Certainly it is okay for them to play. I see no reason in the world why we shouldn't compete with colored athletes as long as they conduct themselves with politeness and gentility. Let me say also that no white man has the right to be less of a gentleman than a colored man, in my book that goes not only for baseball but in all walks of life.

Interview (1952), as quoted in "The Knife in Ty Cobb's Back" (30 August 2011), Smithsonian, by Gilbert King.