The 2009 baseball season is well underway. Nostalgic thoughts arise for baseball fans that grew up worshipping their sports heroes. They used to seem bigger than life to us and we wanted to be like them and play center field for one of our favorite teams. But were they all heroes, and will some become legendary for the wrong reasons? And will more false heroes emerge during the 2009 season?

During a comedy performence in NYC last week, comic Jackie Mason referred to President Obama as a “schwartze”, angering several in the crowd. According to TMZ, Mason’s reply was: “I’m not going to defend myself. Chris Rock has told a lot more jokes about whites than I have against blacks. What about the demeaning words Blacks say about Jews?” He went on to say: “I’m an old Jew. I was raised in a family where the word was used. It’s not a demeaning word.” Here’s some more background, and my own editorial analysis on the subject, first penned by me as a columnist in the Tamarac Forum (Forum Publishing Group) several years ago, relevant now, again.