More than a whiff of hate
What in the name of Pumpsie Green is going on at the White House?
Who’s Pumpsie Green? He was the first black player on the Boston Red Sox, the last Major League Baseball team to integrate. How long did it take for the Red Sox — which passed on Willie Mays — to finally come around? Green made his debut in 1959. Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball’s color line in 1947, had already been retired for three years.
The Red Sox franchise was no pillar of progress. And now that shameful history is coming back to haunt them.
The team traveled to the White House Thursday to get President Trump’s pat on the back for winning last year’s World Series.
But while players managed to be in sync on the field, they were divided about visiting Trump. And the division, like many things in Boston, was along racial lines. White players gave Trump another jersey he didn’t need. Most of the black and Hispanic players stayed home.
So did team manager Alex Cora, who said he would “not feel comfortable” celebrating with Trump after his administration’s shoddy response to Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico in 2017.
Cora waved Puerto Rico’s flag last year during the city’s championship parade.
“I’ve used my voice on many occasions so that Puerto Ricans are not forgotten and my absence is no different,” Cora said days before the ceremony. “As such, at this moment, I don’t feel comfortable celebrating in the White House.”
Cora, and most of the team’s black and Hispanic players, including American League Most Valuable Player Mookie Betts, were boycotting a president who called black football players “sons of bitches” for kneeling during the national anthem to protest racism and police brutality.
They were boycotting a president who congratulated the NFL’s No. 2 draft pick, Nick Bosa, a Trump supporter, and author of several racially-charged tweets, while saying nothing about Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray, who was picked No. 1. Bosa is white. Murray is black.
Trump, during the White House ceremony, made no mention of the absent players or their defiant manager.
When it was time to step up to the plate, Trump did what he usually does with issues involving racial discord: He struck out.
He didn’t even take a swing.