Introducing dave zirin. Regular sports commentator on the rail with chuck d. He is a Senior Writer at basketball. Com. His journalism has appeared in the source, the College Sporting news, the San Francisco bay view. He talks about his book whats my name, fool . The San Francisco bay view has said that he is that rarest of commodities with sports writing. And original voice. Andok will be loved voice. Orginal welcomingn me in daves iran. Dave zirin. Whats my name, fool . This book is about times when radical politics found expression in the road of professional sports in the u. S. I have heardear, some of the jokes about this book. Like, radical politics in u. S. Sports. That will make a great template. While you add the great atheists of the Christin Coalition . There is a tradition deeply hidden when times of struggle off the field exploded onto the field with electric consequences. This condition runs i actually had a front row seat for this carnival of reaction. I went to a Washington Nationals game. I went because i wanted to see a baseball game. Instead, what i was treated to was what the nationals were calling military appreciation man. Or were swornoung men into the u. S. Marines before the start of the game. This took place with george w. Bush sitting in one of the owners boxes up top. Andannouncer thanked bush the troops for fighting for our freedom in iraq. Utterlyere slackjawed, specious speechless. Theans, we were informed by this embodied god voice that we could sign up for Operation Iraqi freedom at a stand located right outside of the stadium. Peanuts, cracker jacks and war, thats a great evening if i ever heard one. You find yourself in this stadium with absolutely no voice. To find yourself with no way express yourself to the athletic industrial complex. I was sitting there and it never ceases to amaze me how sports, something that had a huge role in shaping may growing up, a positive influence on me growing up. I think we should celebrate beauty and the best of competition and fun. It can be used in such a disgusting way. I love sports, i think we need to fight for sports. What we need to know is our history. That is our greatest ammunition in this fight. We need to know the history of the athletes, the sportswriters and the fans who have stood up to the machine if for no other knowing this history allows us to look at the world and see that struggle can affect every aspect of life in the system. I want to start about the title of the book and where it comes from. I used to have a joke that flunked mightily. Whats my name, fool . Is not a tribute to mr. T. [applause] i was at a book store when a young, wellmeaning person asked me if this was a book about mr. T and was mr. Totally serious. I want to start about where this title comes from. This is a direct reference to what i think is behind points of that connection between sports and resistance. That was when the heavyweight champion of the world had one foot in the black freedom struggle and one in the antiwar movement. Im talking about the great muhammad ali. 2005, i think people under 30 know the guy as no muhammad ali as aow muhammad walking saint. Had him on the back and leave him by the hand. You would never know that this was the most despised, slender rise and slanderized and the unitedathlete in states. Changed his name from andius clay to cassius x then to muhammad ali. You have to get will smith out of your heads. There are no words for the storm this caused when cassius clay changed his name. Obviously thes biggest sport in the United States in the 1960s, the champion of the red white and blue, strength, aggression, all these things. Then you had the heavyweight champion of the world talking about how pretty he was. And then, joining the organization of malcolm x. The mobbed up flight world fight world lost their minds. Whether the name became so seminal to the 60s, whether you called him clay or ali. It said everything about you. What side you are on in the black struggle, the free speech struggle. It was an incredible thing. Me howaunt was telling she moved out of her apartment for a week. Couchayed on a friends because she got into a huge fight with her dad about whether the heavyweight champions name happened to be clay or ali. You may think this is a dysfunctional family. You would be right. Aboutnt an argument pain, it was an argument about the. It was an argument about the radicalization breaking out and what side of the barricades you are on. In 1965, ali fought a twotime champion. A man who was proudly patriotic, floyd patterson. This is what patterson said to the reporters. This fight is a crusade to reclaim the sport from black muslims. As a catholic, i will reclaim this from clay. His name is clay. Muhammad ali had no response. He had nothing to say in response to this. He let it simmer and then he did his talking in the ring. Nine rounds against patterson and he just took them apart. Whiteld yell, come on america, what is my name . Say my name, fool. That is where i get the title of the book. It is a good title. Ist know that mohammed ali the first responsible for saying whats my name, fool . Peoplehe background that dont know. The symbolic freedom struggle. As Bryant Gumbel said, i cant believe im quoting him, it is a good quote. He said one of the reasons the Civil Rights Movement went toward is because black people went forward is because black people were able to claim their fear. That came from watching mohammed ali. He refused to be a freight afraid. Civil bond who was a rights activist and is now a head of the naacp, he said that the act of ollie joining the nation was not something we all agreed with. We loved that he was telling white people to go to hell for us. He was giving people confidence in the movements going outside of the ring that are very evocative and not something we are taught in sports century moments on espn. The first is something that took place in alabama. You had a group of