{"id":468,"date":"2000-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2000-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/multiracial.com\/wp\/index.php\/2000\/01\/01\/how-a-white-kid-from-south-jersey-born-too-late-to-see-him-play-comes-to-love-jackie-robinson\/"},"modified":"2016-12-13T08:18:21","modified_gmt":"2016-12-13T08:18:21","slug":"how-a-white-kid-from-south-jersey-born-too-late-to-see-him-play-comes-to-love-jackie-robinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/2000\/01\/01\/how-a-white-kid-from-south-jersey-born-too-late-to-see-him-play-comes-to-love-jackie-robinson\/","title":{"rendered":"How A White Kid From South Jersey, Born Too Late To See Him Play, Comes To Love Jackie Robinson"},"content":{"rendered":"

How A White Kid From South Jersey, Born Too Late To See Him Play, Comes To Love Jackie Robinson<\/H3><\/center> by Frank Van Zant<\/A><\/I>
<\/p>\n

<\/span>I. Philadelphia<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

I am connected to Jackie Robinson<\/o:p><\/p>\n

through this unbrotherly city <\/o:p><\/p>\n

happy friendly Philly<\/o:p><\/p>\n

from which we both<\/o:p><\/p>\n

escaped.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/span>II. Misodelphia, 1968<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Nothing Robinson heard <\/o:p><\/p>\n

in 1947 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

from Ben WhiteSheet Chapman &amp; Gang<\/o:p><\/p>\n

was much different<\/o:p><\/p>\n

from what I remember hearing<\/o:p><\/p>\n

that night <\/o:p><\/p>\n

and so many countless times<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

when I was seven and going<\/o:p><\/p>\n

with my neighbor friends and their dad<\/o:p><\/p>\n

to my first game at the ballpark<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Old Connie Mack Stadium<\/o:p><\/p>\n

on our way through car-lined city streets<\/o:p><\/p>\n

seeing brown-skinned people <\/o:p><\/p>\n

kids touching car fenders<\/o:p><\/p>\n

roll up your windows, they\u2019re out in force tonight<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

III. <\/span>South Jersey, 1970<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Gertrude Cunningham, 4th Grade Teacher,<\/o:p><\/p>\n

at Mary Roberts Elementary School<\/o:p><\/p>\n

lone black woman in that simmering suburbia<\/o:p><\/p>\n

those Pine White Barrens<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

accomplished something robinsonesque<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

to have inspired Freddie Floyd (believe it! Freddie Floyd!)<\/o:p><\/p>\n

who ran outraged, in tears, shouting Mrs Cunningham,<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Mrs Cunningham, look! <\/span>On the map of Africa, <\/o:p><\/p>\n

they printed something terrible; look right there,<\/o:p><\/p>\n

they call that country N – I – G – E – R!<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

She laughed a bit at his misreading but she <\/o:p><\/p>\n

was proud of him for his caring and protest.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/span>IV. Willie Montanez, 1971<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Crusader or not, Guillermo, <\/o:p><\/p>\n

glove flipping, bucket stepping<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Willie The Phillie<\/o:p><\/p>\n

became my inadvertant Jackie Robinson<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

when I was modeling his batting style<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

yelling Willie Mon-tan-yez drives one deep<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

when one white kid laughed at me<\/o:p><\/p>\n

for the kind of person I was emulating:<\/o:p><\/p>\n

the way Willie didn\u2019t suit him<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

and an older white kid–<\/o:p><\/p>\n

insulted, fiery, righteous– <\/o:p><\/p>\n

punched that budding racist in the face.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

It was a learning time<\/o:p><\/p>\n

on those all-white but dividing playgrounds<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

V. <\/span>Emmett Ashford Was My Butch Henline *<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/span>Anchorage, Alaska 1982<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

I was the only white guy on the field for my team when<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

I met Emmett Ashford on the shouting end <\/o:p><\/p>\n

of a close play at second,<\/o:p><\/p>\n

my tag on the runner\u2019s foot<\/o:p><\/p>\n

in front of the bag<\/o:p><\/p>\n

but Emmett\u2019s arms stretched wide, <\/o:p><\/p>\n

flashy and major league and incorrect<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

so I said \u201cyou blew that one, blue, c\u2019mon<\/o:p><\/p>\n

umps have to hustle too\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

so he said to the 2B man \u201cobviously,<\/o:p><\/p>\n

he doesn\u2019t know who I am, better tell him\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

so I said \u201cwell I know you blew that call\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

and the 2B man told me shut the hell up<\/o:p><\/p>\n

before you blow the game<\/o:p><\/p>\n

you were right but now you\u2019re wrong<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

I know today what a jerk I was, <\/o:p><\/p>\n

arguing with Emmett Ashford,<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Emmett Ashford!<\/o:p><\/p>\n

and I knew enough then to apologize<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

and the great thing I felt then<\/o:p><\/p>\n

for the first time in my life<\/o:p><\/p>\n

through the racists I\u2019ve known, the opportunities I\u2019ve had<\/o:p><\/p>\n

on that ballfield, that equalizer of people,<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I was just another guy<\/o:p><\/p>\n

the 2B man was just another guy<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Emmett Ashford was just another ex-major-leaguer-status guy<\/o:p><\/p>\n

we were all just another guy<\/o:p><\/p>\n

playing ball<\/o:p><\/p>\n

loving that fight to win. <\/span> <\/span><\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/span>*from JR\u2019s chapter, \u201cJust Another Guy\u201d <\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/span>VI. Reading I Never Had It Made, 1997<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t all in his dancing off third,<\/o:p><\/p>\n

not in his crabclaw running,<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/span>his \u201cfootball shoulders\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/span>his intimidating temper<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

It was after his career, THERE, page 282, <\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cbeing real isn\u2019t qualified by skin color <\/o:p><\/p>\n

but by character\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Because more should be said of<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Jackie Robinson as social philosopher<\/o:p><\/p>\n

who thought ahead of his time<\/o:p><\/p>\n

who might have had the urge to hate <\/o:p><\/p>\n

a random Anglo <\/o:p><\/p>\n

but would not condemn one<\/o:p><\/p>\n

for his whiteness<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

who had the grace to assess<\/o:p><\/p>\n

a person\u2019s character <\/o:p><\/p>\n

by that person\u2019s character, <\/o:p><\/p>\n

the actual thing<\/o:p><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

making respect<\/o:p><\/p>\n

respectable,<\/o:p><\/p>\n

& brotherly love

<\/p>\n

Van Zant has taught near-dropouts for 14 years and has written many other poems related to students in his alternative school–white, black and Hispanic (dysfunctionality knows no racial boundaries).<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2000 Frank Van Zant. All rights reserved.<\/font><\/small><\/small> <\/small> <\/font><\/b> {jos_sb_discuss:9}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How A White Kid From South Jersey, Born Too Late To See Him Play, Comes To Love Jackie Robinson by Frank Van Zant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[94,110],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tma-articles-and-commentary","tag-poetry","tag-the-multiracial-activist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p89tuq-7y","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/08\/Articles-and-Commentary.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2054,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions\/2054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}