Warning! Warning! This Is A Book Review
In the 1960’s you could tell a lot about a news media outlet by how they referred to the most well-known athlete of the era. It may come as a surprise to a whole generation that boxer Muhammad Ali was still called Cassias Clay by many sportswriters and sportscasters for several years after changing his name.
When Ali fought Floyd Patterson, a Black, Patterson said, ``this fight is a crusade to reclaim the (heavyweight boxing) the title from Black Muslims. As a Catholic I am fighting Clay as a patriotic duty.’’ Ali easily defeated Patterson, chanting, ``What’s my name? Is my name Clay? What’s my name, fool?’’ as he pummeled his opponent for nine rounds.
Fittingly, Dave Zirin’s book ``What’s My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States,’’ chronicles athletes like Ali who stood up to the status quo. It also examines the narrowing divide between the sports world and the so-called ``real’’ world. Zirin rejects the notion that anthems, military jingoism and players thanking their savior in post-game interviews be accepted, while writing about racial prejudice, sexism and athletes who speak out against the war is criticized for being too political. And is there anything more political than cities building sports stadiums for professional teams with taxpayer money? Zinin rights about that as well. All-in-all it’s good reading for anyone who thinks sports talk can be deeper than who the Red Sox fifth starter should be.
Like many budding future sportswriters, Zirin wrote a sports column for his high school newspaper. But just before he entered college, Zirin attended a college basketball game in the early 1990’s. In the midst of Gulf War frenzy a mascot ``beat up’’ someone dressed like an Arab while the crowd chanted ``USA, USA.’’ That so incensed Zirin he lost interest in sports for four years.
However, Zirin went into journalism as a career, and soon found himself writing about sports once again. In 1996, NBA player Mahmoud Abdul Rauf refused to stand for the national anthem and was buried under a right-wing bombast. Zirin told the League Of Fans website, ``it became clear our side needed a history of resistance in US pro sports.’’
HHHHThe appearance of Ali, who was stripped of his title for refusing induction into military service, on the cover of Zirin’s book is particularly important. At the time Ali explained, ``I ain’t got no quarrel with the Viet Cong.’’ Contrast that to the 1990’s when basketball superstar and North Carolina native Michael Jordan refused to endorse a Black candidate running against long-time segregationist Jesse Helms. ``Republicans buy shoes too,’’ exclaimed Jordan, as much a cultural icon as Ali but a man who never met a commercial endorsement he didn’t like.
But while Jordan sells his Nike shoes and sneakers, Zirin writes that there are echoes of a new sporting resistance. Most Valuable Player Steve Nash and the Washington Wizards’ Etan Thomas are among several NBA players who are critical of the war in Iraq; Toni Smith, the center of the Division III Manhattanville College women’s basketball team, turned her back to the flag after the US invaded Iraq; former NFL star Carl Eller used his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame to chastise America for turning its back on the Black male; and former NFL defensive tackle Esera Tualo admitted he was gay (no active major league baseball, football, basketball or hockey player has ever ``come out of the closet’’)
These athletes rank as the spiritual successors to the ``radical’’ athletes of the late 1960’s and early `70’s who stood up to the institutional racism and corporate greed of the time (and with an unpopular war as a backdrop). Along with Ali this group includes U.S. Olympians Tommy Smith and John Carlos, who gave the black power salute while standing on the podium at Mexico City after Smith received the gold medal and Carlos the bronze in the 200 meter run (Black athletes had considered boycotting the Olympics); Dave Meggyesy, a former NFL star and author of ``Out Of Their League’’ which deals with how big-time sports dehumanizes athletes; and Curt Food, who challenged baseball’s reserve clause which in turn led to major league baseball (behind union leader Marvin Miller) becoming the most powerful union in sports.
In turn, Flood and other baseball players who challenged baseball’s reserve clause were the spiritual and political descendants of Jackie Roosevelt Robinson who successfully challenged baseball’s color line in 1946. Zirin writes about Robinson and Lester Rodney, forgotten by the mainstream media as a champion against segregation in major league baseball.
Rodney began as sports editor of the U.S. Communist Party newspaper, the Daily Worker (yes, the Daily Worker had a sports editor) in the 1930’s and soon began crusading against segregation (Jim Crow laws) in baseball. He also covered the Negro Leagues, unheard of in the establishment press, writing articles about their great stars like Satchel Paige and Cool Papa Bell.
The spiritual descendant of Rodney, Zirin’s work has appeared in publications as diverse as the International Socialist Review, the Los Angeles Times, the Pittsburgh Courier (a leading black newspaper) and SLAM Magazine, a basketball magazine geared towards younger, hipper basketball fans. ``I consider myself a radical journalist,’’ Zirin told writer Mark Schneider on the Reporters Declaration web site. ``I think the best journalist is about taking sides, consciously.’’
``What’s My Name, Fool’’ is about to go into its second printing, published by Haymarket Books. Many of the articles in the book come from Zirin’s Edge Of Sports column. Previous articles can also be read at www.edgeofsports.com. To read new Zirin columns write to subscribe@zirin.com. Zirin’s also working on a new book, ``People’s History of Sports’’ with Howard Zinn.

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