STARRING PHIL RIZUTTO AS JOE BIDEN:

After a stellar playing career, Bill White was hired by the New York Yankees as a broadcaster in 1971, and he eventually became the first African American play-by-play announcer in major league sports. Eighteen years later, White was named the first black president of the National League, which made him the highest-ranking black executive in professional sports.

White's breakthroughs occurred decades before the nation elected its first black president. But the scrutiny and pressure that confronted White -- or any black "first" -- parallel what President Barack Obama encountered when he took office.

The weight of the race was on White's shoulders, creating pressures no white man would have faced. If he made a mistake on the air, would it fuel the haters who believed that a black man did not have the necessary skills for the job? Would people say black folks do not have what it takes to run a professional sports league?

The Yankees had to convince White to accept the broadcasting job. His reluctance was over the particulars of the post rather than the fear of being a racial pioneer. But he was aware that the Yankees were among the last Major League teams to field black players. Catcher Elston Howard broke the team's color barrier in 1955 -- eight years after Jackie Robinson joined the crosstown Brooklyn Dodgers.

"I was persuaded to take the job. I also had to be convinced to take the league president's job," White said, because it required a more demanding work schedule than he wanted. Still, he said he felt well prepared and never focused on the implications of being the first black person to hold those positions. In any event, failure was not an option. "My family taught me to work as hard, at college, at sports, or anything. I've always carried that motto with me. I always wanted to do my best, which had nothing to do with race, and something to do with pride."

Today, the idea of a black man calling a baseball game hardly raises an eyebrow. White's work as a racial pioneer feels like the early steps in a long journey as the nation counts down the final hours of the Obama presidency.

Obama leaves office Friday boasting a consequential record that includes ending a crippling recession, saving millions of auto manufacturing jobs, expanding health care coverage and rekindling U.S. relations with Cuba. Still, the accomplishment for which he will be best remembered is breaking the ultimate racial barrier to become the nation's first black president.

It is an achievement that puts any future talk of black "firsts" in a different light. No longer should anyone doubt whether a black person could fill a particular job. The only relevant question will be when.

Tweet   @brothersjudd