2008 Trends

Don Wassall

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Last year was pretty much a disaster in MLB as far as white hitters, but this season has started off with a lot of promise.


The top 6 and 7 of the top 8 leaders in RBIs in the NL are white (Lance Berkman, Xavier Nady, David Wright, Pat Burrell, Conor Jackson, Nate McLouth, Chipper Jones). The top 3 HR leaders in the NL are white (Chase Utley, Berkman, Dan Uggla) as are 7 of the top 10. Jones and Berkman are 1 and 2 in batting average, Berkman leads in runs, and Garrett Atkins leads in hits followed by Berkman and Jones.


The AL has been considerably more non-white dominated than the NL for years now, but currently 3 of the top 5 hitters are white (Joe Mauer, Kevin Youkillis and Mark Grudzielanek), Jacob Ellsbury and Ian Kinsler are 2-3 in runs scored, Josh Hamilton leads the AL and the majors in RBIs with Youkillis, Justin Morneau and Casey Blake also among the AL leaders, Dustin Pedroia leads in hits followed by Youkillis and Hamilton, Pedroia leads in doubles followed by Hamilton, Youkillis and Mike Napoli are tied for second in homers, and Ellsbury and Brian Roberts are among the leaders in stolen bases.


Pitching as usual is white dominated but with a significant percentage of "hispanics"also doing very well.


There are a lot of very good young white players in baseball right now. To add some more names, Ryan Braun, Hunter Pence and Troy Tuliwitzki were all phenomenal as rookies last year. What we need is for many of these young playersto develop into full-fledged superstars rather than being just very good, which has been the problem with the older group of white hitters still playing.Edited by: Don Wassall
 

whiteCB

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I'd also like to add in some other youngsters in Cardinals OF Ryan Ludwick who is hitting .325 with 8 HRs, Pittsburgh C Ryan Doumit who has 5 HRs and an excellent .350 AVG., Reds' 1B Joey Votto has 7 HRs and 22 RBIs, and Angels' 1B Casey Kotchman who has 8 HRs.
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Oh and all of these guys are on my fantasy basball team. haha. What can I say I know talent when I see it.
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Don Wassall

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Ryan Ludwick is now up to .350 with 12 HRs and 32 RBIs. Another guy who has really come on after always being dismissed as a journeyman is Nate McLouth of the Pirates, who is hitting .306 with 12/36.


Lance Berkman has had one of the best early seasons ever; he's currently batting .389 with 16/44 in barely a quarter of a season.
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Could it be, that with baseball finally cracking down on juicing, that this is paving the way for a white resurgence in hitting stars? Not that whites didn't juice too, but it wouldn't be surprising if non-whites did it more often and suffer the consequences more obviously when not on steroids. Even at his advanced baseball age Jason Giambi still has almost as much power as he did in his juicing days, while a number of black American and black hispanic power hitters seem to havea lot lessthump in their bats so far this year. . .
 

Tom Iron

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Don,

I agree. However, what makes me happy now is both the yanks and mets are doing lousy. I know it's early, but I keep my fingers crossed that they don't make the playoffs.

Tom Iron...
 

Don Wassall

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Tom Iron said:
Don,

I agree. However, what makes me happy now is both the yanks and mets are doing lousy. I know it's early, but I keep my fingers crossed that they don't make the playoffs.

Tom Iron...


Yes sir, I'm really enjoying this baseball season so far. Three of the AL teams who were consensus picks to make the playoffs this year -- Yankees, Tigers and Mariners -- currently rest in last place in their respective divisions. All three are among the most non-white teams in MLB.
 

Skipperron

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I know that Freddy Sanchez is fairly white but still he is an hispanic. And now the Pirates have taken the hottest hitting Pirate Nate McLouth and moved him out of the leadoff spot, where he was hitting .360 at the time and put Sanchez there. This was done with the sole purpose of getting Sanchez going. It worked for him and he raised his .218 average to .260. But in the meantime they have moved McLouth to second, then to third and now back to second. the results: he has slumped from .360 all the way to .298. But I guess it was more important to get Sanchez "going" than to have McLouth continue at the pace he was going. Everyone knows the Pirates are too white anyway and we need a person of the right ethnicity to be our star.
 

Van_Slyke_CF

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Josh Hamilton homered again today and is at .335 with 12 HRs and 53 RBIs through the Rangers` first 49 games.

