2013.04.15 伟大的球员 杰基-罗宾逊

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42号的种族主义棒球运动员本-查普曼到底发生了什么？
他告诉我，他一直希望被公认为是一个伟大的球员。但他对杰基-罗宾逊的骚扰现在将永远决定他在历史上的地位--这很公平。

作者：艾伦-巴拉
2013年4月15日


图迪克42号横幅.jpg
华纳兄弟。
1979年，在阿拉巴马大学毕业时，我没有比成为一名体育记者更有价值的野心，在伯明翰里克伍德球场的一场大学棒球比赛中，我有机会见到了本-查普曼--我们所知道的 "阿拉巴马闪电侠"。


他说："你应该找个时间来采访我，"他说。"我会告诉你一些故事。"

"我打赌你可以，"我心想。我认识查普曼只是因为他的名声。他曾是鲁斯-格里格洋基队的一名相当不错的球手，后来又在其他几支球队效力，但他因在罗宾逊进入大联盟的第一年（1947年）对杰基-罗宾逊的野蛮嘲笑而被人记住，当时查普曼是费城费城人队的经理。我见到查普曼时，他已经71岁了，满头白发，但他看起来更年轻，而且非常健康--与我职业生涯中遇到的大多数前大联盟球员不同。

相关故事

你在《42》中看不到的棒球一体化的真实故事
我接受了他的建议，在接下来的一周里，我们聚在一起聊天。他非常亲切，总是面带微笑。但当谈话转到他不舒服的地方时，他的笑容似乎凝固了，他呲起了牙。这发生在我们采访的两分钟后。

"这是真的吗，"我想知道，"你对杰基-罗宾逊说了那些话？你知道，那些名字，那些话，每个人都说你用过？"

"讨厌，是的，"查普曼大声笑着说。"我当然说了。那时候每个人都用这种话。哎呀，我们对乔-迪马乔和汉克-格林伯格说过同样的话。"

我很不解。"你是说你叫迪马乔为....？"

"我们试图通过说'嘿，Dago'或'嘿，Wop'来激怒他。"

那格林伯格呢？"哦，我们叫他'Kike'。那时候这都是游戏的一部分。你说任何你必须说的话来获得优势。相信我，作为一个南方人，当我第一次在纽约打球时，我自己也挨了很多骂。如果你受不了，那就是如果你受不了热，就离开厨房。"

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电影《42》讲述了杰基-罗宾逊在第一个赛季打破肤色障碍的故事，在影片中最激烈的场景之一，查普曼对罗宾逊的虐待被重现，效果令人心寒。不过，像一个快速球一样击中我的是下一个场景，记者们对查普曼（由艾伦-图迪克饰演）进行拷问。电影中查普曼为自己的行为辩护的方式几乎与真实的本-查普曼对我做的一模一样。

这时我才意识到，三十多年来，查普曼肯定一直在对记者说他对我说过的同样的话。

多年来，与我交谈过的退役球员和体育记者都证实，是的，那时的棒球戏谑是相当严厉的，种族诽谤和侮辱是大萧条时期和二战后棒球的一个重要组成部分。他们确实对迪马乔和格林伯格说过这些话，而且，是的，很多北方球员确实无情地骚扰过南方男孩。(样本。生于宾夕法尼亚州并在那里长大的埃德-沃尔什喜欢骂人。乔治亚州出生的泰-科布，"科布，我听说你来自罗伊斯顿，那里的男人是男人，羊是紧张的！")

但正如莱斯特-罗德尼--"记者席上的红人"，他为共产主义报纸《每日工人报》写体育报道--曾经告诉我，"那个查普曼，他很特别。他能以一种恶毒的方式嘲弄人，会让泰-科布脸红。" 正如罗德尼所指出的，迪马乔和格林伯格可以直接还击，但罗宾逊却不被允许。"杰基曾向布兰科-里基承诺，在他的第一个赛季，他不会反击"。

在我们的采访中，查普曼真正想谈的不是杰基-罗宾逊；而是为什么他（查普曼）被名人堂轻视，以及他在1948年被费城人队解雇的污点（他只在大联盟做过一次，1952年在辛辛那提当教练）是如何不公平地阻止他被考虑进入库伯斯敦。

查普曼-巴拉.jpg
我不相信他的说法，但正如我所说，查普曼曾是一个相当好的球员。他在大联盟存活了15年，平均打击率为0.302，两次赶超100分，6次得分超过100分。他很快就提醒你，他曾有四个赛季在偷垒方面领先于联盟--当我检查记录簿时，我发现这是真的。但他没有告诉我，他在四个赛季中，在试图偷垒时被抛出的次数也是联盟第一。他是一个出色的外野手（尽管作为游击手，他在第一个赛季就犯了很多错误，以至于洋基队用另一个阿拉巴马人乔-苏维尔取代了他）。而且查普曼有一个特点，那就是他是第一个在1933年第一届全明星赛中获得安打的美国联盟球员。

