November 30, 2005
Power Struggle
Alex Belth writes on how the Yankees passed on Vic Power due to racism. Meanwhile, Jon Weisman looks at Power's legacy.
There is one flaw is the racism argument, however. The Yankees had a better first baseman in Moose Skowron. If you were just given Skowron's and Power's stats from 1954 to 1960, and asked if the Yankees kept the better player, wouldn't the answer be yes? So what if Power was a slick fielding first baseman, first basemen are supposed to provide offense. That's as true today as it was then.
This isn't to excuse the Yankees miserable track record during that era. But this isn't the Red Sox passing on Willie Mays:
In 1949, the Red Sox gave up the chance to sign future Hall of Famer Willie Mays, who would go on to hit more career home runs than all but one man before him and electrify crowds with his defensive play. As Juan Williams reports, "one of the team's scouts decided that it wasn't worth waiting through a stretch of rainy weather to scout any black player. That decision killed the possibility that Mays and Ted Williams might have played in the same outfield for the Red Sox."
The Yankees had a better option at first base and went with it.
Posted by David Pinto at
10:19 AM
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Steve Goldman has a good column on the Yankees, Power and racism. He finds the Yankees guilty, but doesn't overdo it, and his analysis includes recognition that Skowron was better. But there was still a time when Power could have been called up and improved the Yankees and wasn't, he could have served Stengel as a useful utility player, and after he was traded the Yankees denigrated him and implied the only reason a team would want him was to try to attract black fans.
http://www.yesnetwork.com/yankees/pinstripedbible.asp
re: Vic Power & the Yankees
Moose Skowron was a nice guy, I'm sure, but Vic Power was a darker skinned Latino who openly dated white women while he was in the minors and who got into a fight once in a while. Because of those two well known facts, and the fact that the Yankees did not yet have an integrated team as of 1953, Power was dealt to the Philadelphia As, where he had a great season in 1953, and then to KC after the move in 54-55, where Bill James has written a lot about Vic Power and why the Yankees never signed him, because Bill James grew up watching Vic Power and thinking he was a pretty damn good first basemen.
Also, seven straight gold gloves is pretty damn good, don't you think???
Moose doesn't exactly exude elegance on the fielding side of the equation.
The Yanks didn't integrate until Elston Howard three years later.
Power should have been the first black Yankee. He was deprived of that opportunity, not because Moose Skowron was better, not because Mickey Mantle could play first, but because the Yankees ownership was narrow minded and racist in 1953. If Vic Power was the property of the Dodgers or Giants, he would have been called up straight away into a pennant race and they would have called him into a meeting and advised him of the behavior they wanted of him in order for him to be in the majors, and he would have done what they asked in order to be a major leaguer.
--AK