I`m really happy that Josh has been able to take advantage of his second chance at the game of baseball after his drug problems of a few years ago. I hope he can keep himself clean and continue on the path to becoming a superstar player.
 

Don Wassall

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Jacob Ellsbury of the Red Sox currently leads the AL in stolen bases with 29. Brian Roberts is tied for fifth with 18 and Ian Kinsler is sixth with 17.


Kinsler also leads the AL in runs and hits and is among the leaders in batting average and doubles. He also has good pop in his bat with 9 homers and 39 RBIs batting first or second in the lineup.
 

Don Wassall

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The Caste Mariners have fired their white manager, two days after the Caste Mets fired their black manager.Could bethe problem is the lineups filled with prima donna hispanics who eschew fundamentals and are lousy locker room presences, not the managers.


Maybe Jim Leyland will be the next manager to be canned, though he's probably bullet proof for this season and the Tigers are starting to come on some.
 

jaxvid

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Currently 8 of the top 13 hitters in the AL are white:
Johnny Damon
Joe Mauer
J.D. Drew
Josh Hamilton
Justin Morneau
A.J. Pierzynski
Ian Kinsler
Kevin Youkilis

in the NL 13 of the top 16:
Chipper Jones
Lance Berkman
Matt Holliday
Xavier Nady
Skip Schumaker
Ryan Ludwick
Ryan Theriot
Garrett Atkins
Brian McCann
Russell Martin
Aaron Rowand
Conor Jackson
Brian Giles

HR's, in the AL, 8 of the top 17 (notice Giambi is back up there--guess it wasn't the steroids)
Josh Hamilton
Jason Giambi
Joe Crede
Jim Thome
J.D. Drew
Nick Markakis
Eric Hinske
Luke Scott

8 of the top 10 in the NL
Chase Utley
Dan Uggla
Lance Berkman
Ryan Braun
Pat Burrell
Adam Dunn
Mike Jacobs
Ryan Ludwick

As Don has pointed out this statistical rise is evident in RBI's and even stolen bases, I think the white-out in other sports has forced talent into baseball. A lot of these guys are young too. I think there will be a rebirth of great white baseball players.
 

Don Wassall

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The point of diminishing returns is starting to be reached with MLB's grand experiment in replacing white players with hispanic ones. There are some great hispanic players, but many aren't that much, plus their fundamentals tend to be terrible, and teams with lots of themoftenend upwith poisoned locker rooms.


Other than a brief heyday in the 1960s, American blacks justhaven't madevery good baseball players, especially pitchers, so unless MLB wants to go overboard with Asians (and there's not nearly enough of them around either), whites by default seem to be gaining ground.


However don't expectbaseball's "diversity" policies to be given up easily. The key will be to watch the minors, which have been over half hispanic in recent years. If baseball starts to replace these Caste affirmative action signingswith more than capable white high school and college players, then we'll know a real trend is in place.Edited by: Don Wassall
 
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Skipperron said:
And now the Pirates have taken the hottest hitting Pirate Nate McLouth and moved him out of the leadoff spot, where he was hitting .360 at the time and put Sanchez there. This was done with the sole purpose of getting Sanchez going. It worked for him and he raised his .218 average to .260. But in the meantime they have moved McLouth to second, then to third and now back to second. the results: he has slumped from .360 all the way to .298. But I guess it was more important to get Sanchez "going" than to have McLouth continue at the pace he was going. Everyone knows the Pirates are too white anyway and we need a person of the right ethnicity to be our star.

McLouth had a very high BABIP which helped his average a ton. It was over .400 for most of the season (.300~ is average). It came down to around .300 now, which is why his average fell
 

Don Wassall

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Dan Uggla (who remains almost totally anonymous when it comes to media recognition) and Chase Utley continue to rank 1-2 in the NL in home runs. Two second basemen, pretty damn impressive.
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It looks like the AL is going to have more white starters at the All-Star game than the NL is.
 

Don Wassall

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Here's an excellent article, right along the lines of what we've been discussing about MLB's Hispanic Experiment:


Immigrant Baseballâ€â€The Bubble Bursts


By Joe Guzzardi


During the last two years, I've reviewed a substantial body of evidence that proves that overstocking major league baseball teams with players of multiple cultures and ethnicities does not produce winning teams. In fact, the immigrant strategy generates more headaches than wins.


