Rhoden Agrees With Sheff

[Terence Mann]

Boom has said on more than one occasion he is not a sports journalist. Some posters know that; others don't. Maybe there is some confusion on that point with respect to people being in a position to set the tone for a topic in the world of sports journalism.

 

[Big Chee]

Well then I apologize.

I asked for details because I was trying to "cut through the crap" and understand your perception of the issue and how that perception has been formed. I didn't insult the black community by claiming its members are looking for a handout from MLB and I don't believe that.

Then why do you find a problem in me saying that I find many journalists, removed and detatched from the African American community, unwilling or even interested as you are in this instance, on topics of race, carry beliefs that routinely insult the African American community, hanging onto age old sterotypes, rather than focusing on the subject at hand?

"handouts", black incarceration and other things seem to be retrofitted for race talks when it comes to AFrican Americans, even when they don't apply.

Why do you need an explaination for that, alluding to things that have nothing to do with my initial statement?

 

[Boom_70]

It was Torii Hunter, I believe, who I heard make the point that mlb teams can go down to Latin America, set up academies and sign loads of players for $2,000 a pop. But if they draft an African-American, they have to pay a multimillion dollar signing bonus. I think there is something to that. I also know that that ISN'T what Sheffield said.

Clearly that is what I believed Sheff was alluding to from jump. I dint have a fetish that everyone should make sure all the I's are dotted and T's are crossed when making a passing comment. But what works for me maybe a matter of privilege to some, so someone like Sheff may or may not get that honor.

I really don't feel like rehashing the things I've already said in here, but obviously none of it is sinking in whether it comes from myself, Rhoden or anyone who points that economics are the primary reason why baseball has given the African American community the cold shoulder.

Baseball clearly knows who they're targeting and as a result some are going to be displaced because of it.

And to hear the point that the make up of African American neighborhoods lacking the facilities to play the game of baseball as the reason few are playing the game is completely FALSE. Nothing physically has changed about the African American community today from 30 years ago. For every kid using a milk carton for a glove in the Dominican Republic today there was an African American kid in the 70's digging in the trash for a broom stick handle to use as a bat. For every kid in Venezuela using a rock for a baseball, there was an African American kid buying a can of spray paint to create a strike zone on a schoolyard wall. The typical black neighborhoods whose basketball courts housed the world famous Rucker tournaments featuring Earl the Pearl Monroe and Dr. J, still had a wealth of African American's playing baseball in their day.

How someone disconnects those facts and state that the unchanged landscape which surrounds the African American community today being the primary reason for the lack of African American's particpation in baseball makes little sense to no sense.

Exactly what happened for the love of the game we once had is the issue.

And to erroneously refer to Dr. Harry Edwards point that African American male incaceration rates SOLEY effecting the game of baseball is clearly false. I don't see those rates creating a downturn of African Americans participation in other sports. So why is baseball to be the only victim of it?

I don't get the use of yourof selective math.

Clearly, some of you are letting MLB off the hook.



.

Big Chee what I guees I continue to fail to understand is why MLB has an obligation or responsibility to reach out to African American community to develop baseball players.

What is the african american community doing? What are you doing?

I can't believe you're going to say that I have zero say in making a point because I may not have some volunteering in my resume.

Go ahead, run with it. That isn't worth addressing.

MLB has no obligation to push the game of baseball in the African American community. But to place fault on African Americans for no longer playing the game is a bunch of horse ****. To disregard the fact that we once had love for the game and economic factors being the primary reason for the lack of African American participation in the sport is plain wrong.

It seems to me that you are now letting MLB off the hook. You are contradicting yourself. Baseball will come back in the black community if the community itself takes responsiblity.It will not come back if the community stands by waiting for a handout from MLB.

Here we go. The poor chooses to stay poor mentality.


No one is asking for a handout. But for you to now say that the reason blacks aren't playing the sport of baseball is because they're waiting for a handout is pure bullshyt.

