Obama, Willie Mays Discuss How Baseball Legend Paved The Way For The President (VIDEO)

On his flight to the MLB All-Star game in St. Louis on Tuesday, President Obama was joined by legendary ballplayer Willie Mays

Watch their conversation, in which the ground-breaking baseball legend describes how he helped lay the groundwork for Obama's election:

Comments

[sholbo]

"now you are on Airforce one.....is allright." whaaaaaoooooo is all I can say.

[kuwaitamoment]

Wow, nothing better than going down the road of name-calling and using insults to get your point across! I guess some people believe that if you don't buy into THEIR agenda, there is something personally wrong with you. This is a board meant for the free exchange of ideas using logic and persuasion NOT personal attacks!
I repeat my previous remarks:

"I do happen to understand historical context, thank you very much. But where does it stop? Doesn't President Obama owe EVERY Black person born before his time for his presidency? ALL Black janitors, Black teachers, Black policemen, Black doctors, etc..
Why don't we talk about the historical context of WHITE presidents owing their presidency to person X. I know, I know, I know, because it's not HISTORIC. If you step back from the fray, you will notice that there is some racism attached to the premise that President Obama won't be president without random person X. I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just saying, at some point let's just give President Obama SOME credit for his own election."

[southernsepia]

The answer to your question is yes, he does owe those people who went before him. He has said as much himself. It's called heritage.

Majority culture doesn't get it but ALL Blacks who enjoy freedom and equality today respect and honor those that went before them.

[JMBrodie]

Short answer: Yes he does. So do I. And you seem to miss the point, again. Hard work is not the issues. There are a lot of hard working people of all backgrounds. No one group has a monopoly on that. Obma gets credit for running a great campaign, but you are naive to think that he is somehow unique.

Jesse Jackson put it well when he said that before Jackie Robinson went to the Majors we already knew how to play baseball. We were just not given the opportunity.

Your argument suggests that those who succeed do so only because they worked hard. If you read my post, I asid that the issue was not hard work, but whether that hard work had any value in the society.

See, you want to praise those brave and courageous whites who worked to undo the wrongs, but run as fast as you can from those who created that system -- the founding fathers.

As humans, we believe that our actions have far reaching consequences. That's why it is important for all of us to step up, not just an isolated few. You don't know what impact you can have, who you will meet, who you will influence. In our community, we understood this. Doesn't make us great, does not make us better.

We celebrate Obama's victory because of all of those brilliant people who never got a chance to shine. We owe them. All of them.

[Classof89]

Look, go on over and b1tch about it on Rush Limbaugh's boards. This shouldn't even be an issue. The president's just paying his respects and gratitiude, but yet you're the only one to seem to have problems with this positive gesture.

[JMBrodie]

To the haters:

There are some (OK, one poster) who seems to have a hard time wrapping his/her head around the idea African Americans who made scrifices are tied to those who worked hard -- as if the movement was about lazy people getting over.

Black people have always been hard workers. That was not the issue. The issue was whether that hard work would be rewarded. Take a look at Black inventors who were not able to profit from their work because whites refused to buy from them, of Black scientists whose breakthroughs helped the world but garnered them no respect in their own country.

Funny thing about history. You can't cut it off simply because you can't wrap your mind around it. Yes, it does go back to the slave trade, back to Jim Crow, back to colonialism, back to Dred Scott and Plessy and Black Codes, Bloody Summer and lynching.

And there have been heroes and heroines along the way -- many we know, more we may never know outside of their families.

All of that makes Obama's election something to celebrate. It is a culmination of a long fight.

BTW, happy 100th birthday, NAACP. Well done.

[Farzan]

Amen!

[dct1999]

Extremely well said.

[michyh]

Hilarious that anyone would doubt the work ethic of any African American stolen and made slaves.
Idiots! They had to work to stay alive. WTF!???? That was the often the only reward that you reference and all else you say is very true. I love your line about history. excellent. check out zinn's book of history if you dont' know it. A People's History of the United States.

