Important issues, but ‘social debt’ needs further elucidation

Duncan R. Jamieson
Ashland University

In the interest of full disclosure, I am not an athlete. I have never been a member of an organized sports team at any level, professional or amateur, not even a club team. The closest I ever came was as a freshman in high school when the boys running coach took each gym class out to the track to see if anyone had the ability and interest in joining the track team. Not having the speed at the tryouts, I did n

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ot get an invitation. All the same, I have always been physically active, to walk or bicycle wherever I was going. I rode hand-me-down tricycles and scooters until I was about eight when my parents bought me a single speed coaster brake bicycle. From that time to the present, I have pedaled tens of thousands of miles around the neighborhoods where I lived as well as completing hundreds of century rides (one hundred miles in a day). I’ve ridden across the United States from Los Angeles, California to Boston, Massachusetts, 3,300 miles in forty-seven days. As to organized sports I am a casual fan of baseball (New York Yankees), football (University of Alabama), hockey (Boston University) and soccer (Ashland University).

My academic background includes a PhD in American intellectual history from Michigan State University, teaching at a few colleges and universities in the United States and Canada before settling in at Ashland University for the majority of my career. My research interests are race and ethnicity, sport and culture and gender studies.

In my humble opinion the only social debt the player has is to the sport, not to the fans and not even to the team.

Joseph Darda is Professor of English at Michigan State University and an avid marathon runner. His teaching focuses on sports and race, and before Gift and Grit he has three monographs on sport and race and one edited collection. In my opinion Gift and Grit is written for a relatively small and focused audience. I further believe while racism is unfortunately alive and well in the United States, I am not sure Darda makes the connection between race and sport clearly enough, and I am not at all certain I understand his argument regarding the construction of social debt. For example, until Jackie Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn (now Los Angeles) Dodgers, major league baseball was a white man’s sport. Granted, the Negro Leagues had some of the best players (Satchel Paige to name one), but the coverage in mainstream press was negligible. Clearly both were gifted athletes—Robinson lettered in baseball, football, track and field and basketball while Paige pitched approximately 2500 games. Branch Rickey (1881-1961) brought Robinson up, not because he was the best in the Negro League but because he believed he would be the best at handling the racism. From that beginning the number of Black players has remained relatively small, with today many of them being Afro Caribbean.

Relative to the concept that Darda puts forward about the player owing a debt to the fans, he cites, appropriately enough, the fracas that occurred when LeBron James (1984-), one of the best basketball players ever, decided to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat in 2010. Born in Akron, Ohio, he was the first-round draft choice after graduating from high school in 2003. He played for the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2003 until, desirous of a championship ring, he decided to leave Cleveland for the Miami Heat where he thought he would have a better chance. That created a huge, televised debate in which Cavaliers fans expressed the opinion he owed it to the Cavaliers to remain. Though not as big an issue, in baseball Jim Thome, born in 1970 in Peoria, Illinois, a power hitter ranking eighth for the most home runs, played for the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) from 1991 to 2002 when he went to the Philadelphia Phillies with the hopes of playing in the World Series. Thomes’ departure caused a stir among the fans similar but not nearly as vociferous as the later one over James’ decision. Both men had gifts not often seen, but while Thome is White and James Black, I am not sure race played a part in the fans discontent. While it may well be in James’ case, the fans believed as a Black man he needed to understand his “place,” I do not see where Darda is making a strong case. Granted James is certainly wealthy because of his “gift” and his” grit” on the court, his philanthropic activities relative to Ohio youth certainly acknowledges his “social debt.”

Relative to Gift and Grit, the first thought that comes to me is the aphorism “don’t judge a book by its cover,” or in this instance, its title. As to the cover, it is clearly minimalist. Since basketball is not that central to the text it might be misleading. There are dozens of sports played by men, women and children in the United States, only a few qualify as major spectator sports—football and NASCAR vying for the most popular, followed by baseball, hockey and perhaps either tennis or soccer. Among youth and collegiate sports, one could add cross country, track and field, rugby, wrestling, lacrosse, swimming, diving, boxing and others I may be overlooking. I’m more interested in the words in the title—gift and grit—which I find easy to define, especially when it comes to sport. The subtitle is also to me fairly easy to define, except when it comes to conflating them. “Race” and “sport” are obvious when you consider the racial distinctions of football positions. How many non-White quarterbacks are there? The same is true when it comes to the coaching staff, though in both instances Blacks have been making more inroads. It is “social debt” I struggle with. LeBron James decided to enter the draft after graduating from high school, clearly an intelligent decision on his part. Why play collegiate basketball for the pittance of a full ride, risking a career ending injury when there are millions to be made as a professional? Did he have a social debt to the Cavaliers fans? In my humble opinion the only social debt the player has is to the sport, not to the fans and not even to the team. If playing for another team in another city, that is the player’s prerogative as long as he (or she, even though women’s sports are largely ignored) does not violate any contractual obligations. I would cite two examples, first Billy Martin of the Cincinnati Reds who certainly is skilled enough to be in Cooperstown, except for gambling on baseball, a serious offense. Second, while illicit performance improving drugs are far more widely used in professional cycling than we know, that Lance Armstrong cheated the system for seven long years is another example of a disgusting lack of adherence to the norms of social debt.

I may not be the most qualified to review this title, but for me Darda does not present a clearly organized and defined response to his title. I believe the issues are significant and important and need to be discussed. At the same time, except for the most knowledgeable and avid sports fans, this might be a stretch.

Copyright © Duncan R. Jamieson 2025