What handout is football or basketball giving out that has African Americans playing the game that baseball isn't? I forgot. Marketing the game to a community turns into a "handout" when reffering to African Americans.

"handouts" and the African American community. I've never heard that one before. ::)

It's incredible to see how some of you come up with these ****ty conclusions. Then again, seeing how many already are furnished with the ingrained belief that we're always waiting for a handout, I shouldn't be surprised.

big chip - your focus on one word - "handout" has you misreading what I am suggesting. I don't see why you find the word "handout" inflamitory.

 

[Big Chee]

^^^^^^

I think enough people have seen you for what you are in this thread and have distanced themselves from you.

 

[Terence Mann]

Big Chee, did you know Boom is not a sports journalist? I'm just curious, and I'm not trying to pick a fight or disagree with your point.

 

[Boom_70]

Well then I apologize.

I asked for details because I was trying to "cut through the crap" and understand your perception of the issue and how that perception has been formed. I didn't insult the black community by claiming its members are looking for a handout from MLB and I don't believe that.

Then why do you find a problem in me saying that I find many journalists, removed and detatched from the African American community, unwilling or even interested as you are in this instance, on topics of race, carry beliefs that routinely insult the African American community, hanging onto age old sterotypes, rather than focusing on the subject at hand?

"handouts", black incarceration and other things seem to be retrofitted for race talks when it comes to AFrican Americans, even when they don't apply.

Why do you need an explaination for that, alluding to things that have nothing to do with my initial statement?

funny coming from someone who for past week has been telling us that the word "compliant" was not insulting to latin baseball players.

 

[Big Chee]

Big Chee, did you know Boom is not a sports journalist? I'm just curious, and I'm not trying to pick a fight or disagree with your point.

Did I know that Boom isn't a sports journalists?

No.

Do I believe that many journalists and columnists are apt to carry sterotypes, considering how many I've seen on this site disregard facts regarding African Americans, coming from African Americans, and take no little to no effort to research anything regarding African Americans, brushing off insights which counter their POV, perferring to hold onto these sterotypes?

Yes, I do.


Do I believe they're doing so in malice?

No. They're just as indifferent to it as you are. The only thing people like you can't see is that indifference is just as dangerous as those who carry those traits.

 

[Terence Mann]

You don't know me well enough to know if I am indifferent to it. You don't know me well enough to know my views on anything.

All I asked was if you knew Boom is not a sports journalist. Thank you for answering my question. You can keep the rest, your judgment of me.

 

[sportschick]

Chee, you are exactly like the people you rail against -- quick to apply stereotypes.

 

[Boom_70]

Big Chee, did you know Boom is not a sports journalist? I'm just curious, and I'm not trying to pick a fight or disagree with your point.

Did I know that Boom isn't a sports journalists?

No.

Do I believe that many journalists and columnists are apt to carry sterotypes, considering how many I've seen on this site disregard facts regarding African Americans, coming from African Americans, and take no little to no effort to research anything regarding African Americans, brushing off insights which counter their POV, perferring to hold onto these sterotypes?

Yes, I do.


Do I believe they're doing so in malice?

No. They're just as indifferent to it as you are. The only thing people like you can't see is that indifference is just as dangerous as those who carry those traits.

chee you have shown same indifference in regard to Sheffs coments towards Latin American ballplayers.

 

[Big Chee]

Chee, you are exactly like the people you rail against -- quick to apply stereotypes.

To who?

What group did I blanket? I said "many" exhibit those behaviors. And I don't see a shortage of it in that department, considering the first couple of posts spent more time discrediting Rhoden, citing irrelevant topics that usually surface when talking about race, rather than tearing apart his points. I'd respect that more than going the ad hominem route.


More often than not, when it comes to African Americans, I see we have address "guestimates" rather than hard facts that relate to the issue.

For you to tell me that there's a deficiency of that approach regarding today's coverage of race by many fellow columnist is wrong in my opinion. How many articles regarding AFrican Americans have you read compared to me to tell me I'm somehow wrong?