Given the hard facts, it's possible that the brouhaha about the wonderfulness of diversity in baseball may abate, if only temporarily.


If you were to askâ€â€off the recordâ€â€the recently-fired managers of the New York Mets and the Seattle Mariners, Willie Randolph and John McLaren, to say something good about their diverse squads, especially the contingent commonly referred to as "Caribbean players," they would be hard pressed to respond positively.


In baseball terminology, "Caribbean players" include Dominicans, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans, even though they are American citizens; Mexicans, even though Mexico is not in the Caribbean; and Venezuelans, even though Venezuela is on the South American continent. "Caribbean players" refers more to a style of baseballâ€â€sometimes good but often badâ€â€than a physical location.


Before I begin: note carefully that I do not suggest that there are not and have not always been outstanding "Caribbean players". There's a ton of them. Some are in the Hall of Fame and other active players are on their way to Cooperstown.


From their twenty-five man active rosters, the Mets and the Mariners have fourteen and nine "Caribbean players", respectively. The Mariners also have two Japanese, a Canadian and an Australian.


Two of baseball's most diverse teamsâ€â€each with a heavy representation of "Caribbean players"â€â€are also two of baseball's worst teams. The Mariners have the major leagues lowest winning percentage while the Mets struggle to reach .500.


Pre-season prognosticators picked the Mets and the Mariners as strong World Series contenders.


Instead, both are chronic under-performers. They get more attention for their bickering, sniping and general inability to play head's up baseball than for their skills which remain, even as the All-Star Game approaches, only occasionally on display.


Normally, the fact that analysts miscalculated a team's ability would not be much of a story.


But at VDARE.COM, we pay attentionâ€â€because the MainStream Media equated baseball diversity with success without, as Steve Sailer once said in reference to the significance of the Hispanic vote, going "through the formality" of actually playing the games.


For example, the June 2007, Sports Illustrated lead story, written by Gary Smith and titled "Mix Master: The Unlikely Story of How Omar Minaya Created the Melting-Pot Mets" was fantasy from start to finish.


The cover featured smiling photos of Cuban-born Orlando Hernandez, Mexican-born Oliver Perez, U.S.-born John Maine, Venezuelan-born Endy Chavez, Dominican-born GM Omar Minaya and New York's first African-American manager and now ignominiously fired Willie Randolph.


Smith's article today is a comical read.


Even funnier is the July 31, 2005 New York Times Magazine feature piece by Jonathan Mahler, Building the Béisbol Brand, which extolled the virtues of "Latin-inflected style of playâ€â€fast, aggressive, emotional...irresistible."


With the dismal results of diversity-driven baseball now obvious to even the most casual fan, we may be approaching that glorious moment when sports writers and talk show hosts can be openly critical without fear of losing their jobs.


This has not always been the case.


Infamously, in 2005 radio host Larry Krueger of the San Francisco Giants' flagship station KNBR, referred to some Giants as "brain-dead Caribbean players hacking at slop every night" and to the team's manager, Dominican-born Felipe Alou as having a brain that had turned into "Cream of Wheat."


Krueger's completely accurate evaluation of the playersâ€â€the marginal Pedro Feliz and two others no longer playing in the major leagues, Deivi Cruz and Edgardo Alfonzoâ€â€and of the manager reflected the feelings of his audience and of most Giants fans. But it nevertheless resulted in his immediate suspension without pay.


(Krueger's "hacking at slop" comment refers to the phenomenon Steve Sailer described in his 2003 article Baseball's Hidden Ethnic Bias: in Favor of Freeswinging Latins â€â€the fact that Latin players have statistical tendency to try to hit pitches they really should let go by, because they don't want to get on base by walking.)


One week later, KNBR canned Krueger. Also fired were two others, KNBR's program director and the morning show's producer.


Alou, a beloved figure in the politically correct Bay Area as a playerâ€â€one of the three Alou brothers (Matty and Felipe being the other two) of major league fameâ€â€and father of current star Moisesâ€â€sealed Krueger's fate when he called him "the messenger of Satan" and said: "I'm going to make sure that it is known worldwide. I have the means now to identify people like that. They're going to know in my country tonight. [Even] the president of my country."


Time vindicated Krueger. He sued KNBR for violating his freedom of speech rights, settled out of court and is now working for a Sacramento station.


