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In our country, everyone is created equal. What happens in the ensuing nine months, and then after birth, is up for debate. As the great Muhammad Ali said, you just need the right connections. And the right complexion.

James Rodney Richard (JR) pitched alongside the legendary Nolan Ryan for the Houston Astros, and he regularly blew hitters away with his 100mph+ fastball.

From 1976-1979, he was a super star: did not win less than 18 wins per year. Struck out over 300 hitters in both 1978 and 1979.

He was a remarkable athlete.

Until mid-1980 rolled around. After 10 victories by July, he was selected to the All-Star team. But then JR began complaining that his arm felt…dead.

Team doctors found nothing wrong with him, and yet he continued to pitch ineffectively, or not at all.

Which is when the grumbling began in the newspapers.

“He’s lazy.”

“He’s ungrateful.”

“He’s faking it.”

And those complaints were not found in newspapers from deep in the heart of Texas. They were found in newspapers called the New York Daily News. And the New York Post.

Which is par for the course in this country when a Black person, especially an athlete, fails to live up to expectations.

Desperate for answers and receiving no help from the team, JR was forced to check himself into a hospital.

After a thorough exam, it was determined that he had a blood clot in his neck.

It was also determined that the blood clot was not impeding his ability to throw a baseball, so instead of recommending surgery, the doctor’s diagnosis was: go pitch. The Astros, fed up, agreed. Pitch, or we will void your contract.

So that’s what he did.

And a week later, while warming up in the bullpen, JR Richard suffered a stroke. Later examination revealed he had actually suffered three strokes. Caused, of course, by said blood clot.

This is when the Houston Astros apologized for not having believed him. An obviously pitiful and empty gesture, the sole purpose of which was to make the Astros and their fans feel better about themselves.

When he failed at a comeback, the Astros gave him the boot. Then he lost his house. Then his wife. Four year later, JR Richard was living beneath a highway overpass…

Boxing is another sport that has played a big roll in making our country great, especially in the 1940s. It gave Joe Louis to America.

Louis was only the second Black heavyweight champion in history; the first was Jack Johnson, who reigned from 1908-1915. And Louis learned from Johnson the consequences of making the white establishment feel ‘disrespected.’

Johnson was forced to flee the country when a warrant was issued for his arrest, for violating the Mann Act: the crime of transporting a white woman across state lines for “immoral purposes.”

The fact that the woman in question was Johnson’s wife did not matter.

Eventually he returned to the States, and was incarcerated for one year in the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth. For taking a drive with his wife.

So Joe Louis made sure never to even appear in a photograph with a white woman.

Hitler sent Max Schmelling stateside to wrest the championship belt from Louis, to prove the superiority of the German ‘race.’

Joe’s one career loss was via knockout, two years earlier, to the same Max Schmelling, so there was no shortage of drama.

Two minutes and 4 seconds into the first round, in front of more than 70,000 shrieking fans in Yankee Stadium and more than half the country listening on the radio, Louis hit Schmelling so hard that not only could Schmelling not get up, but the force of the blow actually paralyzed him from the waist down for ten minutes.

Joe Louis was a national treasure.

He then fought military exhibitions for the troops, selflessly donating 100% of his earnings to Uncle Sam and the war effort.

Joe Louis gave his beleaguered country hope. So naturally, as soon as he retired in 1948, his country came after him. For back taxes. They came after him as if he was an enemy of the state.

Louis’s manager, Mike Jacobs, had had his hand in the till for years, plus didn’t file taxes for Joe. So the government came knocking.

They didn’t even forgive the income tax on Louis’s exhibitions. The fights where he gave all of his earnings to support the war effort.

So now old, slow, out of shape Joe had no choice but to come out of retirement. He wanted to pay his bill.

He was pulverized by the new champ, Rocky Marciano.

And after the government took its share from his purse – 90%! – there wasn’t much left for his back taxes.

So he turned to professional wrestling to make a buck. After that, a wrestling referee.

His mother died in 1953, leaving Joe $667 in her Will.

Uncle Sam took it all. The IRS does not play.

Joe ended up as a ‘greeter’ in a Vegas gambling joint.

The only good will he ever got was from Frank Lucas (a gangster), who, embarrassed by the government’s pursuit of Joe, donated $50,000 to help with his bills.

The United States government finally agreed to leave the man alone on April 12, 1981. The day he died.

There you have it. Three men who went far. They had the talent, and the right connections. Too bad that for this country, they had the wrong complexion…