Kurt Streeter is allegedly the New York Times; primary sports pundit, but if he has written more than a handful of columns that didn’t drag race into his commentary, I’d be surprised. Most sports fans would be happy never to have to think about the obsessions of partisans and social justice warriors while following their favorite teams and athletes, but it is the mission of activists posing as sports analysts to have that hope a pipe dream.
In his latest column, Streeter marvels at Luis Arraez, a Miami Marlins infielder and last year’s American League batting champion, who is making the first plausible run at a season-long .400 average since George Brett came close (.390) in 1980. Arraez, who makes the softest contact in the Major Leagues and might best be compared to “Wee” Willie Keeler, a 19th Century star known for poking baseballs “where they ain’t,” is a fun story this season, but Streeter being Streeter, he must examine Arraez through a racial lens. “No player,” Streeter informs us portentously, “has ever finished a season batting at or above .400 since Major League Baseball became an integrated game.”
Ah! I get it: Streeter is saying that all those other.400 seasons by white players aren’t really legit, because they didn’t have to face all the great black pitchers who were being kept out of the game by racism. In this he includes Ted Williams, the last .400 hitter (.406 in 1941), just a bit short of Babe Ruth as the greatest hitter in MLB history, implying that if “Teddy Ballgame” was playing in a fair league, he might not have hit .400 at all.
The contention can’t be proved or disproved, of course, but this is the second time in a week I’ve heard the argument and it is illogical and offensive. Consider:
- I guess I should begin with the fact that it is vanishingly unlikely that Arraez, now heading into Fenway Park for a Marlins series against the Red Sox, will hit .400 at all, so the issue is moot. He’s at .399 with the season not yet half-way over, and averages usually go down in the coming dog days of July and August, particularly when a player has been performing far over his established norm. Arraez is 26 and in his fifth season having never hit better than last year’s .316 for a full year. The player most statistically similar to him so far is the immortal Oliver Martell. When Williams hit .400, he was 23 and had already hit .344 the season before. I hope Arraez keeps playing over his head as long as possible, but if someone offers to bet you a hundred bucks that he’ll finish at .400 or over, take it. And him him my phone number.
- Streeter is engaging in the already tired and annoying trope from Woke World that “historic” is the valid equivalent of great or good, when teh qualifying feature relates to race, gender, ethnicity, or how the individual likes to have sex. Karine Jean Pierre, the President’s paid liar, extolled herself last week as “historic,” to which the proper response is “Who cares? You stink at your job!” Streeter is straining hard to label Arraez’s hypothetical .400 season as historic when even at its current level, his would be the least productive such year—by far— since 1900.
- As for the theory that Williams had it easier than Arraez because he didn’t have to face great black pitchers…it’s not just unprovable, it’s illogical and doesn’t mesh with the facts. In 1957, when there were about the same number of black pitchers in the Major Leagues as today, Ted hit .388, and he was 38 and too slow to beat out any infield hits. The stats show that a mid-career Williams would have had second .400 season. Secondly, there just weren’t that many great black pitchers who Williams would have had to face if the game wasn’t segregated. Half of them, like Don Newcombe would have been in the other league. Most of the excluded black pitchers would have been like most white pitchers: okay, but not great. Like Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and Willy Mays, Ted Williams could hit anyone. The proposition that his average would have been lower in a particular year because he may have faced black pitchers maybe 20 times for an unknown number of at bats is speculation, and speculation fueled by bias.
- When the Red Sox broadcasters, hyping the series that begins tonight, tried to push Streeter’s narrative, one said that “Ted even said so!” The reference was to Ted Williams’ famous and influential speech in Cooperstown when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1966. But Williams didn’t say that he only hit .400 because he didn’t have to face great black pitchers. What he said on the subject was this:
“Baseball gives every American boy a chance to excel. Not just to be as good as anybody else, but to be better. This is the nature of man and the name of the game. I hope some day Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson will be voted into the Hall of Fame as symbols of the great Negro players who are not here only because they weren’t given the chance.”
That’s all, but it was enough: no one had ever made such a strong public statement in favor of recognizing the great players of the Negro Leagues, and because he was Ted Fucking Williams (as catcher Moe Berg revealed that Williams called himself while he was taking batting practice), the game took notice, finally starting the process of honoring Paige, Gibson, and others.
Ted Williams was of Mexican descent, incidentally. Maybe that will get him a bit more respect from Kurt Streeter.
Ethics Alarms 
I see Streeter’s father was black and his mother was white. Had forgotten The Splendid Splinter’s mother was Mexican. The photo of him on his wiki page shows the Mexican features. He looks like a twin of Devin Booker, the NBA guard, whose mother is Mexican and Puerto Rican. I’d never seen that in Williams’s face. Fascinating.
What a great-looking man…and with palpable intelligence and intensity. Noe Berg, whom I mentioned in the post and probably the smartest baseball player ever, was fascinated by him.
“…who is making the first plausible run at a season-long .400 average since George Brett came close (.390) in 1980.”
