You know, we can take this PC and "offensive" crap and throw it right out the window. This stuff isn't politically incorrect, it is brilliant American capitalism at its best. All these "mascots" willingly dedicated their time and mojo (if you want to call it that) for their particular teams, made a bit of a living out of it and carved their own niche into baseball lore. What is more American than that?
Four out of the five of them had disabilities and ones that would have probably kept them sheltered, but instead of sitting on the sidelines of life they were able to put their disabilities to decent use and made a living for themselves. Now if teams just made them do it and treated them like dogs then there might be a problem, but these guys did it willingly, the teams certainly treated them like one of the guys and they did it in a different time and age than now. I remember reading articles on traveling freak shows and how circus' and such were not continuing to carry them because they were deemed un-PC and demeaning. You know who was the most upset at this? The freaks themselves! They had lost a unique job to them, the attention of thousands and the few with permanent deformities and such, what were they going to do now?
Other than Ruth's kid, what would those other four be doing otherwise?
I look at this period and niche in baseball and I don't see offensive material. I see some remarkable people.
