"Baseball is a game of race, creed, and color. The race is to first base. The creed is the rules of the game. The color? Well, the home team wears white uniforms, and the visiting team wears gray"
About this Quote
As an ex-player and TV guy, Garagiola understood how sports talk can be a safe channel for hot national questions. His joke performs that safety: it offers a fantasy version of America where the only divisions are home and away, and the only “color line” is white versus gray flannel. That’s the surface charm.
The subtext is more complicated. It’s not exactly denial; it’s a wry admission that people want sports to be the place where race doesn’t exist, even when the country can’t stop talking about it. Coming from a figure who lived through baseball’s integration era and the long tail of inequality in the stands, front offices, and media booths, the line reads like a veteran’s coping mechanism: defuse the topic, keep the game moving, protect the illusion that the diamond is a meritocracy.
The intent, then, is double: entertain with a clean punchline, and quietly critique the appetite for “colorblind” stories that flatten the real history behind the game.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Garagiola, Joe. (2026, January 17). Baseball is a game of race, creed, and color. The race is to first base. The creed is the rules of the game. The color? Well, the home team wears white uniforms, and the visiting team wears gray. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/baseball-is-a-game-of-race-creed-and-color-the-57218/
Chicago Style
Garagiola, Joe. "Baseball is a game of race, creed, and color. The race is to first base. The creed is the rules of the game. The color? Well, the home team wears white uniforms, and the visiting team wears gray." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/baseball-is-a-game-of-race-creed-and-color-the-57218/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Baseball is a game of race, creed, and color. The race is to first base. The creed is the rules of the game. The color? Well, the home team wears white uniforms, and the visiting team wears gray." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/baseball-is-a-game-of-race-creed-and-color-the-57218/. Accessed 11 Feb. 2026.
