"Americans of Japanese Ancestry Baseball League should be open to all Ethnicities..." 'Glenn Mickens' (Special to dakinetalk blog)

Glenn Mickens has lived on Kauai  with his wife Ruth for the last 26 years. Born July 26, 1930 in Wilmar, California, USA) was a pitcher in Major League Baseball. He pitched in four games (two of which were starts) for the 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers. He also played for five years in Japan, from 1959 until 1963 for the Kintetsu Buffaloes. There, he compiled a record of 45–53 with a 2.54 ERA.  Glenn also  served in the Army for 2 years and coached baseball at UCLA for 25 years. 
Last but not least Glenn would really like to see Kauai give the county manager style of Government a chance.

A short prelude to the blog

Mr. Mickens is locally known
as one of Kauai county's
political watchdogs.
Mahalos Glenn!

Aloha dakinetalk blog readers,

I am not sure if you have been following my crusade to get AJA baseball to stop their discriminatory practice of not allowing anyone who has the athletic ability to play in their league if they do not have Japanese blood in them. I have been at this for 20 years with no success.

Lately I was critical of the Mayor for endorsing this practice as being "traditional" (for me just another word for discrimination) and wrote the following letter to the paper. The Garden Island News may or may not print it.

 Can you imagine two of the greatest Jewish players in the history of baseball being prohibited from playing because they were Jewish---Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax? 

Mahalo,
Glenn

Americans of Japanese Ancestry Baseball League should be open to all Ethnicities...

Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. was a jock just as I have been a jock most of my life. If Bernard had a son who had some skills in football and just needed added experience at the high school level by playing in an off season league to possibly get a scholarship to U of H but could not participate in that league due to a racial problem, wouldn't he be outraged?

His analogy that " some leagues require that members be part of a specific labor union, work in a particular geographic location or have attained a certain age" is comparing apples to oranges. 

Being in a labor union or living in a certain geographic location or age restriction has absolutely nothing to do with their race or ethnic background as AJA baseball does. If there are such leagues then their members are not restricted to play because they are black, yellow or brown only that they have the skill to participate. 

I said it before and I will say it again that I applaud the organizers of AJA baseball for keeping it going in the Hawaiian Islands for 86 years. But no matter what term you want to use for prohibiting any person from playing baseball because of their race, ethnic background, sexual orientation, or color IT IS DISCRIMINATORY!

The Mayor says, "I don't view the AJA as being racially discriminatory but rather one that pays tribute to a long standing tradition set by their fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers."

Once because of "tradition" women could not vote, African Americans were slaves and until Jackie Robinson came along "tradition" or "culture" kept this fine race of people out of organized baseball. See the movie "42" about the hardships that Jackie had to go through to crack the color barrier in pro baseball--truly amazing. Or that mixed marriages were looked down upon or prohibited; that homosexuals were barred from military duty or kicked out if discovered---at a time when some were our best combat pilots and interpreters we badly needed; or same sex marriage that gives equal rights to everyone. 

In one of its saddest hours our country "discriminated " against  the total Japanese race by putting these American citizens into camps (a recent fine story in TGI) after Pearl Harbor was bombed. 

The Mayor goes on to say what a fine outstanding citizen Tom Shigemoto is and I certainly take no exception with that. He had some fine sons that excelled in baseball at Kauai High School and as the official arbitrator and scorer for the KIF I told him so. 

My only question to Tom, our Mayor or anyone else who wants to keep AJA baseball segregated is WHY NOT open this league to anyone who can compete?
Professional baseball and particularly the major leagues are better, stronger and more competitive (attendance and salaries are off the map!) due to the influx of worldly players being signed.

Even if AJA baseball is legally correct in their operations, they certainly have a moral and ethical right to operate their league so that no male or female is ever left out. 

Additional reading on this subject of discrimination within the

 AJA from a 1996 story in the Honolulu Starbulletin;

http://archives.starbulletin.com/96/08/30/sports/story3.html

Editor's note, Dakinetalk guest bloggers do not necessarily represent the opinions of dakinetalk. Guest bloggers are given space to express their beliefs and or opinions. We feel there are many roads and like to give people space to express their thoughts,after-all that's what dakine is...

Aloha, James "Kimo" Rosen---Blogger-n-chief, dakinetalk blog---

P.S.
Check out Glenn's Wikipedia page;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Mickens

With all the stress of the world, don't forget to
watch the sunrise or sunset, it's free! 

Hana Hou, (Encore) Shared From Facebook...