Still long ways to go, but Tiger Woods at least helps let us know how far we've come

Let's not kid ourselves.

Out of respect on this of all days, let's not pretend on Martin Luther King Day that racism -- often cloaked in free speech and plain sight -- doesn't flow through the streets of America.

But there is evidence we are, at least, evolving.

Billy Williams always said, in our many conversations on the subject, that we'd know this country has achieved something special when a black manager is hired in baseball and no one thinks to mention his color.

Baseball isn't there yet, but the game is crawling toward that day.

When Dusty Baker was hired by the Cubs, he wasn't a "black manager.'' He was a manager who'd been to the World Series with the Giants.

The subject was prominent in the Reds' recent hiring of Baker -- though not mentioned in the first paragraph -- because the Reds had not yet broken that barrier. But perhaps we're not many years away from each team being able to hire a man without mentioning race.

What was stunning the last few days was the reaction of the media to the news that Mike Carey will become the first black referee in Super Bowl history.

Stunning because it's such a non-issue that most media outlets didn't even mention it. The papers that did bother to give it a few words of ink hardly gave it more than a sentence.

That it's such a non-story is progress.

As the game gets closer, with two weeks before the game and 100 million Americans likely to see it, Carey will begin to gain attention and become a focus, but that's more Super Bowl hype than genuine reaction.

The first response, the non-reaction by the media, was the real one, and it offers significant insight into how people view the subject in 2008.

Which brings us to Tiger Woods and his instant -- and complete -- forgiveness of the Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman for her "lynch him in a back alley'' remark.

Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, quickly issued a statement saying Woods and Tilghman are friends, and that Tiger believes there was no "ill intent'' in her comments.

"This story is a non-issue in our eyes,'' Steinberg said. "Case closed."

If that's what Tiger Woods has directed his agent to tell us, that's good enough for me.

Setting aside, if you can, the anger on both sides of Woods' response -- some think it perfectly appropriate, others the opposite -- the good news is the discussion that has come of it.

Portions of an entire generation of Americans, maybe two, didn't know the connotation "lynch'' carried with it until now.

But "lynching'' has been forced into the lexicon and millions have been instantly educated, the entire subject discussed at length and digested, a reminder of a dreadful past that ought never be forgotten.

What's also important to recognize is how Tiger Woods, like Michael Jordan before him, is known worldwide as the best of all time in his sport, with rarely a mention of his skin color prior to the Golf Channel fiasco.

I proclaim daily to anyone willing to listen that Woods has surpassed Jordan as the greatest sportsman in history.

The only context that places him large enough in minds that can grasp it is that he's "the Babe Ruth of our time,'' so much better than everyone else, so much grander than anyone in history at that moment in time, as to drop jaws and force tears.

When fans get near Woods, their reverence is presidential, their screams the noise of Elvis and the Beatles.

We often use Ruth because he was larger than life, and at the time he played he was lifetimes larger and more popular than anyone had ever been in any sport.

It is to conjure an image of sports' Mount Rushmore, with only one face carved in it.

What tells you that we have evolved is that if your grandchildren's grandchildren are fortunate enough to view an athlete whose skill and success can somehow transcend that of the greatest golfer who ever lived, they will not reference Babe Ruth as we do today.

Someday they will say, without hesitation, that an athlete who dominates at a level never before imagined will be known as "the Tiger Woods of our time.''

No small statement is that, even on a day when we remember how far we have to go.

brozner@dailyherald.com