africanamerican athletes. The youth wing of the Civil Rights Movement. They organized a group called the loans county freedom party. Sharecroppers, people who worked in factories down there. They are famous in the annals of the Civil Rights Movement because they were the first people to use the symbol of a black panther. They use that as an inspiration. They called themselves the black panthers. That is something that the people who know the Civil Rights Movement now. Know. What they had emblazoned underneath the black panther was we are the greatest. Another example was Martin Luther king. He came out against the war in vietnam in 1967. It is not remembered the degree of pressure he received at the time. They thought that king should not be speaking out about and National International affairs of war. When he gave his first ,reference press conference like mohammed ali us, we are all victims of the same justice and oppression. I think the stories are incredible, i hope i am not alone. I think the problem is that in sports history itself, as it is told on the world wide leader espn, he gets soft lighting, the espn. Music, it becomes the political teeth get extracted. That is what the book is about. It tries to reclaim that history. The history that we know, the history we are not told. It is wellknown that jack johnson is the first heavyweight champion of the world. He won the title in 1908. Title fended the this started the greatest race riot that the country would ever see. The character of these rides were white mobs. They were attempting to enter black neighborhoods and black communities defending themselves by force. After a boxing match, this occurred. 1910. That, booker t. Washington who was outraged went to johnson and demanded that he condemn people for rioting. Johnson responded that you can kiss my black ass. We may also know that baseball was segregated for 50 years until 1947. Do we know the story of leicester red Rodney Lester rodney . Lester rodney used the sports section to fight for baseballs integration. A campaign that garnered over a million signatures from Wrigley Field to Yankee Stadium to misty park. I got to interview Lester Rodney for this book. It was an absolute privilege and not something i will ever forget. 95 years old and sharp as a tack. I think we know him mostly as this quiet, suffering, black saint who was brought to the dodgers under the paternal one great sticky branch dickey. As heont know him was the number one requested speaker of the naacp in the United States at that time. Countryed around the speaking at meetings. The number two speaker was Martin Luther king. The way that robinson would wrap up his speeches he would use this one line. He would say if i have to choose between the hall of fame and full citizenship for my people, i would choose full citizenship time and time again. Debs would say that i will arrive, it will be with the ranks not for the ranks. I think it is incredible. We may know about the famed black power salute of tommie smith and john carlos of the 1968 olympics. It is being commemorated. It was commemorated in a statute in california. There is a lot about that picture we dont know. It is one of the most marketed pictures in the last hundred years. We dont know that tommie smith and john carlos they wanted to protest poverty. They didnt wear shoes. Ofwas a massive breed etiquette at the time. Breach of etiquette at the time. , he i got to john carlos said i wanted it open to represent shift workers, bluecollar people and the underdogs. The people whose contributions to society are so important but dont get recognized. You certainly dont hear about the instances that were occurring around these guys in 1968 that led to that moment. The assassination of dr. King and how it influenced those guys to make a stand at the olympics. The movement that was occurring in south africa at the time. It was apartheid. Of course, the assassination of 500 students and workers in mexico city by the state police as they attempted to make mexico city safe for the olympic games. We see the picture but we dont hear any of the history. That is the equivalent of telling the story of the titanic and forgetting the iceberg. It is that history. It is generally bad it is , andhistory bad history writing asally bad well. A book about the underdog as well. We may know about billie jean kings match against bobby rigs. Whenever they do retrospectives of that, we dont know how deeply embedded that match was at the time. It was one of the most enduring victories of the womens movement. It ensured equal funding. It is largely unenforced but still an incredible victory. It is calmly thought of as just a sports thing. Opportunitiesnal in general. It is a living history and it is a life anytime athletes try to try to ype or carla still got up try to delgado says that this was based on murder lies. This close of the racism of this system. People should check out his book of poetry called more than an athlete that will blow your mind. It was a lie when felipe alou who is a manager of the San Francisco giants stands up to on antiimmigrant racism sports radio. I think it is especially alive when the u. S. Congress and their steroid hysteria hoopla. They are like Joe Mccarthys little cousin. Bondseared calling barry to testify on steroids. They were afraid that he would say what he was saying to reporters. To useit illegal steroids but it is not illegal to make a tshirt for . 