- Bill Mardo in 1999.
Mardo, who died Jan. 20 at the age of 88, was a journalist who worked for the Communist publication The Daily Worker in the 1940s-50s. Along with fellow MOTs Lester “Red” Rodney and Nat Low, Mardo — born William Bloom — agitated for baseball to break the color barrier, which paved the way for Jackie Robinson and others to gain entrance to the Majors Leagues.
A few weeks back I speculated about the intentions of Branch Rickey in signing a black player. After all, he’d had ample opportunity while serving as general manager of the St. Louis cardinals before he accepted the same responsibilities with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
According to Mardo’s obit, written by Richard Goldstein,
In April 1997, Mr. Mardo and Mr. Rodney (who died in 2009) spoke at a symposium at Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus marking the 50th anniversary of Robinson’s debut with the Dodgers.
Mr. Mardo noted that Rickey had not signed blacks when he ran the St. Louis Cardinals for more than two decades and suggested it was not idealism but pressure from black sportswriters, trade unions and the Communist Party that persuaded him to sign Robinson.
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