Post from the Past: Are No Black baseball players a problem? Not to me

The World Series between Tampa and Philadelphia has brought to light some prominent Black baseball players like Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, B.J. Upton, David Price, Carl Crawford, Cliff Floyd, etc. For some this is represents a potential for the revitalization of baseball for Black people.

Some writers have taken this opportunity to push agendas. Just read Scoop Jackson's article about B.J. Upton: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=jackson/081015&sportCat=mlb

Yeah, Scoop, B.J. Upton's "laziness," looking ghetto and not hustling is going to inspire Black kids to play baseball. You know what's lazy, your writing.

Here's a more objective article to read: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-series22-2008oct22,0,2492508.story

This stuff is fine and dandy and I hate to say this becasuse I'm a big fan of the RBI program that is done in inner-city areas throughout the nation, but this whole lack of Black baseball players "problem" really isn't a problem.

In fact, I wrote about this issue in June and wanted to repost my thoughts on it below:

So I was recently reading an article in the Nashville Rage this week in the sports section discussing the lack of black players in baseball. The story profiles some Middle Tennessee black players and speaks to coaches in this area about the struggles of getting kids to play baseball. Its well-written by Mo and here’s a link to the article, I seriously recommend that you scan it before you read what I have to say on it: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080519/SPORTS07/805190335/1002/SPORTS

OK, now that you’ve scanned the article, here’s my opinion.

I really don’t care.

I really don’t care if there are no black players who ever play baseball again…or any sport for that manner, as long as there isn’t any discrimination against someone playing the sport.

The argument that I hate most for why someone will watch a sport or play a sport is the racial makeup of the players. I loved hockey back in the day and I saw hardly any black players in the sport. I loved the sport, not the color of the players.

It irritates me to hear black people tell me that they don’t like watching a sport such as hockey or golf or tennis because they’re aren’t enough black people in it.

It goes the other way too. There has been more than one occasion when a white person has told me that they don’t like the NBA because there are too many black people. Yeah, scary stuff, but I keep it real with people and they tend to keep it real with me, which I appreciate.

I used to get so much crap for being a hockey fan as a kid in New York. I would go to Rangers games and when I was desperate Islanders and Devils games and people would come to me and wonder why I was there. They would tell me that black people weren’t supposed to like hockey. That made me mad.

Thankfully my mother has always taught me to look at things for what they are and not what they look like. She always encouraged me to watch all sports and not focus on the lack of black people in it. I was trying to watch golf before Tiger Woods even entered Stanford. I’ve always watched auto racing, especially F-1. I watched the NBA and the NFL just as hard. I didn’t care.

This from a woman who grew up in South Carolina in the 50’s and 60’s and had some negative interactions with white people and could have taught her son to be negative. Special woman.

Anyway, I understand that the issue becomes very complicated when it comes to a sport like baseball where the expense of youth travel teams is a problem and economics becomes an issue. Therefore, scouts aren’t inclined to see certain players, etc.

In the end, life’s a bitch and sports are even worse. It isn’t fair. The prep player the article profiles may be an outstanding player and feel that he got short changed with scholarship offers for baseball, but that’s the way it is. He needs to bust his ass at Cumberland University and if he’s talented, he will get his shot.

I don’t like how the racial makeup of sports, particularly baseball, has become an issue. Is it the end of the world that only around 10% of the players in MLB are black, not at all. Let’s keep prospective.

From a baseball prospective, there are more minorities playing the sport than ever. The influx of Latin players, Asians, Europeans and even Canadians have made the sport more global than ever. Black people, including myself, need to realize that when people like Larry Doby and Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente were playing in the 40’s and 50’s, they were fighting for the equality of all players. I repeat all players. To make this a woe is me black issue is shortsighted of the progress baseball and other sports have made towards minorities playing. I realized this years ago and I hope others do too.

And from a general prospective, compared to all the problems/issues that we have in society from the war in Iraq, terrorism, the bad economy, gas prices, poverty, general safety and countless others, who really cares if there aren’t black players in baseball?

I fear many things in this society and as someone who eventually wants to have a family, I have concerns for the world I’m bringing my future kids into.

That sounds cruel, but as I’ve gotten older and matured, the less I care about sports and its issues.

Sports is my job, I spend a majority of time working in the industry, and I still love it. However, we have a lot more pressing issues in our society. I mentioned them earlier and we need to focus on solving those.

If we want to keep in sports, we can. I don’t like seeing the lack of minority in high-level positions in college athletic departments. Furthermore, I don’t like the lack of women in that regard as well. I don’t like being the only minority at various sporting events in the press box. Those are things that I’m trying to make better from a sports prospective.

I don’t need a black role model to make me want to be an athletic director. I don’t need a black influence to become a sports general manager. I would like to interact with good AD’s and GM’s. That’s what I need.

The racial makeup of the players of the games that I work at, not too concerned about.

I hope this post gets picked up by somebody huge and I can be on some panel or something and discuss this further because it’s a topic I love talking about. Or I can be labeled a racist against my race. What would that be called?

I was watching Game 1 of the NBA Finals, so there was no music. However, here are two videos for some edutainment on blacks in baseball. Enjoy and Buck O’Neil should have been in the Hall of Fame years ago. That is all.