By Donald James Racism in the early-to-mid 20th century – and other periods of time - was painfully ugly in the United States of America. Such hatred, along with laws of bigotry – written and unwritten - robbed African Americans of the same opportunities afforded to whites freely and unconditionally. And playing professional baseball in America – the national pastime since the 1850s - was no exception. In the early-to-mid 1900s, white Major League Baseball players such as Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Mel Ott and Ted Williams were deemed