但事实是，撇开他与罗宾逊的遭遇不谈，查普曼还没有达到名人堂的水准。在许多球员都在追求高平均数的时候，他的打击率相当高--在他最好的一年，即1936年，为华盛顿参议员队效力时，打击率达到了0.332。当我向本提到这一点时，他只是摇了摇头，笑了笑。

不管怎么说，这次采访，除了种族诱饵的话题外，还是很愉快的，我还带走了一张亲笔签名的照片。

六年后我再次见到他，那时我已经住在布鲁克林。我回家参加了在里克伍德球场举行的老前辈比赛。那是里克伍德的75周年纪念日，今天它仍然是该国最古老的专业球场。查普曼管理着一支全明星队；另一支球队由派珀-戴维斯管理，他比查普曼小9岁，但实际上是查普曼的同龄人。由于肤色障碍，派珀从未有机会在大联盟中打球。在杰基-罗宾逊打开大门后，派珀与波士顿红袜队签订了一份合同，但从未打过一场比赛。多年来，我所交谈的大多数球员和经理都认为派普本人可以成为名人堂成员。

在比赛中，两个人似乎都玩得很开心。之后，他们大笑并互相拍打着对方的背。至少可以说，我很惊讶。

我问过伯明翰男爵队的前老板那晚的情况。"我只能说，"他告诉我，"本在晚年真的是一个不同的人，他承认了他的老路的错误。"
几年后，在编写一本关于瑞克伍德球场的书时，我向伯明翰男爵队的前老板阿特-克拉克森询问了那个夜晚。"我只能说，"他告诉我，"本在他的晚年真的是一个不同的人，他承认了他的老路的错误。我记得我告诉他，我要去黑人区的一所学校，和孩子们谈棒球，他自愿一起去。他与孩子们交谈，似乎真的很喜欢。说实话，我不认为他以前有机会做这样的事情。我想他在自己身上发现了一些他不知道的东西。"


好吧，正如我母亲常说的，就在你认为你了解某人的时候。查普曼于1993年去世，享年84岁。由于《42》的成功--它的首映周末是所有棒球电影中最高的--电影中所描绘的本-查普曼肯定会在棒球史上确定他的形象。而这是公平的。但是，在他生命的最后阶段，查普曼确实发生了变化，或者正如我们今天所说的，他进化了。至少在他晚年认识他的一些人认为他做到了，我认为这也是公平的，在棒球历史的某个小角落，本-查普曼也会被记住。

Allen Barra为《华尔街日报》和TheAtlantic.com撰写关于体育的文章。他的下一本书是《米奇和威利--棒球黄金时代的平行生活》。



What Really Happened to Ben Chapman, the Racist Baseball Player in 42?
He told me he always wanted to be recognized as a great player. But his harassment of Jackie Robinson will now forever define his place in history—as is fair.

By Allen Barra
APRIL 15, 2013
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Warner Bros.
In 1979, having graduated the University of Alabama with no ambition more worthwhile than becoming a sportswriter, I had occasion to meet Ben Chapman—the "Alabama Flash," as we knew him—during a college baseball game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham.


"You ought to come over and interview me sometime," he said. "I'll tell ya some stories."

"I'll bet you could," I thought to myself. I knew Chapman only by reputation. He had been a pretty good ballplayer on the Ruth-Gehrig Yankees and then later with several other teams, but he was remembered for his savage heckling of Jackie Robinson in Robinson's first year in the major leagues, 1947, when Chapman was manager of the Philadelphia Phillies. Chapman was 71 and gray-haired when I met him, but he looked younger, and very fit—unlike most former big leaguers I've encountered over my career.

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I took him up on his offer to talk, and we got together the following week. He was very gracious, always smiling. But when the talk turned to something he was uncomfortable with, the smile seemed to freeze and he bared his teeth. This happened about two minutes into our interview.

"Is it true," I wanted to know, "that you said those things to Jackie Robinson? You know, the names, the words, that everyone said you used?"

"Heck, yeah," Chapman said with a loud guffaw. "Sure I did. Everyone used those kind of words back then. Heck, we said the same things to Joe DiMaggio and Hank Greenberg."

I was puzzled. "You mean you called DiMaggio a ....?"

"We tried to rattle him by saying, 'Hey, Dago' or 'Hey, Wop.'"

