The Sporting News emphasized Gilliam's mistake in full page story a month into his Dodger career

In honor of Jim Gilliam's MLB debut on this day in 1953, I wanted to revisit media coverage of his first few months in the big leagues. Gilliam would finish the 1953 season as the National League Rookie of the Year and lead the NL in triples and plate appearances as the Dodgers reached the World Series.

Something which struck me during my research of Jim Gilliam: The Forgotten Dodger was what The Sporting News chose to emphasize during its coverage of Gilliam in his first month. The image below is from page 3 of the April 29, 1953 issue of the magazine. The framing of Gilliam's prospects for sticking with the team is explicitly tied to whether he can hit, something he did with great regularity with the Baltimore Elite Giants of the Negro Leagues, and the 1951-52 seasons with the Montreal Royals. That the dominant number on Charlie Dressen's caricature scroll was .198 suggests Gilliam was not hitting. In fact, he collected hits in 7 of his first 9 MLB games and was batting .314 when April turned to May.

In addition, the article's author, Roscoe McGowen, the veteran New York Times writer, focuses on a mental lapse in the bottom of the 8th inning in the third game of the season against the New York Giants. Gilliam's mental error allowed an extra run to score, giving the Giants a 6-1 lead (they won the game, 6-3). There is no mention that Gilliam led off the top of the 9th with an infield hit and eventually scored. There is no discussion that Gilliam rebounded the next day to go 3-for-6 with two runs scored and his first MLB RBI as the Dodgers won 12-4.

No, that would go against the narrative that Gilliam, a Black man, would need to be perfect in order to be accepted by Brooklyn fans and take that "long lease on second base." To be clear, this was par for the course for The Sporting News. In 2021, TSN endorsed the removal of publisher J.G. Taylor Spink's name from a Hall of Fame award over consistent use of racist language in the publication. Gilliam, like many of his Black contemporaries who came after Jackie Robinson, faced longer odds and more scrutiny than their white counterparts, thanks, in part, to the stories in TSN.

Gilliam persevered and became more than just "a new face in old Flatbush." He became a permanent face, and not simply because he could "hit his hat."
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