I'm not arrogant enough to speak on the tone regarding women related issues and its coverage since I don't read enough of those articles to come to a conclusion. Somehow, you've read more articles covering African Americans than I to tell me that my judgment is somehow false.

Incredible...

 

[Boom_70]

Chee, you are exactly like the people you rail against -- quick to apply stereotypes.

To who?

What group did I blanket? I said "many" exhibit those behaviors. And I don't see a shortage of it in that department, considering the first couple of posts spent more time discrediting Rhoden, citing irrelevant topics that usually surface when talking about race, rather than tearing apart his points. I'd respect that more than going the ad hominem route.


More often than not, when it comes to African Americans, I see we have address "guestimates" rather than hard facts that relate to the issue.

For you to tell me that there's a deficiency of that approach regarding today's coverage of race by many fellow columnist is wrong in my opinion.

Rhoden should be discredited since he and Sheff share same publisher/ editor and he did not disclose.

 

[Beaker]

Chee, I think sportschick was talking about the fact that both armageddon and Terence Mann asked honest questions seeking honest answers, and not looking to pick a fight. Yet you chose to jump all over them. I don't care if you said "many," you implicated Terence's supposed indifference, which there is simply no evidence for.

 

[Big Chee]

Chee, I think sportschick was talking about the fact that both armageddon and Terence Mann asked honest questions seeking honest answers, and not looking to pick a fight. Yet you chose to jump all over them. I don't care if you said "many," you implicated Terence's supposed indifference, which there is simply no evidence for.

I didn't know I was picking a fight saying that people are indifferent to the behavior I see exhibited by "many" journalists when it comes to covering African Americans.

 

[Starman]

The African-American community (along with all others) would be best served if somebody told the young people:

QUIT PLAYING BASKETBALL
QUIT PLAYING FOOTBALL
QUIT PLAYING BASEBALL


...and spend some of that time hitting the books, so you can get a real job when you grow up, not the professional sports career that 99.9997% of you are never going to get anyway.

Arguing whether African-American, or Latin-American, youths are being funneled into, or away from, baseball or basketball or soccer or whatever is irrelevant. Wherever they're going, it's a career dead end for the vast, vast, vast majority of all of them.

 

[Big Chee]

The African-American community (along with all others) would be best served if somebody told the young people:

QUIT PLAYING BASKETBALL
QUIT PLAYING FOOTBALL
QUIT PLAYING BASEBALL


...and spend some of that time hitting the books, so you can get a real job when you grow up, not the professional sports career that 99.9997% of you are never going to get anyway.

What does this have to do with anything? We're talking on potential athletes here and their choices. That's a separate issue.

 

[Starman]

What does this have to do with anything? We're talking on potential athletes here and their choices. That's a separate issue.

the overwhelming huge majority of "potential athletes" are wasting their time, and should be told so at every opportunity.

 

[Big Chee]

What does this have to do with anything? We're talking on potential athletes here and their choices. That's a separate issue.

the overwhelming huge majority of "potential athletes" are wasting their time, and should be told so at every opportunity.

And that has what to do with addressing the fact that AFrican Americans arent playing the game?


once again, we're addressing irrelevant topics that are relevant at other times, not here.

 

[Starman]

And that has what to do with addressing the fact that AFrican Americans arent playing the game?


once again, we're addressing irrelevant topics that are relevant at other times, not here.

It's a good thing they're wasting less of their time playing baseball, and they should waste less of their time playing football and basketball, too.

 

[Boom_70]

What does this have to do with anything? We're talking on potential athletes here and their choices. That's a separate issue.

the overwhelming huge majority of "potential athletes" are wasting their time, and should be told so at every opportunity.

Big chee is more concerned with the 1 in 50,000 who make it as a professional athlete than the 99 0f 100 17 year olds in the african american comunity who cannot read at their age level.

The beauty of the academies set up in Latin America is that they also have school as component of overall development.