You know that Willie Mays and Ernie Banks had to have experienced racism coming into the game just as the Negro Leagues were winding down. You never hear either complain about it, though.
Both had a trademark of being even tempered and great ambassadors for the game. I would also give them points for being peacemakers like the Roseboro incident that you pointed out.
“...Willie Mays and Ernie Banks had to have experienced racism...
It was kept as quiet as possible but when Mays tried to buy a house in San Francisco:
KPIX Eyewitness News report from November 14th 1957 featuring an interview by reporter Fort Pearson with New York Giants baseball star Willie Mays, who is relocating with the team to San Francisco next year. Mays had recently put in an offer to buy a home at 175 Miraloma Drive in the Sherwood Forest neighborhood of San Francisco, which the owner (Walter A. Gnesdiloff) initially accepted. Neighbors complained that if an African American family moved into the area, house prices would fall, so Gnesdiloff refused to proceed. However, in the face of adverse publicity over his decision, Gnesdiloff agreed to sell at the original price of $37,500. Mays explains to Pearson that: “It was a disappointment to me because I didn’t figure I would have this much trouble trying to buy a place. That’s why when I go looking for a house, I don’t worry about who living besides me.”
As for the game itself, Willie Mays, thought by many baseball writers to be the greatest player who ever wore spikes, was passed up by three major league clubs due to outright racial prejudice or to quota systems that limited them to just one Negro star. Perhaps there is no better example anywhere of how affirmative action paid off for the New York Giants, the club that grabbed Mays, because manager Leo Durocher cared only about getting the best talent, irrespective of skin color. By contrast, Tom Yawkey, the owner of the Boston Red Sox, passed on Mays because he would not hire a Negro, period. And the Boston Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates passed on Mays because of their racial quota systems. (Imagine: the Braves might have an outfield with Henry Aaron and Willie Mays playing side by side for two decades! Imagine: the Pirates might have had an outfield starring Roberto Clemente and Mays!) Mays was batting a sensational .477 playing for the Triple-A minor league franchise Minneapolis Millers in 1951 when Durocher phoned him and said he wanted him immediately.
https://www.laprogressive.com/racism/willie-mays-giants
wy69