The Sacramento Bee June 30, 2000

Willams: A Latino legend

Espanol, the language
of beisbol.

Too bad much of its color and meaning gets lost in the translation, gets bobbled like a tricky ground ball.

Like what? A history, some mystery, the life blood of today's game and a really cool trivia question.

Q: Who was the greatest Latino player of all time?

A: Ted Williams, The Splendid Splinter - La Astilla Esplendida

Si, Teddy Ballgame is also Teddy Juego and a homeboy de San Diego.

Ted's mother, la madre de Teodoro, was Raza, Mexicana. Her last name was Venzer. She went by the first name of May, but don't let that fool you. Back in that day, many Mexican-Americans in California anglicized their names.

Doing that was understood, given what Mexicanos were up against. Ted under- stood. In his autobiography, he wrote:" ... if I had had my mother's name, there is no doubt I would have run into problems in those days, the prejudices people had in Southern California."

May Venzer married Ted's Welsh-English father, but the union didn't last. At heart, she was a driven, passionate career woman with the Salvation Army who, Ted wrote, was known as The Angel of Tijuana.

Ted's madre was down with the people.

And from May, Ted got his wavy black hair plus a single minded nature they drove him to two MVPs, six batting titles, 521 career home runs, and distinction as the "greatest hitter who ever lived."

Orale!

Going on 83, the fabled No.9 of the Boston Red Sox has been sick lately. So in the tradition of his heritage - a big part of his heritage, anyway - it's a good time to pray for our hermano to the Virgin of Guadalupe - patron saint of Mexico.

In his autobiography, Ted Williams wrote"
... If I had my mothers name, there is no doubt I would have run into problems in those days."

Boston great Ted Williams, left,
back in his glory days with another
baseball legend, the Yankees'
Joe DiMaggio, as the two pose before
Opening Day 1950.

We didn't understand those guys. We mocked their accents, their diversity eluded us, we discounted them, we did things Ted Williams knew would have befallen him had his name been Teodoro Venzer.

Did you know one of the worst offenses happened down the road in San Francisco in the early 1960s? Back then, Alvin Dark managed the Giants and had a host of Latinos, including two future Hall of Famers - Juan Marichal and Orlando Cepeda. There was also a kid who'd become a pretty good manager himself, Felipe Alou.

They played with joy and passion, but Dark snuffed it out, banned Spanish in the clubhouse, fostered dissension among players . And the Giantes always finished second to the Dodgers or the Cardinals.

It's a sad legacy, but a new day has dawned

The question now is: Where would baseball be today without Sammy, A-Rod, Manny,Juan Gone, Pedro and the heir to Ted's Mexican-American tradition on the Red Sox - Nomar Garciaparra, also a SoCal homey?

It's time to recognize this history. You can do it in person at Pacific Yell Park on Sunday. Before the game, on the field, Marichal will present a jersey to a man named Tito Avila, who is trying to start a Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum in San Francisco. (www.hispanicbaseballmuseum.com).

Considering the past, there is no better place for it. And who does Avila want to induct into this shrine?

Ted Williams.

in such moments, reflection is in order. Meaningsuch reflection could include Ted's other heritage - of Latinos in the big leagues. A lot of that history is like Ted's background - complex, mysterious, forgotten and ill-suited to fit our rigid American ideas about race. no disrespect and considering Ted was a ballplayer,

Can you imagine? If there are still a lot of people - including media types- who don't understand or get mad when Tiger Woods asserts his multiracial back-ground, or could they get Ted or this:

There were 45 Latinos who played in the big leagues before Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier in 1947. Two of them - Cubans Jacinto "Jack" Calvo and Jose Acosta - did something you won't believe.

In 1915, they both played in the Negro Leagues. And five years later, in 1920, they suited up for the Washington Senators in the "segregated" big leagues - 27 years before Robinson wore Rodger blue.

Que? Were they black?
Were they white? Not exactly.
But if you're neither and speak a diff- erent language, you vanish from history.

Even after Robinson opened the door to Americans and Latinos whose African heritage was obvious to the naked eye, the Latino story remained muddled.

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