Latino Legends, or how MLB continues to fuck up...

August 26, 2005
Who's a Latino Baseball Legend?

By RICHARD SANDOMIR
When Major League Baseball unveiled its ballot for the Latino Legends team Tuesday, the 60 nominees excluded two of the greatest Hispanic players ever: Ted Williams and Reggie Jackson.

Williams and Jackson's names seem out of place in a group with Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, Pedro Martínez and Rod Carew, but Williams's mother was Mexican and Jackson's father was half Puerto Rican and played in the Negro leagues.

"I'm not surprised they're not on the list, because it sounds like it was done in a slipshod way" said Keith Hernandez, the former Mets first baseman, who is half-Spanish. "It wasn't well known about Ted, but Reggie Jackson's background was well documented to people involved in the game."

Had baseball made an egregious historical error by omitting Williams and his career .344 batting average or Jackson and his 563 home runs?

Not according to baseball. A spokesman, Carmine Tiso, said it was aware of the players' ethnic backgrounds but applied a litmus test that went beyond statistics: the nominees had to have a direct connection to their Latino heritage. A second spokesman, Richard Levin, said they should "represent the Latin community."

Tiso said: "It's a gray area. It's not an exact science. There may be other players with Latino heritage who may not acknowledge it." He admitted that not all players on the ballot have publicly discussed their backgrounds.

Baseball, which did not reveal its selection qualifications during its Latino Legends news conference, did it yesterday. And while it stated that mlb.com participated in the player selection, Jim Gallagher, a spokesman for mlb.com, said it only made a few suggestions after baseball presented a list of nominees.

In the estimation of baseball's marketing department and its consultants on baseball history, Williams and Jackson never did anything like Alex Rodriguez, whom Tiso quoted as having said, "I consider myself a Dominican."

Tiso said, "It's not that he was ashamed of his heritage, but we felt we didn't find enough connection from Ted to that Latino heritage."

Levin added that Williams's name "would distort the ballot" and "cause havoc" because his ethnicity is not widely known. Fans will be able to vote online at mlb.com and on paper ballots at Chevrolet dealerships.

Samuel O. Regalado, the author of "Viva Baseball" (University of Illinois Press), a history of Latino baseball, said he understood baseball's position, and said that Williams and Jackson were not pioneers for Hispanic players who came after them.

"But I don't know where the qualifying line is, because most of the recent players aren't pathfinders," he said. "If the criteria were solely based on numbers and on-field achievements, then Williams and Jackson have to be considered."

It is indisputable that Williams said little about being Mexican. He resembled his father, Sam, who was of Welsh-English heritage, not his mother, May.

"He never made a point of letting it be known," said Williams's nephew, who is also named Ted Williams. "He didn't promote it. He was very friendly with our Mexican relatives on a private basis, but sometimes he shunned them in public because he didn't want it to be known. His mother led an Anglo life in San Diego."

He added, "My father loved to repeat things that my uncle said, and one of them is that he called the family in Santa Barbara 'the Mexicans,' kind of lovingly."

In his 1969 autobiography, "My Turn At Bat," written with John Underwood, Williams said, "If I had my mother's name, there is no doubt that I would have run into problems in those days, the prejudices people had in Southern California."

Bill Nowlin, who researched Williams's early life for his new book, "The Kid: Ted Williams in San Diego" (Rounder), said Williams's uncle Saul Venzor, a Mexican, helped teach him baseball, and that Williams spent time in Santa Barbara visiting his Mexican grandmother, who barely spoke English.

But he said Williams sometimes shunned relatives on his mother's side.

"A lot of relatives felt he was told to turn his back on his background by Eddie Collins and not acknowledge that part of his family," Nowlin said, referring to the Red Sox general manager at the time.

Nowlin and Williams's nephew said they thought he would not have been upset at being omitted from the Latino Legends ballot. But Nowlin said, "I find it interesting that people of Latino origin are fascinated that Ted Williams is one of theirs."

Nowlin said Nomar Garciaparra told him that he and Williams once discussed their mutual Mexican backgrounds. Garciaparra, also omitted from the Legends list, told Nowlin that he told Williams, "God, Ted, I knew I liked you!"

Jackson, whose grandmother was Puerto Rican, said he is "proud of my Latin blood," but not upset at being left off the ballot. But he is offended by any suggestion by baseball about his connection to those roots.

"They have no right to pass judgment on what I claim about my Latin heritage," said Jackson, whose middle name is Martinez. "I just don't run my mouth off about it.