Table Of ContentFame to Infamy
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Edited by David C. Ogden and Joel Nathan Rosen
University Press of Mississippi / Jackson
www.upress.state.ms.us
The University Press of Mississippi is a member
of the Association of American University Presses.
Copyright © 2010 by University Press of Mississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2010
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fame to infamy : race, sport, and the fall from grace /
edited by David C. Ogden and Joel Nathan Rosen.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-60473-751-6 (cloth : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-1-60473-752-3 (ebook) 1. Sports—United
States. 2. Athletes—United States—Public opinion.
3. Sports—Social aspects 4. Sports—Moral and ethi-
cal aspects. 5. Racism in sports I. Ogden, David C. II.
Rosen, Joel Nathan, 1961–
GV583.F35 2010
796.089—dc22 2010017510
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
Contents
vii Acknowledgments
ix Foreword: The Power of Nine
—Roy F. Fox
3 Introduction: Thoughts on Fame and Infamy
—DaviD C. ogDen anD Joel nathan Rosen
8 Barry Bonds: Of Passion and Hostility
—lisa DoRis alexanDeR
30 Kirby Puckett: A Middle American Tragedy
—sheRRie l. Wilson
45 Don’t Believe the Hype: The Racial Representation
of Mike Tyson in Three Acts
—thabiti leWis
61 Lost in Translation: Voice, Masculinity, Race, and the
1998 Home Run Chase
—shelley luCas
76 Branch Rickey: Moral Capitalist
—RobeRt F. leWis ii
102 Inextricably Linked: Joe Louis and Max Schmeling Revisited
—C. oRen ReniCk anD Joel nathan Rosen
122 Mortgaging Michael Jordan’s Reputation
—JeFFRey lane
146 A Precarious Perch: Wilt Chamberlain, Basketball Stardom,
and Racial Politics
—gRegoRy J. kaliss
vi Contents
170 Jim Brown: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of a Cultural Icon
—RobeRta J. neWman
191 Afterword: Sports and the Iron Fist of Myth
—JaCk lule
199 Contributors
203 Index
Acknowledgments
The editors would like to extend our appreciation to everyone who has
helped to make this venture possible. Our contributors have graciously given
of their time and talent, exceeding all our expectations and putting to rest the
long-held myth that enormously talented people cannot and should not be
expected to pay heed to deadlines and other such minutiae. More important,
your ideas and the words with which you have expressed them have taught
us that we are anything but alone in our broader vision for this project. We
are grateful.
Craig Gill and the entire staff of the University Press of Mississippi offered
persistence, encouragement, indulgence, and a wide berth. Their reputation
as a university press that encourages creativity and the breaking of intellec-
tual boundaries is both accurate and well deserved.
The contributions of Malisa Konkolics at Moravian College have been
invaluable and most appreciated.
Finally, we thank our friends and families, who have watched this proj-
ect go from idea to fruition. Their patience, their enthusiasm, and most of
all their encouragement are much appreciated. Extended writing and edit-
ing can lead to some awfully lonely times, but their support—material and
otherwise—has proven invaluable, and we would be remiss if we did not put
those sentiments to words.
vii
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Foreword: The Power of Nine
—Roy F. Fox
In the summer of 1958, in Kansas City, Missouri, my grandfather, Pop,
hooked me on listening to radio broadcasts of the Kansas City Athletics’
baseball games. The small brown plastic radio on the counter of his break-
fast room held us there, standing, expecting at any moment to hear the roar
of the crowd as the announcer’s voice quickened before bursting out of his
throat: There’s a high drive to left-center. . . . Tuttle goes back . . . back, way,
way, deep. . . . He leaps. . . . he makes the catch! Wow! Bill Tuttle takes away
Mantle’s home run!
Of course, the A’s seldom won any games against the Yankees. Pop referred
to Yankees manager, Casey Stengel, as “Stinky,” and during those hot summer
days, when segregation was still common, Pop somehow communicated to
me that pitcher Satchel Paige was an aging, brilliant, funny rascal in a league
all his own. In deep, shapeless ways, I was changed by “Ol’ Satchel.” A year
later, I could not understand why my favorite As announcer, George Bryson,
committed suicide. How could such a warm voice, someone who could elon-
gate a home run with such passion, end? Not that it makes much sense now.
In many baseball-ish ways, I am still nine years old.
During this time, I began collecting baseball cards, each one a piece of
evidence proving that all the drama and heroes of this game were real, were
valuable, despite the profound lack of interest in baseball held by my family,
except for Pop. I kept my cards (five cents per pack) in a metal box. I studied
them, trading only a few, in my long attempt to secure As left fielder Bob Cerv,
my hero. Cerv’s teammate, Roger Maris, had not yet hit his stride. My interest
in Maris greatly increased in 1959, when his sixteen home runs led the team.
That total was modest even at that time, but for the eternally cellar-dwelling
As, it bordered on a miracle. Immediately following that summer, the As, in
true farm team fashion, traded him to the Yankees, where he hit thirty-nine
homers in 1960 and sixty-one in 1961. This I will never forget. I remain nine
years old.
In addition to the wrinkled, worn Cerv card, which I finally obtained
in a trade with Donnie Hales, I had other seemingly golden cards, includ-
ing a joint Mickey Mantle/Yogi Berra and another that featured “Words of
ix
Description:Fame to Infamy: Race, Sport, and the Fall from Grace follows the paths of sports figures who were embraced by the general populace but who, through a variety of circumstances, real or imagined, found themselves falling out of favor with the public. The contributors focus on the roles played by athle
