String Theory

  Like the string theory of the universe, Baseball has a unified history, which was made clear at last night's miserable game between the Nationals and the Marlins.  Before the game, the Nats staged an appreciation for new Hall of Famer Andre Dawson, who achieved greatness with the Montreal Expos, and unveiled their "National Hall of Fame Ring of Honor," placards around the upper level of the stadium recognizing the accomplishments of eighteen representatives of the Washington Senators (Vers. 1.0), the Homestead Grays and the Expos.  The Nats, of course, are successors to the "franchise" and records of the Expos; have no genealogical links to the Senators (Versions 1.0 or 2.0), and the Homestead Grays, as members of the Negro National League, had no connection to "organized" baseball.  (The Grays are also distinguished in this group as the only one of the four.pertinent franchises to have had a winning tradition.)   But all are now linked around the upper level of Nationals Park.  (When the time comes for Pudge Rodriguez to be elected to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, he will presumably qualify for the Ring, linking all of the other honorees to the Senators (Vers. 2.0) in the form of their successors, the Texas Rangers.  How's that for closing the loop?)

  Whoever said "Politics makes strange bedfellows" had one eye on Baseball.  Clark Griffith, owner of the early Senators, is honored along with the owner of the Homestead Grays, and a half dozen members of the Grays, while having been one of the last major league owners to jump down from the color barricades.  The first black player for the Senators, Carlos Paula, was in fact a native of Havana, which I suppose means that, in this new era of racial gerrymandering, he was not "black" at all.  (Although there are more Dominicans in the major leagues than natives of any other country except the United States, there are said to be not a sufficient number of "black" players in the bigs.)   The first "player of color" to "star" for the Senators was Paul Casanova, also a Cuban, who debuted with the Cleveland Indians after he was purchased from the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro leagues (the Grays having several years before disbanded).  The Clowns previously sold Hank Aaron's contract to the Milwaukee Braves but Casanova was, I believe, the last alumnus of the Negro leagues to arrive in the majors.  Need we note that many players in the Negro leagues burnished their reputations in the Cuban Winter League?

  Before and after Casanova, the Senators were led (if you can use that word for a team with such a dismal record) by Cuban (but not black) pitchers Camilo Pascual and Pedro Ramos.  Current Nationals and former Expos star Livan Hernandez is, of course, Cuban, and spurred, obviously, by the historical success of Cuban baseball players in the capital of America, the Nats have now signed Livan's half-brother Orlando ("El Duque") and "28-year old Cuban phenom" Yuniesky Maya, whose first big league appearance, we are assured, is imminent. 

  Baseball's history is as complex as the human genome. Ain't it amazin' how it all comes together?   

  In the meantime, it must be said that the representatives of the Grays on the Ring of Honor are every bit as distinguished as the early Senators (read about Jud Wilson, if you haven't heard of him before), and the Expos-Nationals have to go some to catch up.  No doubt Rodriguez, Zimmerman, Dunn, Strasburg and even Bryce Harper have their eyes on the eight remaining spaces on the ring.