And shortly after Krueger's on-the-air condemnation of lousy Caribbean brand baseball, the Giants released Cruz. Alfonzo kicked around for one more season with Los Angeles Angels and the Toronto Blue Jays before getting his walking papers. Only Feliz lingers with the Philadelphia Phillies.


In what must have been Krueger's sweetest moment, the Giants let Alou go after the 2006 season. Technically, Alou's contract expired. But Giants' management, although calling its decision not to renew it "painful," had seen enough of Alou's listless leadership and was unofficially happy to be rid of him.


The Mets-Mariners multicultural madness and its failure, in addition to shutting up diversity-adoring baseball mouthpieces like ESPN's Peter Gammons, may produce other good news for baseball traditionalists.



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<TD vAlign=top width="100%">The architect of the disaster known as the New York Mets is unlikely to survive into 2009.</TD></TR></T></TABLE>


For Omar Minaya, who put the Mets together, there's no place to hide now that Randolph is gone. And ominously for the uneasy Minaya, the Mets hired former Cincinnati Reds' general manager Wayne Krivsky to become the team's assistant general manager. Adding Krivsky to the front office can only mean one thing for Minayaâ€â€the boot!


Minaya's departure would be welcome by most Mets fans, who are still seething over the way he treated Randolph on the way out.



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<TD vAlign=top width="100%">The wave of Caribbean players coming to the major leagues may slow, thus opening more opportunities for Americans.</TD></TR></T></TABLE>


Time was, poor players from the islands could be acquired for shoeshine money, thus providing owners will an incentive to sign as many of them as possible while shunning the financially savvier and less desperate American college kids.


For example, the Oakland A's signed Miguel Tejada, the American League's 2001 Most Valuable Player and currently playing with the Houston Astros, for $2,000.


Today however agents, commonly referred to as buscantes, comb the Caribbean in search of the next big starâ€â€and their next big commission.


Last year, the 30 big league teams signed 511 Dominicans for an average bonus of $65,821 - double the average paid only three years ago and nearly 30 times more than what the Oakland Athletics paid to sign Tejada fifteen years ago. [Dominican Shift, by Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times, April 15, 2008]



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<TD vAlign=top width="100%">With the attention shifting away from the Caribbean, the emphasis for finding baseball talent may return to its proper placeâ€â€the United States.</TD></TR></T></TABLE>


Anyone who watched the thrilling 2008 college World Series between the University of Georgia and Fresno State saw baseball played as well as it can be. The major leagues may have more skilled individual players. But when it comes to team baseball, Georgia and Fresno State have no equals.


And how's this for a refreshing concept?


Georgia, the CWS runner-up, has players only from Georgia, Alabama, Virginia and Nevada.


And the champion Fresno State roster is made up of an all-California contingent.


That's baseball as it should beâ€â€the all-American sport played by all-American kids.


Joe Guzzardi [e-mail him] is the Editor of VDARE.COM Letters to the Editor. In addition, he is an English teacher at the Lodi Adult School and has been writing a weekly newspaper column since 1988. This column is exclusive to VDARE.COM.


http://www.vdare.com/guzzardi/080627_baseball.htm
 

foreverfree

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I guess our latest "Guest" is not coming back, but can someone still tell me, what is "BABIP"?
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John
 

GWTJ

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That's a dynamite article. Our colleges are filled with talented kids who have been denied opportunity because of the penny pinching, diversity seeking Major Leagues. Every year there are kids who excel at the top colleges but don't get drafted.

And let's not forget how diversity has affected the Minor Leagues as well. Story after story of hostile Hispanics hassling white players.
 

Van_Slyke_CF

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foreverfree: Batting Average Balls In Play?

Mets doin` well with all that diversity.
Tigers, too.
Nationals, three.
The list could go on.

The longer I stay on this site, the more you guys change my mind about a lot of these issues. Another quick point is about the LPGA Tour. I wasn`t so much against Asians, especially Koreans, getting so many of the slots to play(I guess I like Asian women for some reason
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, but then I researched how much money the Koreans, and even the Japanese for just a few players, are paying to literally dictate who plays.

Back to baseball: I hope we see a rise in American-signed and developed players in the coming years-as long as they are not black.
 

Don Wassall

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Here's another good article by Joe Guzzardion baseball's obsession with foreign hispanics:


When MLB Owners Hear The Cash Register Ring, Diversity Is Sure To Followâ€â€Results Be Damned!