What about Greenberg? "Oh, we called him 'Kike.' It was all part of the game back then. You said anything you had to say to get an edge. Believe me, being a southerner, I took a lot of abuse myself when I first played in New York. If you couldn't take it, it was a case of if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

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In one of the most intense scenes in the film 42, the story of Jackie Robinson that first season when he broke the color barrier, Chapman's abuse of Robinson is recreated with chilling effect. What hit me like a fastball to the side of the head, though, was the next scene where reporters grill Chapman (played by Alan Tudyk): The movie Chapman defends his behavior in almost exactly the same way the real Ben Chapman did to me.

It was then I realized that for more than three decades Chapman must have been telling reporters the same things he had told me.

Over the years, retired players and sportswriters I've talked to have confirmed that, yes, baseball banter was pretty harsh back then and ethnic slurs and insults were a big part of Depression-era and post-World War II baseball. They did say those things to DiMaggio and Greenberg, and, yes, a lot of northern players did harass southern boys mercilessly. (Sample: Ed Walsh, born and raised in Pennsylvania, loved to yell at. Georgia-born Ty Cobb, "Cobb, I hear you're from Royston, where men are men and sheep are nervous!")

But as Lester Rodney—"Press Box Red," who wrote about sports for the Communist paper The Daily Worker—once told me, "That Chapman, he was something special. He could taunt with a viciousness that would have made Ty Cobb blush." As Rodney pointed out, DiMaggio and Greenberg could give it right back, but Robinson wasn't allowed to: "Jackie had promised Branch Rickey that in his first season he wouldn't fight back."

What Chapman really wanted to talk about in our interview wasn't Jackie Robinson; it was why he (Chapman) had been slighted by the Hall of Fame and how the taint over his dismissal from the Phillies in 1948 (he had just one more stint in the majors, as a coach with Cincinnati in 1952) had unfairly kept him from being considered for Cooperstown.

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I didn't buy his argument, but, as I said, Chapman had been a pretty good player. He survived 15 years in the majors with a batting average of .302, twice driving in more than 100 runs and six times scoring more than 100. He was quick to remind you that he had led the league in stolen bases in four seasons—which, when I checked the record book, I found out was true. But he neglected to tell me that he also led the league four seasons in being thrown out attempting to steal. He was a superb outfielder (though as a shortstop he made so many errors in his first season that the Yankees replaced him with another Alabamian, Joe Sewell). And Chapman had the distinction of being the first American League player to get a hit in the first All-Star game, 1933.

But the truth is that Chapman, his encounters with Robinson aside, wasn't quite Hall of Fame caliber. He hit for a pretty good average at a time when many players were hitting for high averages—batting .332 in his best year, 1936, while playing for the Washington Senators. When I mentioned this to Ben, he just shook his head and smiled.

Anyway, the interview, except for the subject of race baiting, was pleasant, and I came away with an autographed picture.

I saw him again six years later, by which time I was living in Brooklyn. I went home for an old-timers game at Rickwood Field. It was Rickwood's 75th anniversary, which still stands today as the country's oldest professional ballpark. Chapman managed a team of All-Stars; the other team was managed by Piper Davis, nine years younger but practically a contemporary of Chapman's. Piper never got the chance to play in the big leagues because of the color barrier. After Jackie Robinson opened the doors, Piper signed a contract with the Boston Red Sox but never got to play a game. Most of the players and managers I talked to over the years thought Piper could have been a Hall of Famer himself.

During the game, both men seemed to be having a good time. Afterwards, they laughed and slapped each other on the back. I was surprised, to say the least.

I asked the former owner of the Birmingham Barons about that night. "All I can say," he told me, "is that Ben really was a different man in his later years—he acknowledged the error of his old ways."
Several years later, while working on a book on Rickwood Field, I asked the former owner of the Birmingham Barons, Art Clarkson, about that night. "All I can say," he told me, "is that Ben really was a different man in his later years—he acknowledged the error of his old ways. I remember telling him that I was going out to a school in a black neighborhood to talk to kids about baseball, and he volunteered to go along. He talked to the kids and really seemed to enjoy it. To tell you the truth, I don't think he had had the opportunity to do something like that before. I think he discovered something in himself that he didn't know was there."


Well, as my mother used to say, just when you think you know someone. Chapman died in 1993, age 84. Because of the success of 42—its opening weekend was the highest of any baseball movie ever—the Ben Chapman portrayed in the movie will certainly define his image in baseball history. And that's fair. But it's just possible that near the end of his life Chapman did change—or as we say today, he evolved. At least some people who knew him in his later years thought he did, and I think it's fair, also, that in some tiny corner of baseball history that Ben Chapman is be remembered as well.

Allen Barra writes about sports for the Wall Street Journal and TheAtlantic.com. His next book is Mickey and Willie--The Parallel Lives of Baseball's Golden Age.