Mariner Talk Chat Forum

Jay and I have gone to two games in the past. One at Petco DR vs. PR and one in Pheonix. USA vs Canada. Such a great experience.

Weird how black Americans loved baseball so much they started their own league, but now they don't want anything to do with it.

Sibelius Hindemith wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 07, 2026 4:06 am

Weird how black Americans loved baseball so much they started their own league, but now they don't want anything to do with it.

What's weird about it, they were excluded from MLB because of blatant racism. Just because they integrated wouldn't mean those attitudes just vanished. That's the thing about the perceived accomplishment of integrating the MLs, it doesn't account for the destruction of the Negro leagues. I don't know the history of pro sports but my feeling is basketball and football rose during that period without a lot of that racial baggage.

I took a quick look, football was originally integrated from it's turn of the century inception but then was segregated from 1934 and then re-integrated ten years later, that's pretty strange

What is weird to me is that of all the teams in MLB up until integration, only the Cardinals were in a former slave state. All the other teams were in Northern Union states thought fought and sacrificed thousands of lives to end slavery only to not allow them to play MLB in their states. Just bizarre.

D-train wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 07, 2026 3:33 pm

What is weird to me is that of all the teams in MLB up until integration, only the Cardinals were in a former slave state. All the other teams were in Northern Union states thought fought and sacrificed thousands of lives to end slavery only to not allow them to play MLB in their states. Just bizarre.

Hey another history thread! ...i wouldn't really put it that way. They fought to preserve the union more than to free slaves. I think it was more political than crusading.

It's interesting to me that if you look back on baseball 100-150.years ago really how much more popular it was then then than today, or perhaps important. I don't think we can grasp that , the role it held. And it began with this natural attitude of the time that it was reserved for white people. It wasn't hatred, it was tradition. The hatred evolved from trying to break the tradition

It is weird thinking about it. The union army might have been fighting to free slaves but it was also segregated. WW2.is where that thinking began to collapse isn't it. The hypocrisy of the situation. And music, you get to the 50s and popular music is naturally integrating.

Donn Beach wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 07, 2026 4:08 pm

D-train wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 07, 2026 3:33 pm

What is weird to me is that of all the teams in MLB up until integration, only the Cardinals were in a former slave state. All the other teams were in Northern Union states thought fought and sacrificed thousands of lives to end slavery only to not allow them to play MLB in their states. Just bizarre.

Hey another history thread! ...i wouldn't really put it that way. They fought to preserve the union more than to free slaves. I think it was more political than crusading.

It's interesting to me that if you look back on baseball 100-150.years ago really how much more popular it was then then than today, or perhaps important. I don't think we can grasp that , the role it held. And it began with this natural attitude of the time that it was reserved for white people. It wasn't hatred, it was tradition. The hatred evolved from trying to break the tradition

Yeah Football and Basketball were nothing 80+ years ago. They were like Lacrosse and Rugby today. Now they are huge. And college football with the likes of Red Grange and such were bigger than the NFL.

Yeah, baseball and college. The University of Washington ruled in the Pacific NW. I remember it being more important. You'd follow things like crew, wrestling, college sports have faded

Baseball in Japan, S. Korea, Dominican Rep. Venezuela, Cuba, etc is now arguably a bigger part of the culture than it is in the U.S..

high school baseball is about as popular in Japan as professional. They have a championship that's hugely popular, Koshien

To watch one of these games is to witness first-hand perhaps the purest example we have these days of playing for love of sport and school. Batters shout a rally cry when they step up the plate, slide headfirst into first base on normally routine ground-outs, all to show their dedication and hustle.

While several athletes have become nationwide stars by virtue of their heroics at Koshien – Sadaharu Oh, Hideki Matsui, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Yu Darvish, Masahiro Tanaka, Shohei Ohtani and more – the great majority are names who vanish into society after the final siren