This weeks readings were the second chapter of “Raceball” as well as “Cuban Babe (Ruth)”. although these two readings differ as far as their subject matter, “Raceball” discussing early mainly black baseball clubs, and “Cuban Babe (Ruth)” highlighting a brief moment of women’s baseball in America, the two readings intersect in their timing. Where these two readings intersect is the specific moment in time they both take place namely the early 20th century. As most people know the early 20th century in America was still a deeply prejudice time to be alive. This prejudice wasn’t only based along the lines of race or class but gender as well. However these long-standing ideas and roles began to fade for a brief moment in history, World War 1 and 2. Wartime might seem like a strange time for the country to wake up and realize its social mishandling over the last 200 years but as these two readings layout, it is actually the perfect time. What these world wars did was shake up the existing status quo in America. The all-encompassing nature of them such as the draft and wartime economy made this so. As huge numbers of American white working men were pulled away from their jobs social norms were adjusted so that women and other ethnicities could take these jobs that were previously unavailable to them. This elevation in the social ladder also opened them up to other opportunities in sports namely baseball as described in both of these readings. While I found the individual stories to be interesting across these readings what really stuck out to me was the circumstances in which these opportunities were at last made available to them. For example womens baseball league, AAGPBL, was formed for its entertainment value in the vacuum of waring America. This being what paved the way for women, and not only just white women, to actually be paid for their athletic ability was very interesting to me.
