they raised a black power salute at the 1968 Olympics. He also knew that while the times they were a changing, in baseball in the 1960s, nothing had at all. Baseball players were still horribly underpaid due to the reserve clause and had no power with management. Before spring training Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale had engaged in a hold out from the Dodgers where they demanded a million dollars apiece, wanted to be dealt with through their agents, not with them and as a unit, not separately. Koufax and Drysdale had collectively won 49 games in 1965 and the Dodgers had narrowly won the National League Pennant by 2 games and had won a total of three of the World Series game over the Twins in 1965. They rightly concluded without them pitching, the Dodgers would finish in the cellar.
But Walter O’Malley the Dodger owner refused to even entertain the idea. Because of the reserve clause no other team was going to even considering making an offer for either pitcher no matter how much they would have wanted them. The fact that the Dodgers would be out of contention without them was irrelevant: owners would rather lost the pennant then give the players any freedom and with the reserve clause, they had the ability to just wait them out. Which is exactly what happened. Drysdale and Koufax eventually gave in and at considerably less than what they wanted.
Things have improved immensely for athletes at a financial level, no one will argue that now. But what hasn’t changed for any professional athlete is the window you have to be a success. It will depend on the sport you play — for baseball or basketball, you might have fifteen or twenty years; for football, you’re often lucky to have ten — but it’s never as long as you want and there’s only so much money you make. That’s of course, assuming you can remain healthy your entire career which never happens. It’s risky enough surviving a career as an athlete. So why should you want to risk it for any outside factor?
Back in 1990 North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, a Republican senator who could politely be considered polarizing, was up for reelection. His opponent was the former Mayor of Charlotte Harvey Gantt, an African-American. Much has been made of the fact that Gantt’s team wanted Jordan’s endorsement because they belied that the endorsement of Jordan — an African-American from North Carolina — would put Gantt over the top. Jordan famously said: “Republicans buy sneakers, too” when he chose to stay out of it.
Many consider that as a sign that Jordan betrayed his race. I’d argue he was incredibly diplomatic. Jordan knew very well what happened to African-American athletes who took stands during the 1960s all the way up to 1990. Jordan was already one of the best basketball players in the game but he was nowhere near the superstar he would become. Indeed during that same period the Bulls kept losing to the Pistons in the postseason; they would not get their first championship until 1991. Jordan had been in basketball for six years, and he was already one of the games most iconic figures — but he was also very aware that he served at the pleasure of the owners and not the other way around.
White ownership in any sports has never been kind to African-American athletes. (They’re also not kind to white athletes or other minorities.) Owners have always considered their players employees, albeit very rich ones. But that doesn’t mean they won’t discard them when they get old, trade them for younger players, or get rid of them rather than pay their exorbitant contracts when they become free agents. And they also don’t want to do anything that might cause their box office to suffer — and they will do anything when they see something that might hurt it.
Jordan might have been more truthful had he said: “Republicans buy Bulls tickets, too.” Jordan was not yet in a position to be able to command the public attention — and to be clear, that was not something professional athletes did in the 1990s. Jordan’s concerns in the fall of 1990 had to be getting the Bulls to the Finals; whether or not a Democrat could become Senator in North Carolina had to be at the bottom of his priorities. And what evidence was there that Jordan’s endorsement would mean anything in North Carolina? Why wouldn’t it have been met with mutterings that he was a carpetbagger, interfering with state affairs, or being ‘uppity?” There’s just as much chance someone working for Helms would have told Jordan to shut up and dribble. Asking for Jordan’s endorsement cost Gantt’s team nothing. Giving it could have cost Jordan everything — and there’s no proof it would have worked.
This is a point that Lebron James has made in the last decade as he has become the most prominent voice for athletes in all of sports. He even used Jordan’s cowardice in a documentary series he produced for Showtime called ‘Shut Up and Dribble’. The thing is, it is easy for James and all of his followers to revere him now and admonish Jordan in hindsight. James was a child in 1990 and he didn’t live through the eras that Jordan did or have to see what so many other athletes in that era had to. James can advocate from his position and I don’t deny he doesn’t have a right to use his platform.
However I would remind him — and indeed all those who argue athletes should take the same courageous stands that James can now — of the words of Chris Rock in his 2004 standup special Never Scared.
“If you’re black, you can do well in America. You can be successful in America. You can even get rich in America. But you had better not make anyone bad doing it…or you will be cut down in a heartbeat.”
Jordan knew that very well in 1990 and no one will even pretend its not still true today. For my first witness I call Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick might say he’s fine being an icon and celebrated but I will guarantee you at least once a day he really wishes he’d been willing to just play ball symbolically so he could play it literally. He will not say so in public but he must be thinking it.
America will tear anyone down it doesn’t like. And I should mention this is true on a world stage as well. The silver medalist at the 1968 Summer Olympics Peter Norman, like Smith and Carlos, was wearing a badge from the Olympic project for Human Rights, a movement among athletes supporting the battle for equality. Australia was heavily segregated and Norman was blackballed from competing in future Olympic events. Australia’s greatest sprinter, he wasn’t even invited to participate in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Norman was white but in the eyes of the world he was made just as much an outcast. Taking a stand might be something that puts you on the right side of history but if you are banned from the sport you love and can never find work for the rest of your life because of it, the personal costs may far outweigh what you do.
So when I hear that someone thinks that Caitlin Clark owes it to the country to make an endorsement in the 2024 election I genuinely wonder what this person is thinking. Caitlin Clark has been in the WNBA for less than a year and has already become a polarizing figure among women’s basketball fans and African-Americans. To call her a superstar at the level of James is ludicrous on so many levels, not the least of which is the pay disparity. The highest paid star in the WNBA doesn’t make a fraction of the sixth man of any NBA team. Clark is supposed to sacrifice her entire career so she can get more followers from the right people on Twitter? I hate to break it to these people but Clark’s endorsement has no more chance of turning Indiana blue than Taylor Swift does of turning Tennessee blue. And don’t pretend for a moment that Clark has anywhere near the same fame as Swift; she certainly doesn’t have the financial cushion to survive if she was blacklisted.
It’s difficult enough to be a professional athlete; to ask them to use their platform to try and win hearts and minds is not only unfair, it’s ridiculous. They have nothing to gain from doing this except being cheered online in the right circles momentarily. The long term consequences to them are all too easy to imagine and play out time and again. Their job primarily is to focus on their team winning and making the playoffs. Everything else not only is secondary and is too much to ask of them. And it’s not their jobs.
And what is the argument that these people make? That by endorsing Harris and Democrats they are helping lay the groundwork for a better nation? Well, I think Bob Gibson said it best and I’ll paraphrase it:
“Why should I make a better world for your kid? You make a better world for your kid.”
It was true half a century ago. It’s just as true today.