Welcome to From Insults To Respect. My last post, Baseball and Respect, aimed to provide keen insights about the nature of respect, insights that are relevant way beyond the world of baseball. To this end, we looked at the reasons some players and fans have given for singling out ballplayers they particularly respect. As I was getting ready to finish that post, I felt frustrated because I had…
Welcome to From Insults to Respect. The game of baseball offers us a unique look at the nature of respect for two reasons. First, the game provides several unusually objective statistics that give us a pretty good idea of the talent of a player. In many other fields, such as art or teaching, the criteria for talent is far less objective. Second, we find that despite…
Welcome to From Insults To Respect. The Baseball season is in high gear, so let’s listen to one of its greatest fans, Bob Dylan. Listening to Bob’s Baseball Show It begins with a few brief notes from an organ you might hear at a ball park. Then we hear a crowd apparently getting stirred up just as a game is about to get underway. And then we…
Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Today, to get us to think more deeply about dealing with insults, let’s discuss for few minutes what Jackie Robinson went through when he became the first black major leaguer. Just before Mr. Robinson began to play in the majors for the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Dodgers’ general manager, Branch Rickey, made it clear to him that he would face criticism…