The baseball establishment is permissive about revelry.

Whatever I contributed to the unique morale of the Cardinals was part of this growth, and so, of course, was my decision to have it out in public with the owners of organized baseball.

Customary though it may be to write about that institutionalized pastime as though it existed apart from the general environment, my story does not lend itself to such treatment.

I was told by the general manager that a white player had received a higher raise than me. Because white people required more money to live than black people. That is why I wasn't going to get a raise.

If you destroyed the underpinnings of this great American sport, you are a hated, ugly, detestable person.

But I want you to know that what I'm doing here I'm doing as a ballplayer, a major league ballplayer.