D. Conclusion
Critical Race Theorists emphasize
the importance of storytelling and developing a counter-narrative to oppose the
dominate group narrative. The current dominate
narrative of baseball's greatest teams and players is supported by faulty
"asterisks" and statistics.
Fan rankings, such as the EloRater, represent a widespread buying into
the dominate narrative which tells of the superiority of pre-integration players.
A proper counter-narrative
disparages the dominate narrative by questioning both the objective and
subjective aspects that support it. By
placing "asterisks" by the statistical records of pre-integration
players, their lofty statistics are subjectively diminished. Further, placing a "positive asterisk"
by the statistics of African American players who were subjected to racial
abuse emphasizes the difficulty of achieving such records. Finally, a recalculation of advanced
statistics that support the dominate group narrative, such as WAR, objectivity
is given to the counter-narrative.
The story that emerges is one that
properly tells the greatness of African American players in baseball's
history. Pre-integration white players
are grouped with performance enhancing drug users in displaying that they were
not playing in a fair game. Racially-abused
African American player records are shown to be even more remarkable than
previously considered. And even the
great Babe Ruth's records are lessened, while it is objectively exhibited that
Willie Mays and Hank Aaron were superior players.
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