Sports of The Times - Sluggish Pace of Integration in Baseball Still Echoes - NYTimes.com: ... Bernard Diggs is a 61-year-old Philadelphian who is a die-hard Eagles fan. But he has no bond with the Phillies, a coolness that stems from the history of the 1950s and not just the whimsy of a boy who liked one team’s colors over another.For Diggs, the problem has always been the Phillies’ failure to integrate until almost every other major league club had already done so. In 2009, two of the Phillies’ stars — Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins — are African-Americans, which puts Philadelphia ahead of many other teams. Still, their presence has not swayed Diggs.
“They seem like the kind of folks I would like to meet,” Diggs said of the two players. “I really do like them as individuals in terms of their contribution to the Phillies and how they carry themselves.”
So how would he explain to them why he has not pulled for their team during the World Series — or ever, for that matter?
