The Rancho Cordova Little League recently installed signs at the ball fields behind the Cordova Lane Center called the “Little League Pledge”. They state:
I trust in God
I love my country
And will respect its laws
I will play fair
And strive to win
But win or lose
I will always do my best
There are two parts to the pledge:
Sportsmanship oriented
I will play fair
And strive to win
But win or lose
I will always do my best
Obedience oriented
I trust in God
I love my country
And will respect its laws
The obedience words caught my attention and seemed out of place, leading me to research where this came from and what it meant.
The pledge was written in 1954 by Little League Baseball’s first president Peter J. McGovern.
1954 was a time of change in America. President Eisenhower and Congress changed the Pledge of Allegiance by adding the words “under God” to distinguish the Christian United States from the Atheist Soviet Union. The US government began Operation Wetback to forcibly remove millions of Mexicans living in the United States back to Mexico. The Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The first songs in a new genre called Rock ‘n Roll were being released and derided as the Devil’s music.
Peter McGovern became Little League’s first president in 1952 following the official banning of girls from playing baseball after a girl was found to be playing on a team. During his two decades as President Mr. McGovern fought hard to prevent any girls from playing ball and the charter of any local club allowing girls to play was threatened with revocation.
In 1973 the courts began prohibiting this sexist discrimination by Little League Baseball and 1973 saw the end of Mr. McGovern’s leadership of the organization. In 1974 about 30,000 girls quickly signed-up to play ball.
Although Little League purported to allow racially integrated teams, in many areas – particularly the South – teams were segregated. In 1955 white South Carolina teams refused to play a black team in the Little League World Series state tournament leading the black team to win by forfeit. Mr. McGovern then announced there would be no team representing South Carolina in a multi-state regional tournament. The black boys, though, were allowed to be guests watching the white boys play in the Little League World Series.
The times have changed …
In 1954 when Mr. McGovern wrote the pledge requiring children to obey the nation’s laws, these are some of the laws to which he was requiring obedience …
– It was illegal to marry someone of another race.
– Women did not have the right to equal pay or to be free from sexual harassment or discrimination.
– Sodomy was a crime.
– Homosexuality was illegal.
The South Lake Tahoe Little League apparently removed the obedience lines from its pledge, then abandoned the entire pledge to avoid excluding the wide diversity of kids who play ball.
The National Little League now goes out of its way on its website to state the pledge is not mandatory nor required to be stated in full. Apparently so embarrassed by its history Little League states the pledge is merely “a historical document, written in the mid-1950s, by an official of Little League.”
LOL. Next to the founder of the Little League, President Peter McGovern is the most important person in league history. But in the context of the pledge his name and title have been removed so one would think it was an anonymous, low-ranking individual responsible for writing the pledge almost 70 years ago.
While I thank the Rancho Cordova Little League for leading me on a short history journey and giving me an opportunity to reflect horrible ramifications of the underlying purposes in 1954 for writing the pledge that children were to repeatedly recite, I think Rancho Cordova should follow the lead of South Lake Tahoe. At least remove the obedience lines.
Let’s just play ball.
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