Affirmative action for MLB rosters?

[novelist_wannabe]

Rainbow Push pushes its agenda on Braves' brass ...

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2007/05/07/0508bravesminority.html

The Braves have at least 10 non-WASP players on their 40-man roster. Are hispanics any less minority than blacks?

 

[cake in the rain]

Wow. I'm speechless. Just speechless.

 

[outofplace]

Sometimes...just sometimes....the level of idiocy in the world makes me wonder how we survive as a species....how the ancestors of some of the people walking around today managed to figure out how to get laid and thus reproduce....

 

[Mayfly]

Jackson should take a look to the NHL next

 

[Flying Headbutt]

I wonder how much the Braves are going to pay them off.

 

[Guy_Incognito]

Jackson should take a look to the NBA next

 

[novelist_wannabe]

When Hank Aaron was signed, the scouting industry was akin to panning for gold, it was so inexact. Now, the networking is so extensive, it's much closer to being a science. The kids who want to play and have the ability, generally play baseball, and they don't get missed. On top of which, some of this is out of any team's individual control. I mean, by the time the Braves had a pick the year Prince Fielder was drafted, well, he was already off the board. Are they supposed to pass on Jeff Francoeur or Brian McCann so they can get a perhaps lesser talent who is black?

 

[John]

This is beyond stupid.

 

[slappy4428]

yeah, Jesse's being the dumbass attention ***** who Whitlock ragged about...

The way scouting is these days, it has nothing to do with racism but the depth of the talent pool. 50 years ago, kids like Chuck Taylor would be playing baseball. Now, they play video games or basketball and want nothing to do with baseball.

And it's MLB's fault?

 

[Starman]

The team slipped ... down to [no African-Americans]; it wasn?t something that just happened," Beasley said Monday afternoon. "I think it was a lack of diligence on the part of the Braves to recruit African-American players. There's not diminished enthusiasm for African-Americans playing baseball. It's simply the opportunity hasn't presented itself

Uh, yes there is. They're playing basketball -- even the 5-11, 175-pounders who have a 0.000002 percent chance of ever making it.

 

[CentralIllinoisan]

Oh, shut the hell up, you ignorant asses. Is this a joke?

This is one of the most wrong-headed political moves ever made. Rainbow/PUSH should be ashamed of itself.

 

[The Big Ragu]

I wonder how much the Braves are going to pay them off.

Bingo... This is the first step... This one might not have legs, given that there are so few African-American players at ANY level of baseball, so it might not go anywhere. It could just be Jesse casting the fishing line and seeing if anything bites. But if he does get a bite, the extortion will come into play somewhere down the line... Maybe it will be a threatened boycott of advertisers on Turner's network unless key payouts are made to some friends of PUSH who have some cockamamie plan to boost African-American participation in baseball?

 

[Double J]

Is this all just a smokescreen to help Jesse keep another skeleton hidden in the closet?

 

[PhilaYank36]

Nuke this thread, it's making me sick already.

 

[Oz]

So what other teams have no black players? I know the Red Sox have only Coco Crisp.

 

[Shaggy]

A quote from the story:

"As I expected, [Schuerholz?s] idea is the bottom line: I'll put the best 40 men I can get wherever I can get them from on the field, and that's fair. But the fact of the matter is if they put resources into recruiting here in the United States, and more specifically here in Atlanta, there are talented players here."


I have a thousand rebuttals that would destroy this hoser. But I can't organize any of them they're coming at me so fast.

I'll just say this: Common sense is a useful tool. I can't believe more people don't use it.

As it's been alluded too, no stone is unturned in the world of scouting these days, despite what Uncle Rico convinced Jesse Jackson somewhere along the way.

 

[Tom Petty]

i hate to say it, but whitlock was on to something.

 

[leo1]

jackson has proven he's a headline-grabbing *****.

his point is valid. baseball had this discussion a few weeks ago on the jackie robinson anniversary. but instead of having the audacity to accuse the braves of not doing enough jackson and his crew should partner with MLB (or individual teams) and start building baseball fields and holding clinics for black youth in inner cities.

as usual jackson takes probably the least effective method of solving the problem while grabbing as many headlines as possible. i wouldn't be surprised if he called for a black boycott later this summer.

 

[outofplace]

Didn't we have a thread on this a while back? Were the percentages of blacks among the American-born players in MLB in line with the percentage of the actual population in the U.S.? If they are, this is simply a non-issue.

 

[zagoshe]

Oh, shut the hell up, you ignorant asses. Is this a joke?

This is one of the most wrong-headed political moves ever made. Rainbow/PUSH should be ashamed of itself.

An shameless organization will never be ashamed of itself