The KKK and a baseball bat. Only true patriots need bid.

Why is the bat historic? Apparently, not because of the decoration, according to your post. So it must be because it is old, right? If so, then any old object is inherently historic? If I can find some petrified horse shit from the 1930s, is that a part of agricultural history? If I can find a piece of wood around my house that’s 100 years old (I’m in California) is that a part of Western history? If I get some grass from the lawn of Robert E. Lee’s house, is that a part of Civil War history?

What if I get a baseball bat right now, paint it to resemble a penis, and then put it in a safety deposit box for 80 years. When my heirs open the box, do they now have an important part of baseball history? If not, then why is my penis bat less historic than some cracker’s KKK bat from 1930? Neither penises nor the KKK are inherently baseball related. Though I would actually say that penises have more to do with baseball than the Klan does.

And finally, you keep deploying the phrase “political correctness.” Allow me to quote Inigo Montoya: “That word that you keep saying. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Whether you boys and girls like it or not, this bat is a part of baseball history. Of course it is also a part of Klan history, too.

How is this a part of baseball history? Was this the bat used by Mazeroski in the shot heard round the world? Did Jackie Robinson use it when he broke the color barrier? Or Maris when he hit 61?

Those bats are part of baseball history. This appears to be a bat with a radical, christian terrorists’s group markings on it. How is it a part of history other than it’s being?

About your question…see those green words in the post? Yeah, those are called hyperlinks. If you click on them they’ll magically take you to other parts of the interwebs that just might have something to do with an auction site where you can buy a KKK baseball bat for a grand or so so you could either watch for your viewing pleasure, buy and burn the thing, or smack yourself in the face with it, repeatedly, until you get some sense.

What?

I guess to show the world how un-PC you be, you get to tell people to not worry and don’t think about the past.

Nothing to see here, folks. Don’t be a bunch of PC pussies. Be a real American man. Unless, of course, you’re Black, Jewish, Mexican. Then, maybe, you can be 3/5 of an American man. Or maybe deported. Or strung up in a tree for looking at the precious, sweet innocent Southern White women.

The Crusades, the Reconquista, the 30 Years War, the Opium Wars, the colonization of Africa, the Spanish conquests in the New World, the Portuguese in India, the British in Ireland, the Opium Wars, the American Indian Wars, the Civil War, World War II, need I go on?…………………

All of these had a strong component of bigotry, whether religious, ethnic, national or cultural. That does not mean the artifacts of the times and history are without interest. In fact, in comparison to those others, the hatred expressed by the KKK is really rather mild.

I don’t see how censorship plays into any of this. Nobody is saying that it should be destroyed or not made available for sale. The argument is that to most of us (baseball people), this item has no significance. It’s a cultural item, not a sports item.

Spelling it out simply so you’ll hopefully understand, the South’s “noble cause” wasn’t. It was vile, inhumane and an affront to decency. The ownership of human beings was explicitly written into the Confederate constitution, so spare me the states’ rights bullshit. I grew up in the ’50s listening to those code words while most of you here were still shitting in your diapers. The South deserved to lose. We are a better country because it did.

To my fellow Southerners and their witless sympathizers who think that the Confederate battle flag (it’s not the Stars and Bars – look it up) represents some sort of paean to honor and heritage, it’s time to quit whitewashing rebellion, treason and your own racism while getting your panties in a wad when you get called on your misplaced loyalty. The flag belongs in history class and in museums, not on public display and certainly not in any publicly funded form, like current state flags. Your freedoms are not impinged upon (except your freedom to be an asshole) when you respect the feelings of others. They are enhanced.

Whether you boys and girls like it or not, this bat is a part of baseball history. Of course it is also a part of Klan history, too.

Political correctness seeks to launder the truth for its touchy, feely proponents. I guess the author was just a few years early with the book, 1984.

I still am interested in knowing where you bid?

An artifact becomes historic if it has a connection to a significant individual, place, or trend that affected the game in an important way. A jersey from Babe Ruth, a seat from Ebbets Field, a poster that demands that baseball remain segregated–these are historic artifacts. But inasmuch as the story of the KKK and that of baseball have little to nothing to do with one another, this artifact is simply not a part of baseball history. It has nothing to do with political correctness nor with anti-racism. If I go buy an electric guitar and paint a swastika on it tomorrow, it is not a piece of rock and roll history, nor does it become a piece of rock and roll history if I keep the guitar for 70 years.

Now, if it was Ty Cobb’s KKK baseball bat…