50 in korea . We can dissect what we like and dislike about sports and challenge not only sports but challenge our society to change. Fly overhead and Baltimore Ravens games, we can ask how many physical education everys are cut to pay for blue angel. Windows disgustingly when those discussed only sexist disgustingly sexist beer commericals are used, we can ask what they are doing. When they see a touchdown dance get to raunchy, we can ask how a network that pays the oreilly millions and promotes shows like whos your daddy and the littlest groom, i dont want to say what that is about but it is kind of gross. How they have the right to be the purity police. When our cities are attempting to be soaked by stadium deals. Ike the rat house we can stand up as sports fans and say we may love baseball, im not going to give a billionaire 350 million for the privilege of watching it. By speaking out for the political soul of the sports that we love, we stand for social justice in every arena. We also begin to impose our own ideas on sports. A counter morality to compete with the hypocrisy of the elites. To barry bondsl to not give up sports. It is a thrill to mia hamm. It is a morality that recognizes athletes as human beings with mines as well as bodies. Understandneeds to that athletes who speak out for social justice alis,ant more Muhammad John carloss and billy jean kings. Mike piazza ving press conference to say that he is not gay, we need to as tommy smith himself said about his famed lack power salute, black power it is not something that i can get on about. It has not been resolved. It will be part of our future. He is absolutely right. Struggle is part of our future. Attackat occurs, it will and it is affecting athletes and fans alike. The book is about knowing that those who speak out actually stand in a tradition that goes back 100 years and speaks to beyond the field of play. It is tradition we should embrace whether we are sports fans or not. Thank you. Were taking questions. I would remind people that we are on tv. Just raise your hand. I have been mulling on this question for about 10 years. I have been really looking for to being here. Cant think of a better place to ask. I read your article about the jacks johnson riots. In 1992. R i was a freshman in high school, when the Chicago Bulls first won the nba championship, i remember the rodney king trial verdicts that just happened. Remember seeing on tv that after the bulls one, fans rushed to the vip. I think the chicago stadium is on the foresight of town. They were assaulting limousines and all of the important people. They were Burning Police cars. My question is up on tried to look this the internet. Given the fact that the Chicago Police are racist and brutal, what is it about that that allows these little opportunities for people to fight back in a Victorious Way . They won, they drove the cops away. Do you know about anything in where sports history there was some political advance after a sports victory or defeat . Sports, iar as world dont know, do sports take place out of the United States . I was born and raised in this country. Getting i am just kidding. [laughter] occur, i doriots do think that obviously, you dont go out and burn a limousine if youre feeling really good about your life and your options and what is going on in the world. I think they are largely, if not entirely expressions of alienation. Whether they occur on college. Ampuses or the city that doesnt mean they are politically progressive in any way. It is not a good thing. Me i wasdy asked at syracuse university. How do we channel this against the war . You dont. It is an expression of disconnect from politics, not an expression of their connection. It is an outgrowth of anger and frustration that people feel. I do think it is something positive that we can organize. It was a character of people defending their neighborhoods against white lynch mobs and feeling the confidence to do that. I think there is a qualitative difference than some guys lighting their mattress on fire in their frat house and throwing it out on the street. I want to talk to those guys, just not when they are drunk. I want to talk about the olympics first. Think this one man was the head of the committee. He was a former physical director for francisco franco. I was wondering if you know the background behind that. I dont know whether or not you talk about the situations. Glickman was one of them. He was excluded from the olympics because he was jewish. You had included that in the book itself. The other question i had was the transformation metamorphosis of George Foreman. He was really he was closed and didnt say very much. Whereas, ali was really boisterous. It is like a complete metamorphosis, now George Foreman is really loud. Have you talked about that and what the basis of that was . We know that ali, because of his disease and because he took too many punches probably. He is quiet. The book inead your face in the 1970s, a sports book that talked about the issues that were very similar to that period of time. Dave first about the olympics and juan antonio sameran, whose name you pronounced just fine, he was the head for a long time of the International Olympic committee, the i. O. C. Now the i. O. C. , throughout their history in the last 100 years, had more facists sitting around the table than your typical outtakes of the nuremburg trial. [laughter] dave it was an outrageous motley crew of people who supported franco, spain and hitler, it was like find me a facist, these guys were. [laughter] dave they followed them around like a groupies following around the grateful dead. And it actually connects pretty well with the history of the olympics, the modern olympics. Starting in 1898, which was also the year of the spanishamerican war in this country. I mean it had to do with actually organizing the divisions of the world. Through games. I mean representing what was happening in the broader sense in the world. And i do talk about that in the book. But the modern olympic movement, it is kind of a contradictory thing. On the one hand, you get to see sports that are utterly marginalized in the other times. I like watching those sports. I like not having to watch the same thing all the time. And a lot of those sports, i think theres just incredible beauty and its wonderful, really. I mean the way in the state of maryland, the way it really did come alive like Michael Phelps the swimmer. And all of a sudden people a