For African Americans, a World Series that looks like them
Baseball News from L.A. Times
In a departure from recent seasons, the Series teams, the Rays and Phillies, feature star players who are black. Players and officials hope that will give the sport a boost in urban areas. Jimmy Rollins played his high school games at Willie Stargell Field. The sign said so. Continue reading on L.A. Times
I’m not sure why this issue is getting so much discussion, especially when so many players in the major leagues are of black descent, but are considered “latin” and thus not “black” when evaluating the % of players in the game. A local PHX radio announcer and caller made a good point today, that looking at Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, etc., you would think they were black… until you hear them speak.
Truth is, MLB is made up of all types of races and ethnicities. Yes, there are more latin players in the game, but many of them could be included in the African-American discussion.
Another point that was made, is that Americans would require more money to play in the minors and to get to the majors, while players from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, etc. can be had at a fraction of the cost. This I agree with unfortunately… Team owners are greedy, latin players are cheaper. Do the math.
Additionally, today’s young African-American kids are not interested in baseball – they haven’t been for decades. Football was taking an audience away and the emergence of Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas in the NBA took the attention abruptly from the fields to the basketball court.
Considering all of these aspects related to how the majors’ rosters are made, I hope that we can get to a point where we don’t need to measure the %’s of each race. Let’s just enjoy the game the way it is played and leave it at that.
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