Necessities: Racial Barriers in American Sports

Dodger executive Al Campanis once remarked on TV that blacks ``do not have the `necessities' to be a field manager or a general manager.'' Hoose ( Hoosiers ) argues that many whites concur but lack the courage to say so--and claims that their opinion serves as a self-fulfilling prophecy, since the white establishment continues to keep blacks out of power. In the course of this hard-hitting survey, Hoose examines the scarcity of black quarterbacks in pro football (a situation gradually improving) and of black catchers in baseball (one gradually worsening); the paucity of blacks in the sports media; and, perhaps most arresting, the unfortunate saga of a black-owned baseball team in 1986 that had to be sold to whites after one year. Apart from an only tangentially relevant chapter on Latin American baseball players, this is a telling indictment of American racism. (June)