Thanks for your very nice post , but I am left speechless. And for the record, I am a white female.
doubting the work ethic of any group seems irrational at best, because work ethic is really something that is very individual but given that the slaves were brought her to work and if they didnt' , would be murdered. well.... come on ! that's just ignorant.

[Classof89]

Thank you! Well said.

[EthnicHeart]

Obama, Willie Mays, Baseball and history being changed. It doesn't get better than that. Saludos to such heroes, now and in the past.

[iturner6]

as a 52 year old white woman...thank God!

[len501]

As a 57 year old black man I say to you .......AMEN!

[Compgeek]

The first time I read this in the paper about what Willie Mays said, I started to cry....and after watching it, I teared up again.

I think we can never understand when these guys, like Willie and other players that could not stay in the same hotels as their teammates, or spit on, or get death threat, and for them to see Obama in the White House is very emotional. As a typical white guy, I can never be in their shoes, but still very moved.
If anyone can see the "Eye on the Prize" to really understand the civil right movement, then you can understand.

Also the flamers here....Obama won on his own merits, hard work, leadership, and us. But still people like Willie, MJ, Jackie also took small chunks out of bigotry.

[EthnicHeart]

Beautifully said. Fanned.

[Madmac]

It's so uplifting to see a man who knows where he came from and how and who put him there...

[firelord5000]

Ya, his mother and loving grandparents, and then his wife and her family, and maybe the 2 MJs.

[Madmac]

Pioneers like Crispus Attucks and Rosa Parks to MLK, From Michael Jackson to Michael Jordan, From his mother, father, grandparents to his wife, her family and the great City of Chicago helped pave the way for President Obama. Heck even george bush helped by being george bush

[firelord5000]

Meh, woulda been cooler if he was singing Billie Jean or something, MJ > Willie el oh el my Godson roided my record.

[Catfish1968]

weak. He still hit better than all the rest of the roided players and the roided pitchers.

[nippyfan]

My Grandfather who is 99 years old (and in tip-top shape) is one of the best golfers to ever live, but due to his color was not allowed to play golf in a professional capacity so had to settle on being a caddy instead, never thought he'd ever live to see the day where we had a "brown" President. He is moved to tears. And I'm grateful he lived to see it.

[sviolette]

He must really love Tiger I guess.

[nippyfan]

He thinks Tiger is his adopted son. :-)

[camcat]

My love to your grandfather.

[Freesia2]

That's beautiful.

It doesn't matter what those people out there that can't move foreward say. They can throw their Tea Parties or throw a fit, but it doesn't matter. It's people like these two men who just keep their back straight and keep their eye on what's important who showed them a thing or two back in Willie's day, just like Obama is showing them now.

Gosh America is a great place.

[sviolette]

MLB did a disservice to Willie when they didn't make sure he never had to work again after he retired from baseball. They didn't treat him well at all.

[firelord5000]

Ya I guess allowing the dude to make millions and then him not investing em correctly/wasting the money is MLB's fault.

[renatam]

Thank you, Hank...

[renatam]

Thank you Jackie and Willie! Yes we can!

[truelie]

Yup, that's how it's ought to be. That is why I love this country. We grow, well, despite being pulled down by the GOPers like Jeff Sessions and John Kyl and the rest of them haters.

[rationalthought1]

Not just Birmingham, folks (though, I'm sure it was awful for him). As a kid in Milwaukee I use to watch Willie and Hank Aaron play, while bozo bigots in the crowd were screaming out the N. word. The "good old days" .... yeah, right.

[LafnBacstage]

Unfortunately there appears to be a similar resentment surfacing today from a very ugly part of America. They hide it by calling for a birth certificate, by questioning his religion and by holding tea parties.

[jamie461]

Willie Mays certainly came out of Birmingham at a very ugly time. I have no doubt he would never have been able to imagine the day when a black man could be president. Living in Birmingham today, I am keenly aware of what happened here, the suffering that occurred, and the ways in which this city still struggles to leave those days behind. There has been much progress in some ways, but not in others. In any case, I just wanted to say that it is humbling to see this video of Willie Mays with President Obama, and sense the joy and pride he feels. It's a beautiful thing.