By Joe Guzzardi


Since my June 27<SUP>th</SUP> column, Immigrant Baseballâ€â€The Bubble Bursts, I have become fascinated by the numbers of American-born players in Major League Baseball, how they perform versus their foreign-born teammates and how their respective clubs fare in the standings.


During every game that I watch, I have my indispensable Who's Who in Baseball at my side to check the birthplace of various batters as they come to the plate.


One conclusion is inescapable: the teams with the highest percentage of Americans and the lowest payrolls are the surprise of baseball. Those are the Oakland A's, Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Rays and Florida Marlins.


Obviously, the reverse holds true: teams that have spent the most money and have a high percentage of immigrant players have been huge disappointments, relative to pre-season expectations: the New York Yankees, the New York Mets and the Detroit Tigers.


As Major League Baseball heads toward the July 15 All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, a news item regarding a young Dominican pitcher merits our consideration.


Last week the A's, despite its current success (second place in the American League West) and although being well known throughout baseball as penurious, signed 16-year-old Michel Inoa, a 6-foot-7 right-hander with a blazing fastball who, general manager Billy Beane projects, will dominate hitters for years to come. [In Inoa, Oakland Has Its Sweet 16, by Susan Slusser, San Francisco Chronicle, July 3, 2008]


The A's shelled out $4.25 million for Inoa, a lofty sum for a team that has relied on signing players straight off the U.S. college campuses.


In a curious statement, Beane said that signing Inoa reflects the team's growing commitment to Latin Americansâ€â€even though Oakland's minor league system has nurtured an entire crop of solid if not spectacular U.S. players.


Until he signed Inoa, Beane had defied the conventional approach that holds that big-name, power hitters and young pitchers with rocket arms are the key to diamond success.


Armed with massive amounts of carefully-interpreted statistical data, Beane believed that wins could be had by more inexpensive methods such as relying on hitters with high on-base percentage and pitchers who get lots of ground ball outs.


Although working with a tight budget, Beane built winning teams made up of young affordable players and selective castoff veterans. Beane's success is the subject of a best-selling book,Moneyball: The Art of Winning An Unfair Game.
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Among the "young affordable players" Beane signed are Americans who now lead the A's: Mark Ellis, Bobby Crosby, Eric Chavez (California), Kurt Suzuki (Hawaii) and Daric Barton.


The A's have done especially well developing pitchers, among them Justin Duchscherer, Huston Street and Joe Blanton. The team leads the major leagues in earned run average.


Regarding Inoa, what's done is done.


However, a cautionary note for the A's: bonus baby busts are a dime a dozen beginning with the very first one five decades ago. In the early 1950s, the Pittsburgh Pirates signed Paul Pettit, a left-handed "can't miss" pitcher, for the then unheard of sum of $100,000.


In his two-year career, Pettit won one game.


More recent bonuses paid to Latin players indicate that it's a crapshoot.


Some like Miguel Tejada pan out; others don't.


Nearly ten years ago, when the diversity craze was just taking off, the Yankees gave outfielder Wily Mo Peña a $2.44 million bonus and seven years ago the Dodgers gave infielder Joel Guzman $2.25 million. Both disappointed.


And, as any knowledgeable source will tell you about Inoa, a good fastball may be enough to win in the bushes. But it means nothing in the big leagues.


Here's what pitching great Sal Maglie had to say:
"With nothing but a real good fastball, a pitcher can be a winner in high school and college, on the sandlots and even in the minor leagues. But no oneâ€â€not even a Herb Score or Bob Fellerâ€â€can consistently throw the ball past major league hitters. The guys you run into here are just too good for that." [Sal Maglie on the Art of Pitching, by Roy Terrell, Sports Illustrated, March 17, 1958]


(Aside for serious baseball fans: Maglie pitched brilliantly for the pennant winning New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees, one of few players on all three 1950s New York championship teams)


Time will tell about Inoa.


Meanwhile, fans are left to wonder if foreign-born players aren't a zero sum game, wherein many are signedâ€â€regardless of their skills or lack of themâ€â€for the sake of diversity alone; or to cater to the special needs of immigrant players already on the squad.


