“Memories that you won’t remember
So you got a little education
And a lot of dedication
But you want a little night school
Maybe some of it’ll rub off on ya”
“Adult Education” - Daryl Hall & John Oates

Daryl Hall and John Oates got together in Philadelphia in 1970. The two first met when they were each in a different group but happened to be recording in the same studio. They moved into a shared apartment, and the music came out of that friendship. They were ahead of their time in using synthesized drum backing to go with traditional tones of blues and rock in their songs.

In fact, their first “hit” song wasn’t even performed by them. It was when Lou Rawls and Taveras both covered the song, “She’s Gone,” that it took off on R&B charts and really inspired the duo to lean into their love of soul and blues music to mix with a “pop” feel, a mix that would define their career.

“Adult Education” was part of the “Rock ’n’ Soul Part I” album, the group’s first compilation album, as a new release. It would eventually reach No. 8 in large part due to controversy about the video for the song. The video showed a young man and a young woman approaching a voodoo priest in a temple setting as he was performing pseudo-rituals on doll idols. Conservative Christian groups attacked the song as an example of what music videos and MTV would present to youth - which only drastically increased the radio airplay of the song.

Interestingly, the video really does not reference any themes of the song. The song focuses its lyrics around a young girl frustrated with what she sees as juvenile behavior among her high school classmates, but the lyrics of the song tell her that she’s really experiencing the behaviors that she’ll need to negotiate throughout her adult life as well.

There are lessons that you learn in high school and never repeat. This space isn’t large enough for a list of those lessons in my own life. The song is not wrong, though, as social media has only emphasized…the cliques, talking behind someone’s back, and juvenile treatment of fellow students often continues to adulthood where groupthink has now become prevalent on social media and posting an inflammatory post about someone else is likely going to get you more likes and re-posts than sharing your success in cleaning your living room.

This week’s column is printed in between two iconic baseball anniversaries.
April 8, 1974, is the day that Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s career home run record. April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball, becoming the first black man to play in the league in more than 40 years - before owners put in a very intentional set of rules to keep black men out of the MLB level of the game.

The two incidents should be celebrated as part of incredible, impactful careers by two baseball icons who had to ensure incredible bigotry, racism, and even mortal threats in order to accomplish what they did.

Though the civil rights movement occurred in between the two events, you would not know it based on the response to Aaron as he finished the 1973 season with 713 career home runs, meaning it was obvious that he would break the record the next year, giving racists and bigots an entire offseason to plot out their plans to attempt to disrupt his pursuit of greatness. Aaron received so many threat letters that offseason that the FBI had staff reviewing every piece of mail that came to the team or to Aaron’s residence.

Humorously, Aaron’s wife recalls that a letter from a family member ended up getting lost in the shuffle and she and Hank ended up missing a birthday party because of it.

The lesson that should have been learned in Robinson’s and Aaron’s case? On a sports level, that the game is not prejudiced where talent is given. Natural talent and hard work can allow a player to succeed, no matter if he/she is 5’2” tall or 6’7”, whether the player has the appearance of a “dad bod” or looks like they should be on stage at a bodybuilding competition, and especially regardless of the athlete’s skin color, religious creed, sexual orientation, or any of the other individual difference that we allow to divide our society. To borrow a phrase from basketball, “Ball don’t care!”

Instead, this week also saw the Los Angeles Dodgers visit the White House. Typically, a team in an election year will make a point to visit before the changeover of President so they can be honored by the President who was in office when they won the World Series, but multiple things made that not feasible for the Dodgers - and despite a request to do so, the current President declined to allow his predecessor to co-host the event.

A former Twin, Brusdar Graterol, was a member of that Dodgers World Series-winning team, though injuries limited him to just seven appearances during the season. The reliever was one of several Dodgers who did not attend the event, including World Series MVP Freddie Freeman, and a few of those players anonymously told clubhouse reporters that a decision by the current administration to scrub the history of Jackie Robinson’s military service from government-run military websites was a significant reason.

After vocal opposition to the exclusion of Robinson, especially when keeping numerous athletes, musicians, and other celebrities on the page whose service could best be described as ceremonial, Robinson’s information was returned to the page, though Negro Leagues legend Oscar Charleston (often considered one of the five to ten best players who has ever played the game by baseball historians) did have his military record scrubbed, despite multiple years serving in the Pacific, and it’s not been restored.

Recent attacks on history has led to books about Robinson, Aaron, and other black athletes to be put on “ban” lists for school libraries because those books had the audacity to discuss how racism and bigotry shaped the path of their career in a different way than someone with the same talents and white skin would have experienced.

Shutting out that reality because it’s uncomfortable doesn’t change its reality. This coming week, every player in the league will wear Robinson’s No. 42 on their back to celebrate his legacy.

Is that legacy truly being allowed to be taught, though?