Re: Sports... generally. What about Italians?

[rahul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Rahul Mahajan)]

>Ken,
>
>    I find your report on the Irish fascinating. Incidentally, I read
>someplace in the last few months that for many decades the police
>departments of the larger cities were in effect an "affirmative action
>program" for the Irish (thus again exploding the dirty old balloon about
>"everyone else" except African Americans "making it on their own"). Later,
>I believe, Italians came to dominate the police forces in many cities.
>
>    What are the statistics in baseball on Italians? My impression from
>what I can vaguely remember of the 30s and early 40s was that there
>were very large numbers of Italians on baseball teams (the Dimaggios
>being the most famous instance).
>    Carrol
>
>And it just occurred to me: early in the century there were, I believe
>many athletes from poor Southern whites. Athletics is simply an
>individualist "way up" for *some* members of any group with limited
>"opportunity."
>
>
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Carrol, I think you're right about the Italians, although the only other
one I can think of right now is Tony Lazzeri. The same was true, after the
color bar was broken, of blacks and then Hispanics. I'd like to point out,
however, that the latest immigrant wave, of various stripes of Asians, does
not seem to have had much impact on the wide world of sports. I think the
black guys are here to stay.

Rahul




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