Jackie Robinson day/Lack of blacks in baseball

60 years ago today Jackie Robinson made his debut in the Major Leagues!

The talk today is why participation of blacks in the Major Leagues is at a 20 year low.

I think this talk is rediculous.

www.usatoday.com...

"I'm tripping when I see teams like Atlanta and Houston not having any black players," says Minnesota Twins outfielder Torii Hunter, who launched a national urban youth baseball program with the help of donations from about 12 big-leaguers. "Atlanta? That's Chocolate City! And no black players?"

The Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros are the two major league teams this year with no black players, though both have an African-American on the coaching staff.

"It's not something we like having attached to us," Astros general manager Tim Purpura says. "We drafted five black players last year ... and we have more African-American scouts than we've had in a long time. We're working on an infrastructure to attract more African-American players."

Says John Schuerholz, Braves vice president/general manager: "The reality is you can't feel uncomfortable with reality. There's a diminishing amount of African-American players in the game at all levels. We have black players in our organization. ... But we pick the best 25 guys" for the majors.

Damn right! You put the best players in the game. Imagine if the NBA started making a push for white players. What if the NHL started making a push a Latino's?

Let the best players compete! Major sports do not need to be targets of affirmative action.

Are you implying that teams in the MLB are pushing for white players?

In my opinion, this notion is absolutely absurd. The Atlanta Braves do not have a black player? Andruw Jones mate!



Houston Astros? Carlos Lee?

houston.astros.mlb.com...





[edit on 15-4-2007 by chissler]

Don't you know black Latinos don't count as blacks?!!!

At least not to the bean counters.

Originally posted by RRconservative
Don't you know black Latinos don't count as blacks?!!!

Apparently not.

So what does constitute a "black" man? Apparently I missed the index on this one.

In the old days Major League Baseball was the Prime league. Jackie Robinson in his day was a nasty running back. The NFL was a second tier sport, and the NBA was solidly in 2nd place.

If Jackie Robinson graduated from UCLA today he would have been drafted in the 1st round in the NFL and would have never played baseball. The NFL is in the position that MLB was in the past. NBA solid second MLB is now in third. They have lost a lot to all the strikes and hold outs over the years.

Generally this is my perception. Note I said Perception of each of the leagues. This is just one sample of a ordinary guy's feel as far as racial percentages:

NFL White 50%/ Black 45%/ Hispanic 3%/ Asian/Pacific 1%/ Others 1%

NBA Black 90%/ White(Including Euros) 5%/ Hispanic 3%/ Others 2%

MLB White 50%/ Hispanic 40%/ Black 7%/ Others 3%


PS Carlos Lee is Hispanic

[edit on 18-4-2007 by Royal76]

Andruw Jones is from Curacao and Carlos Lee is from Panama. They may look black but there's not that ghetto stigma that comes from African-Americans who grow up in the states.

I can attest to this because as an Astros fan I've often wondered where all the brothers are? I've always thought Drayton McLane was a racist.

Peace

[edit on 18-4-2007 by Dr Love]

Originally posted by Dr Love
Andruw Jones is from Curacao and Carlos Lee is from Panama. They may look black but there's not that ghetto stigma that comes from African-Americans who grow up in the states.

I can attest to this because as an Astros fan I've often wondered where all the brothers are? I've always thought Drayton McLane was a racist.

Peace

[edit on 18-4-2007 by Dr Love]

In the last few years the Astros have always put a competitive team on the field.

From my 1st post...

Says John Schuerholz, Braves vice president/general manager: "The reality is you can't feel uncomfortable with reality. There's a diminishing amount of African-American players in the game at all levels. We have black players in our organization. ... But we pick the best 25 guys" for the majors.

When the Astros went after Carlos Lee, do you really think Drayton McLane cared if he was black or hispanic? No, he went after the best player for the money. I think that is what all owners and general managers do.

So where's the depiction of the Bush-inserted knife in the front of the soldier's chest? No, wait, it's more like a guillotine... except that guillotines are usually associated with the French Revolution, which at least stood for something.

Do these political add-ons really belong in the Sports Section?

BHN

Don't you know everything is political?

BTW It's my avatar. It goes with me wherever I go. Not going to change my avatar everytime I go into a different forum.

Is it really necessary to comment politically in the Sports Section?

Do you have a view on Jackie Robinson or the lack of blacks in baseball?

I'm sitting here watching the Suns/Spurs basketball game, and it got me thinking.

Saying that players from Latin America aren't black, is like saying Steve Nash isn't white because he is from Canada.

Maybe it's late???

Originally posted by RRconservative
Don't you know everything is political?

BTW It's my avatar. It goes with me wherever I go. Not going to change my avatar everytime I go into a different forum.

Is it really necessary to comment politically in the Sports Section?

Do you have a view on Jackie Robinson or the lack of blacks in baseball?

Yes, I do, and I doubt it's too far from yours.

Of course MLB teams should put the best available players out there. They didn't until 1947, and a lot of outstanding players who could have been dominant in MLB never got the chance. Many people who saw both felt that Oscar Charleston--the Willie Mays of the Negro Leagues, only with more power--was a better player than Babe Ruth. John McGraw apparently believed this (I don't), but then, he hated Ruth-ball... which Charleston also played very well, with enormous power.

By the same token, it would be obscene if MLB teams started feeling obligated to play African-Americans, just to meet somebody's idea of an acceptable quota. It would be unfair to qualified non-black players, and insulting to blacks everywhere.

BUT.... I'm a child of the 1960's and remember who the best players of that decade were: Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Frank Robinson, Willie McCovey, Sandy Koufax and Harmon Killebrew. (Forget Clemente; he's grossly overrated because of his heroic death, and had a mediocre .359 career OBP, terrible K/BB ratios, tons of throwing errors and ordinary power, even making allowances for cavernous Forbes Field.)

Notice a pattern? They're mostly black players. Same story for any list of the great players of the 1950's. Yes, there were Mantle, Musial, Spahn and Teddy Ballgame, but there were also Campy, Mays, Banks, the young Newcombe, Jackie Robinson, Frank Robinson, etc.

Are we to believe blacks have genetically regressed as players? NOT. At another chat site, a black guy from the inner city has repeatedly said that there are no places to play baseball in inner cities, and that a lot of young blacks who aren't 6'4" would rather play baseball than hoops. I believe him.

THAT is the problem. Not racism by the omni-corrupt Bud Selig. Baseball is not guilty on this one. But the city councils of major cities are guilty as hell. How can it not be worth the space and money to let kids play baseball, instead of playing the deadly game of Crips and Bloods?

BHN

a big problem is availability. Baseball's not available in a lot of black neighborhoods, but basketball just needs a hoop, a ball, and sneakers.

I grew up in inner city miami with Baseball being my first sport, looking up to Andre Dawson and Jose Canseco. But there was nowhere to play, and nobody cared about baseball. All that talent down there and what happened is a lot of us got convinced baseball wasn't black enough and it wasn't worth it. My brother was a great player, but his friends wound up putting that in his head.

That's the biggest issue I see is availability...