Weasel of the Week: James Street

Racial tensions are still running, but not as much in a fever pitch as they were last summer, in Missouri.

Proof of this is a relatively minor incident involving a former baseball player, Curt Ford, who played for St. Louis & Philadelphia in a short 6 year major league career (1985-90). Ford, now coaching a collegiate summer league team in Springfield, MO, was accosted by James Street, 37, for no other reason than perhaps racial motivation.

Ford & Street were approaching the same pump at a gas station in Fenton. Ford, ceding the space, moved on to another pump, but when he went into the grocery portion of the station, was sucker punched by Street, who used the "N-word" in suggesting that Ford move to nearby Ferguson, which has been at the center of a racial firestorm since last summer. Street fled, but was later arrested by police and charged with what amounts to a hate crime.

Ford was minding his own business, not looking for trouble. He did the right thing by conceding the pump he had initially wanted to use to Street, but Street just didn't see it that way. He was looking for an excuse to cause trouble, and that, in this case, gets him a set of Weasel ears. What bothered me more was the comments from a few shallow, small-brained individuals on Yahoo! stirring things up. While some of it reeked of sarcasm, it was still out of place. Just like Street's priorities, if he actually had any.