Don’t forget about Tony Gwynn, who was hitting .394 when the strike shut down the 1994 season. Adding in the fact that Matt Williams was on pace to match Roger Maris with 61 homers and Frank Thomas might have been having a better season than either of them, we really were robbed of a special year.
And it killed the Montreal Expos franchise….
More—Gwynn, Carew, Brett, Boggs and Ichiro all could have hit .400 if they had a lucky season. Williams always said that Nomar Garciaparra could do it, but he couldn’t stay healthy.
Unfortunately, for a lot of black people everything is about race. As far as a lot of the people I’ve worked with are concerned, there are only two kinds of white people: conscious racists and unconscious racists, and more of us are conscious racists than think it.
Oh, sure, most of us are smart enough to look both ways before we tell a racist joke, and most of us are smart enough to keep that stuff out of our social media presences where it can be linked to us. Some of us probably don’t even think that forbidden word that there’s no reason for a white person ever to use. But when we say that black people offend at a greater rate, or that the percentage of black men who are attentive fathers is way down compared to other groups, or that slave labor didn’t build this country, we’re racist. When the Italians celebrate Columbus Day, they are racist. When the rest of America celebrates the 4th of July, they are racist. When other groups point out that they didn’t get exactly treated well or welcomed with open arms when they came here, they are racist. As far as a lot of them are concerned everything before 1964, or in some cases before 2020, doesn’t count, or has an asterisk next to it, because it was racist.
We acquired our second house in Pennsylvania from a resort owner who was selling off some lots. He had inherited the property from his father, who kept the price of cottage rentals at a certain level because he wanted a certain clientele. Never once did he say a word, but the practical effect was to price black people out, and the son continued the policy. When the sun decided to sell some lots, he never published anything. He offered them to his customers, and not all of those. Because he liked my parents, he offered them a lot. I’ll give you one guess what color all the other customers he offered lots to were. The value has gone up over the years, and, if and when the rail link to New York is completed, the value will really take off. Mom is already out of the picture, and my father just had his 80th birthday, so we don’t know how much longer he will be around, although he is definitely in better shape than the president. One day I’m going to inherit this and by doing that and benefiting from these de facto racist actions, I become tainted even though I’ve never really done anything.
You see, people like Streeter, whatever their formal education may have been, didn’t concern themselves so much with the three Rs as with another set of Rs. That set is Racism, Resentment, and Reparations. They may read well or not that well, but they know that this country is a racist country founded, populated, and ruled by racists. They may write well or barely be able to write their names, but they resent everything that they think is unfair, whether it really is unfair or not. As far as they’re concerned, if it’s unfair today it’s because someone is a racist now. If it is no longer unfair but the results don’t seem to be going their way, it’s because someone was a racist in the past. They may be mathematical whizzes or barely be able to recite the multiplication tables, but they know they were cheated, both by those who came before them having to provide free labor, and by those now who indirectly benefited from that. Plus they did not get their 40 acres and a mule, which interest has been accumulating on since 1865. Someone owes them, and they really don’t care who pays it at this point.
With that mentality, should it have come as a surprise that some of them make their money off of these grievances, sometimes by pointing out how the heroes we cling to, whether on the battlefield or on the playing field, did it in an unfair environment, where if things were different, maybe they wouldn’t have achieved as much? It may be complete and utter nonsense, and it’s really impossible to know how something would have turned out, but, as far as they are concerned, it was unfair, and it’s tainted. Apparently no one ever pointed out that it’s kind of pointless to dwell on what would have happened, or what could have happened, or what might have happened, when you can still answer the question of what will happen. But, they would probably say that’s racist too, and it’s an attempt to erase their struggles. It’s completely lost on them that they want to do the same thing to other folks.
As I said in another post, as I write this, it’s not even 7:00 in the morning, and most people would say, “come on, my coffee hasn’t even kicked in.” Maybe so, but I’ll remind you again that 3 years ago folks like this writer wouldn’t let you do anything at all without getting in your face and demanding that you join their cause. I don’t think asking that you think a little while you eat your breakfast is that great of an imposition.
My biggest argument in Williams’ favor – other than his obvious freak-a-zoid ability to see a baseball – is that much of the increase in average, HR totals, and most all meaningful hitting stats since 1990 can be attributed to expansion. Four teams were added in 1993 and 1994, which means about fifty pitchers that were destined to live in the minor leagues became major-league pitchers in order to fill out the rosters.
This watering down of the pitching pool meant that good hitters got a chance to see a lot more mediocre guys standing sixty feet away staring down the catcher. How many teams were around when Williams played?…eight?…I think it’s eight.
It’s not fair to compare baseball from the 40s to today’s game, but Williams hit .406 against the best pitchers of his time, and the color of their skin mattered not one iota.
Arraez is having a great season at the plate, and if he hits .400, kudos to him. He will have done it against the best pitchers of his time, and the color of their skin matters not one iota, except in Streeter’s warped mind (and those with minds like his).
Kurt Streeter is a racist hack.
But we must all worship at the altar of the new Holy Trinity: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. And if you don’t think these are the new gods, just remember the Latin word for “gods”: Dei.
DEI. Isn’t that Discrimination, Exclusion and Indoctrination?