WWJD

What would Jackie Do? The numbers are appalling., 68 out 750 major league players are African American.

 

Of those 68, how many are really recognizable guys?

Griffey, Bonds and Frank Thomas may be the only influential black dudes in baseball. Sure, there's Sabbathia, Crawford, Flash Gordon, Howard, Rollins etc etc, but as far as guys that have actually been influential, those are the only three I can think of. I'm quite sure I'm probably forgetting somebody huge, but oh well. I'm in no mood to Google "black baseball players" right now.

 

Yes, but.

There are clearly structural reasons for those numbers, and it doesn't look like to me that institutional racism is one of them.

I'm open to persuasion on the topic, but off the top of my head it looks like black society has decided to focus its energies on basketball and football.

Leonard's loser, major league baseball.

I've read a lot of wailing on the topic, but I'm still looking for something with a little intellectual rigor attached. The Freakonomics guys could probably explain it in a half-hour of freenzied scribbling on the back on a napkin.

 

Allow me to help you find MLB's dark side.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/jackie/news/story?id=2828584

 

I don't think it has anything to do with institutional racism. It's preference.

In black areas of town and among black guys, baseball is not a *cool* sport. Plus, with the specialization of sports nowadays, where kids are playing a smaller variety, a lot of black kids just aren't picking up baseball. They're playing football and basketball.

But what do you do? What black icon does baseball have to promote like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Terrell Owens, Donovan McNabb, etc. Griffey and Frank Thomas haven't been *cool* for a decade. Bonds is a pariah to most now.

EDIT: I had NO clue Damion Easley was still playing baseball. None at all. And Kenny Lofton too??? Jesus. Those guys will be joining AARP in a few weeks, won't they?

 

Feature by the evil empire on Sunday morning SC confirmed Heijira's theory that blacks are focusing on hoops and football.

One black kid who played baseball at his Florida high school said he got made fun of when he wore his team jersey into class on gameday.

 

Yes, that was sad. The fact is baseball stopped trying to attract black youngsters. You go back to the 80's and you could see the trend developing. MLB's RBI program is a big step in the right direction.

 

How many MLB players are of African descent but not from the United States of America?

 

ZERO but how many countries in Africa fielded a team in the world baseball tournament. Zero. And your point being?

 

I think his point is asking where David Ortiz, Vlad, Manny and Sammy fit into the discussion.

 

They're Latinos. They aren't African Americans. Thus, they have no place in this discussion.

 

If a white guy whose parents are from South Africa made the bigs, that would add to the number of African-Americans.

There are so many race names that don't make sense.

African-American is one because a white guy with relatives from Africa would be an African-American, but clearly he wouldn't be in the group people intend.

Native American is another. I'm native American because I was born in the United States, but I'm not an American Indian.

White people are, for the most part, not white. They're tan. Black people rarely are black, they're brown. Just think if you were doing a cartoon, which color would use use for a person?