MLB racial breakdown for ’06

[Don Wassall]

On three National League teams, 7 of the 8 starting position players are white to begin the new season -- Houston, Pittsburgh and Colorado. The Pirates and Rockies have all-white outfields. The Astros' lone non-white starter is CF Preston Wilson, a likely nod to the uproar over their Negro-less roster last season.


Half of the 16 NL teams start at least 5 whites out of 8. Overall, 55% of starting position players are white, a higher percentage than I expected.


70% of starting pitchers in the NL are white, lower than I expected to findwhich isattributable to the ever-increasing hispanic influx into professional baseball.

 

[JGNYC]

Kind of ironic that Pittsburgh has so many white starters. I believe they were the 1st team to start an all black team - back in the 70's with Willie Stargel, Al Oliver, etc.
Anyway, goes to show that the tide can turn back.

 

[Don Wassall]

Yes, they were the first (and maybe only) team to have an all-black lineup. Their only white starting position player in that era was 3B Richie Hebner, who was a .300 hitter. He was also the player the fans loved to boo. They never booed the black players, but every time Hebner made an error, struck out, or failed to drive home a runner, they let him have it.

 

[Gary]

The Pittsburgh Pirates were almost all White in 1960 when they beat the Yankees in the World Series. Clemente was the only non-white in there starting line up. They were 95-59 that year. The Yankees were also very White with men like Mantle, Berra, Ford, Kubek, Etc.
They played some games during the day. I remember coming home from school and my dad was watching the final game[he was a big Yankee fan because Lou Gehrig had been a Yankee]. When Bill Mazeroski hit the homerun to win it for the Pirates---Dad went nuts!! First time I ever heard anyone called "a dumb polock"!!

 

[Guest]

Just a little side not on baseball...I think its funny all these hispanics coming into the game are so revered and people think they have more talent. Just think of all the great white players from baseball's glory years...the Mantle's and DiMaggio's. They never trained all year around, they never played in a live ball era, they never played when all the talent was spread to only a few teams (although everyone knocks them and says the competition back than was not as good) yet they are still the gold standard and they did amazing things while not taking care of their bodies as todays athletes do. I do not really know what I am getting at but I think that the influx of hispanics needs to be stopped as does the big papi worship and teams like the Mets whose GM has come out and said he wants latinos. I think lately there has been an influx of young white talent which is a good thing. Hispanics in baseball are like blacks in basketball and football in that they think they are entitled to get to play the sport and they are automatically better than whites.

 

[Don Wassall]

The American League has more non-white position starters and starting pitchers than the NL:


66% of starting pitchers in the AL are white vs. 70% in the NL


51% of everyday starters are white in the AL vs. 55% in the NL


The Rangers enter the new season with an all-white starting lineup. Let's hear it for the two Texas-based MLB teams! The Blue Jays start 7 whites out of 9. The White Sox, A's and Indians start 6 (I'm counting Grady Sizemore as white as we're still not sure if his father is black or not).


The Yankees, Tigers and Mariners each start only 2 white position players. Additionally, the Mariners have only 2 white starting pitchers out of 5, so they are the AL's most white-unfriendly team this year.

 

[BonnieBlue]

Sizemore does come from a mixed couple. His father is black. I read this in a Cleveland newspaper.

 

[BonnieBlue]

Sizemore is only half white, and for the purposes of this site should not be considered as white. That being said, he does possess attributes most commonly associated with white athletes. Sizemore is modest, well spoken, and plays hard from start to finish.
As far as Travis Hafner is concerned, I don't believe he is 100% white. He appears to be perhaps part American Indian, growing up in either North or South Dakota. His speech and manner are certainly white, however.

 

[whiteCB]

Hafner has to be as white as they come and he looks like it too. I don't see how you could think he's part Indian. And yes Sizemore does have a black father but he was raised in a good suburban environment and doesn't have any ghetto characteristics. So I'm considering Sizemore not necessarily white but not black either. He is what he is half white and half black and Grady is a great kid so I will not begrudge him in anyway.

 

[Don Wassall]

One of the local rags today had another of thoselengthy articles on the "disappearing Negro" in baseball. It was full of the typical excuse making. One factor that will never be considered much less conceded is that whites (and hispanics) just might be better at baseball than blacks. Blacks did have a glory stage in the '60s and '70s when there were quite a few dominant black sluggers, but other than that in the 60 years post-Jackie Robinson whites have been pretty much dominant, especially at pitching.


More relevant to this thread, the article broke down the number of blacks on each team on opening day. There were just 42 in the NL and 27 in the AL. St. Louis, the L.A. Dodgers andCleveland each were without any blacks on their roster, which means that Hafner and Sizemore arenot considered black, at least for the purposes of the survey in the article.

 

[jaxvid]

I hate the disappearing Negro articles. Really why should I, or any other white person care? Even if you were one of those white people all upset over blacks being mistreated this situation is one in which blacks are making the decision voluntarily. Which means there is no bigotry, no predjudice, just black people not wanting to play baseball. Well great for them! I support the Negro in his desire to not want to play baseball and would encourage this same sentiment in football, basketball, boxing, golf, track and field, music, comedy, politics, etc.

 

[white is right]

It seems like the only black(non latinos) players these days are sons of former big leaguers. If it costs the game a Griffey jr, I'm not for it. Otherwise I don't care too much. Nobody shed a tear for the disappearing Jewish cager, back in the 60's, I don't see the difference.....

 

[moose]

most blacks in the usa are 20 percent white, so the average mulatto is probably 60 percent white