Yes…
…But ONLY if we can also complain about the lack of Hispanics in football, the paucity of whites in basketball, and why there are so few Asians in pro hockey.
See how inane this is? About as inane as Torii Hunter’s racial blast at Hispanic “imposters” last month.
This is such an overplayed topic still somehow perpetuated by the Joe Morgans of the world today. That a north Chicago-based writer who attended Syracuse (all white neighborhood, very rich school) like Yahoo’s Jeff Passan wrote not one but two articles about this topic (and “racism”) on Jackie Robinson Day is equally appalling.
Passan also has his facts completely wrong about certain players, which I can explain at length if requested, but will do so briefly (article linked above):
- Kenny Lofton was over 40 when he retired, and probably had about three or four extra chances he did not deserve.
- The same can be said for Rickey Henderson.
- Ray Durham’s 38, and just not that talented anymore
- Gary Sheffield, 41, is a clubhouse cancer (like Carl Everett, Albert Belle, Brandon Phillips early in his career in Cleveland and quite a few others – this matters in terms of promotion throughout the minors) who hit just ten homers last season.
Mr. Passan conveniently omits that Jermaine Dye, at 36, has already rejected a $4 million dollar contract offer for this season after having the worst peripheral statistics of any regular starting corner outfielder in the second half of the 2009 season. In the end, Dye was actually released by a black General Manager in Kenny Williams of Chicago.
The counter to this discussion, among others, is Ken Griffey Jr., who statistically doesn’t belong in the MLB anymore, but because he is a character guy, the Mariners let him ride off into the sunset.
My favorite quote of all the garbage I’ve had to read this week also came from Passan:
“When a black ballplayer walks into a clubhouse, he will see, on average, one other black player. This is the black experience in baseball today: near solitude.”
Replace the word “black” with “white American” and “clubhouse” with “NBA Locker Room” in this propaganda and see what you come up with, sir.
That we have been discussing ”it” (racism? really?) for years now, proves that the media will find any way to castigate baseball over minor issues.
It’s one thing to honor Jackie Robinson every April 15 (though prior to 1997, they never did, so why every year now?);  it’s another to have a “Civil Rights Game” in Cincinnati each season with a meals, meetings, celebrations, etc. All this in 2010 in the LEAST racist nation on earth? Is that not enough? No other sport does that.
That the keynote speaker at this $5000 per table Civil Rights Luncheon May 15 in Cincinnati is Andrew Young, a noted anti-Semitic/anti-Asian bigot, and they’re honoring Harry Belafonte, a racist, America-hating Communist, is a lot worse than having 11% blacks in baseball.
Much as Dr. Martin Luther King would be ashamed of what Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have done to “race relations,” so too would Robinson over the spectacle of his day. Orlando Hudson, Milton Bradley and Gary Sheffield complaining about perceived mistreatment because of their race disgraces the people like Robinson and Hank Aaron who had to overcome real hurdles.
Statistically speaking, Commissioner Bud Selig should simply explain that back in 1980 when MLB was 27% black, there were maybe 10% Hispanic and 0% Asian players.  Now there are 30% Hispanic and over 5% Asian. That’s what occurred. This should end any further discussion, though it won’t.
Are those current numbers illegal? Should we deport the Hispanic and Asian players and practice affirmative action for blacks? What are next, forcing inner-city kids to play baseball instead of basketball or football?
That’d just be wrong, but it’s typical that we’d even discuss the topic. Don’t blame me. These diatribes might make disingenuous do-gooders Peter Gammons, Bob Costas, Passan, or Morgan happy, but they’re unfair. They already have forced EVERY player to wear #42 one game per season (regardless of race), whereas only a very select few black players did so from 1997-2007.
Related: I attend a ton of minor league games throughout America each year, where there are plenty of black players (and the numbers in the Majors are in fact up this year — from 9 to 11%), but promoting players who are not ready or deserving is wrong, especially when others — many of whom risked life and limb to arrive in America —  are.
Joe Morgan and other race-baiters need to pipe down. After all, this should have ended when we elected an unproven man with suspect credentials to the most important job in the world — mostly due to his skin color. {Read black columnist Larry Elder, please.}
The media and baseball are agenda-driven and have it all wrong. Six of the top seven homerun hitters of all time are black, by the way. That is 86%.
Institutional racism, especially in sports, is dead — and has been for nearly half a century. To say or argue otherwise would be scandalously untrue — or as “legitimate” as La Raza suing the NFL for lack of Hispanics. (Actually, if any group has a case for “collusion,” it’s white American (not European) basketball players who truly are often racially-discriminated against by coaches, teams, fans and media types — on and off the court. But nobody cares about that!)
Can’t we just go back to annoying complaints about length of game, competitive balance, and steroids? Or at least focus on good black ballplayers who produce well, earn well and don’t gripe, like proven stars Curtis Granderson, Carl Crawford, Prince Fielder, Derek Lee, Ryan Howard, Andrew McCutchen and Jason Heyward?
Or maybe just stop worrying about skin color? I prefer that.
Someone pass this info along to Joe Morgan, Orlando Hudson and Major League Baseball.
**********
* – Joe Morgan photo credit: OaklandMagazine.com
* – Orlando Hudson photo credit: Getty Images via MLB.com
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