Silas Simmons and Baseball's Mixed Legacy

The New York Times has a nice feature on Silas Simmons, a former Negro Leagues player and quite likely the oldest living former professional. It's remarkable how sketchy much of our undrstanding is of some aspects of professional, and especially black baseball in the decades surrounding the turn of the last century. Si Simmons is a living connection to those times. Even more remarkable, and to most of us almost alien, is the very idea of a sports landscape in which any group, and especially African Americans, could be forbidden from participating because of race. And yet in April fans and historians will celebrate only the sixtieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson's integration of the Major Leagues. To put it differently, for almost half of his life, Si Simmons knew only of segregaton even on the playing fields where we preach the virtue of true equality. Imagine what the historical landscape of baseball would look like had an unwritten ban not kept huge numbers of truly great players from competing. Also keep it in mind when trying to compare players across eras. I'll forever remain undersold on Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson and myriad other great players who nonetheless did not have to compete against some of the best and brightest of their age.