Politics & Power Quote by Rogers Hornsby

Patriotism, in Hornsby's mouth, isn't the flag or the anthem. It's the small-town ritual of making a kid feel seen. The line is blunt, funny, and a little menacing: a moral demand disguised as locker-room common sense. By tying autographs to national identity, Hornsby turns a minor courtesy into a citizenship test. The exaggeration is the point. He knows "ain't an American" lands like a fastball; he also knows the punchline - "He's a communist" - will sting harder because it's absurdly out of scale with the crime.

The context matters. Hornsby was a star and a manager in an era when baseball sold itself as the closest thing the country had to a secular religion. Players were working men elevated to icons, and the bargain with the public was intimate access: shake a hand, sign a ball, acknowledge the dream. Refusing that access isn't just bad manners; it's betrayal of the whole mythology that baseball belongs to the people.

Then comes the Cold War reflex. "Communist" here isn't ideology so much as a social slur, a way to police behavior through fear and ridicule. It's telling that the target isn't the rich owner or the politician; it's the player who forgets who made him. Hornsby's intent is less about politics than enforcement: fame should come with obligations, and the first obligation is to the kid at the rail.