THREAD: You likely know Jackie Robinson broke the baseball color barrier. What you probably don't know is two acts of discrimination decades earlier in Ohio may have led to Robinson getting that chance.

This is a story of race, equality and empathy. #TwitterStoryTime

Meet Branch Rickey. He was born in rural Scioto County in Southern Ohio and went on to coach baseball at Ohio Wesleyan University in the early 1900s. (Route 23 north of Columbus is named for him.)

Rickey would later tell the story of traveling with his team to Indiana...

...The team's only Black player, Charles Thomas, was denied a room at a South Bend hotel while the team was on a road trip.

Rickey later found Thomas crying and rubbing at his own skin, as if trying to remove his Blackness. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/sports/baseball/branch-rickey-found-inspiration-in-catchers-tears.html

Rickey remembered that moment for the rest of his life.

"I vowed that I would always do whatever I could to see that other Americans did not have to face the bitter humiliation that was heaped upon Charles Thomas."

Segregation in baseball was an "unwritten rule" throughout the first four decades of the 20th Century.

Kenesaw Mountain Landis would not allow a Black player during his time as commissioner from 1920 until he died in 1944.

Then a man named Happy Chandler took over...

Chandler was more open to integration than Landis. Chandler is said to have offered Rickey support for bringing Robinson to the major leagues.

The reason for that may stem from an incident decades earlier in Ohio. I found an interesting news story from 1920...

Chandler was once a multi-sport athlete at Transylvania University in Kentucky. In 1920, his football team was scheduled to play against Ohio University in Athens.

But...Transylvania decided not to make the trip and the game was canceled.

The reason? OU had several Black players on its team.

Transylvania Coach Jim Park and some of his players protested, requesting the Black players not be allowed to suit up.

OU refused and said they would be playing.

So, the game was called off.

(There's a weird side twist to this story -- Park, the Transylvania football coach, was actually a former MLB pitcher. He began his short career with the 1915 St. Louis Browns, a team managed by ... Branch Rickey.)

Here's the news story from October 1920:

Chandler would graduate the following year, later becoming governor of Kentucky & a U.S. Senator before taking over as commissioner.

Is it possible that discrimination in Athens from 25 years earlier influenced his thinking on race, and led him to allow Robinson to play?

One of the most difficult things for a person to do is escape their own perspective and put themselves in someone else's shoes. That is why we hear phrases like "check your privilege" -- to help us contemplate the privileges we may have, and the challenges someone else may have.

At the risk of perpetuating a "White Savior" theme, it is undeniable that Rickey and Chandler were two Americans who observed discrimination early in their lives. They later used their position of privilege to institute change in the game of baseball.

Regrettably, baseball's MVP award is named for Commissioner Landis.

I've suggested renaming it for Frank Robinson, the first Black manager.

If it were to be renamed for another baseball executive, I believe Rickey and Chandler deserve consideration. /thread