Thread: Tom Alston - The first black [crappy] player in Major League Baseball history

Sorry, Mr. Alston, you just happened to come up first. When looking through a list of black players (link) that broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball (by date/team), you were the first "bust" in the lot. It had to happen, eventually. Humans are human, after all.

Tom Alston's career, as summarized by Wikipedia:

He played in 66 games during his rookie season, batting .246 with 4 home runs and 34 runs batted in. After that, he got into 25 more games over the course of the next three seasons.

He apparently had some mental problems that hurt his ability to function in life, let alone in baseball, but that is neither here nor there.

I had no idea who Tom Alston is/was until looking him up. On the list mentioned above, he is one of three players of whom I had no recollection.

What is the point?

It is fairly simple - had Tom Alston been the first black Major League Baseball player instead of Jackie Robinson (or most of the others in the list), what impact would he have had on the overall phenomenon of black players in the Major Leagues?

To be certain, by now, it all would have resolved pretty much the same as it has. A prospect's race is [hopefully] not a factor at this point - whatever small amounts of that remain (i.e. Asian players) are disappearing.

Look at that list, again, though. Twenty-two players - their entry dates span twelve years. Any popular misconceptions that the barrier was "shattered" - that any flood gates opened when Jackie Robinson was selected...when he proved to be an outstanding player...even when he completed what was to be a [quite legitimate] Hall of Fame career - are nonsense. Jackie retired before three of those aforementioned twenty-two players even made it into the league.

What if it was Tom Alston...what if he happened to be first?

Tom would certainly - and rightfully - be a household name - to this day. He would be celebrated for breaking the barrier. He would be honored and respected for weathering one hell of a storm - dealing with hate and ignorance directed his way simply because the color of his skin.

He would also be regarded among the non-revisionists in attendance as a crappy player. He would have - without a doubt - set back the movement to integrate the league to some degree. For those that thought he wouldn't be capable because he was black, it would be touted as "evidence" of their point of view. For those that thought he would, somehow, automatically succeed because he was black, it would be a devastating blow. (Basically everybody who made race a major factor in this "racial milestone" would, in some way, be contributing to its defeat, at that fragile point in time).

Because of his distinction as the first, black Major League Baseball player, he wouldn't be allowed to melt into relative obscurity as he would have (and did) if he were either "not black" or "not a crappy ballplayer".

In a way, Tom got lucky. Dude had problems - that's a human condition. I'm sure he has - and deserves - a plaque (or whatever) in the St. Louis Cardinals' stadium honoring his distinction as the first black player on that team, but there probably is not much mentioning his play on the field or his problems that led to his truncated career. His relatively low profile, historically speaking, allows for that.

That is how history works. In the arena of baseball, unlike most other areas of life, hard stats cannot be denied. Perhaps somebody absurdly speaks of the one time Tom stole home to win a game (just made that up...didn't happen as far as I know) - and only that - in attempt to paint an unrealistically rosy picture. This following blurb from his Wiki is somewhat evidence of that mindset - in this case, IMHO, demonstrating either "condemnation by faint praise" or the "soft bigotry of low expectations" - it almost seems that somebody was compelled to say something [semi-]positive about his playing career:

In his 81 appearances at first base, he handled 680 out of 689 total chances successfully for a fielding percentage of .987, just slightly under the league average during his era.

Again...that is how history works.

So, now, the larger political point I was working upon:

Barrack Hussein Obama is no Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson. Quite to the contrary, he is Thomas Edison Alston.

BHO is black (enough to claim to be, so that settles it for me). BHO is the first black POTUS. BHO sucks and will fail miserably due to myriad factors having nothing to do with the color of his skin. (You'll have to trust me on that last one or wait it out like everybody else. Evidence is mounting, however, and can be found in roughly 8,249 other threads here. BHO is striving for the Mendoza Line even at this early point.)

Especially because of his increasing reliance upon race - as a means to attempt to divide and conquer - he will set back the progress of black politicians in the country (especially liberal ones). That is just a fact. Since that is, increasingly, becoming his defining characteristic, he will cause harm to the overall, um, "cause".

Just wait until he really starts floundering and failing...the media injection of race into every little thing will begin to annoy even some ex-hippies (Can you say, "Backfire"?). Since it has been decided by some in the leftist mainstream media that BHO "is too big to fail" (where have I heard that before?) there will be no limits - to the tortured rationalizations or the absurd accentuation of even the most minuscule positives.

When this debacle is complete, it will be a shame. BHO could have been "just another crappy POTUS" in a post-racial society. By their own doing - and running counter to the ideals of those such as Martin Luther King, however, he will be a crappy black POTUS. The first and only, to date, at that.

As a conservative who really, truly does look forward to content of character not just being king, but, in fact, being everything, this is unfolding as a sad, sad chapter in American history. I'd like to think a new course could be set, but the toothpaste is already out of the tube. BHO's hubris, tone-deafness, and addiction to un-American ideas and ideals that are destined to fail in conjunction with the increasing emphasis on all things racial precludes him fixing the situation.

Originally Posted by Speakeasy

Until the election of Obama, I had no idea that clairvoyants were such a huge part of the GOP's base.

Continuing with the analogy, I suppose it took a clairvoyant to not sign Tom Alston to the squad for the 1958 season - as opposed to somebody astute enough to simply observe history and behavior and make a sound prediction.