After my last column Mike Corsano, a Met fan of 40 years, wrote me to share his agony over his then-floundering but now resurgent team widely referred to as Los Mets:
"As a lifelong baseball fanatic, I have watched the problems caused by diversity.
"Los Mets are the perfect example. The team is rife with ethnic cliques and sub-cliques. The Mets signed second baseman Luis Castillo to a ridiculous 4-year contract to entice his Minnesota Twin teammate Johan Santana to eventually join him.
"Puerto Ricans Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado are aloof from the rest of the team. One of the worst problems with the Latin players is that they use the 'I don't speak English excuse' to avoid talking to the media after loss after loss created by uninspired and disappointing play for over a year including the historic September 2007 collapse.
"This forces the American players like David Wright, Billy Wagner, and Paul LoDuca (since traded) to take the media heat.
"Limited English is symptomatic of the nation's problem. When there were only two or three Latin players on a team, they were forced to learn English and assimilate. Now with half the team speaking Spanish, they form their own enclaves within the team.
"Here's one last example of the Mets' ruination. In 2006, Dominican general manager Omar Minaya signed fellow Dominican Julio Franco to a two-year contract ignoring the fact he was 48 (yes, 48) years old. At the time Minaya claimed Franco would be a good influence on the younger Latin players. He was kept around way after it was obvious that his usefulness as a productive player was long gone."


In short, the Mets need the one Latin guyâ€â€Castilloâ€â€to lure the other Latin guyâ€â€Santana. And the team also needs a third Latin playerâ€â€Franco, ancient though he isâ€â€to coddle still other Latinos.


That's baseball's version of chain migration.


Continuing with my zero sum theory, look at pitchers from the Far East. Here are threeâ€â€one good, one average and one ugly: Japan's Daisuke Matsuzaka, a slightly above average Boston Red Sox pitcher, Kei Igawa, a $20 million total bust signed by the Yankees because the Red Sox outbid them for Matsuzaka and Chien-Ming Wang, a Taiwanese Yankee who won nineteen games in 2006 and 2007 but is now on the disabled list because he cannot run the bases.


What baseball fans get is a mixed bag of foreign-born players that don't necessarily perform better than the home-grown American version. Certain fansâ€â€those who root for New York's Mets and Yankees and the Seattle Mariners have to grin and bear it.


Today's baseball teams are a microcosm of American society. The achievements of the foreign-born are disproportionately praised while the outstanding Americans toil in relative obscurity.


Duchscherer (South Dakota) is a good example. Selected to the All-Star team, he's leading the majors in individual ERA with 1.78, half a run lower than any other pitcher.


But few outside of the Bay Area know much about him. Who, on the other hand, doesn't know about Dice-K?


But the owners love diversity-driven baseball. And why wouldn't they? Since the stateside arrival of famous Japanese players, sales of MLB licensed merchandise in Japan increased from $36.6 to $103.7 million.And the league signed a six-year, $235 million television deal with a corporate Japanese media giant.


Once the cash register starts to ring, whether the American fan wants more homegrown players simply doesn't matter.


What counts is which owner can make the most hundreds of millions.


And if that means more immigrant players, then that's the way it will beâ€â€until Americans take steps to reclaim their national pastime.


Joe Guzzardi [e-mail him] is the Editor of VDARE.COM Letters to the Editor. In addition, he is an English teacher at the Lodi Adult School and has been writing a weekly newspaper column since 1988. This column is exclusive to VDARE.COM.


http://vdare.com/guzzardi/080711_baseball.htm
 

Don Wassall

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Another solid article by Joe Guzzardi:


Abolishing America's National Sport (contd.): Why Not Limit Foreign Players Like the Caribbean League?


By Joe Guzzardi


As a teenager growing up in Puerto Rico, I always looked forward to what the locals called "winter."


They defined the word by the calendar season onlyâ€â€Puerto Rico's weather is the same, save for a degree or two, all twelve months of the year.


But winter in Puerto Rico brought Caribbean League Baseball and with it many of Major Leagues' most outstanding players. A few of the more recognizable: Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, Víctor Pellot Power, George Crowe and Rubén Gómez.


In a lifetime of following sports, I have never seen rivalries as intense as those among the winter teams. The most passionate emotions erupted when the San Juan Senators met the Santurce Crabbers.


Fans entering the historic Sixto Escobar Stadium for games between the Senators and the Crabbers were asked to identify the team they rooted for. Depending on your response, you were directed to either the left or right field side of the parkâ€â€"for security reasons."


Stadium management deemed it unsafe for a fan of one squad to sit in a hostile environment. Fans of the other team might not appreciate their enthusiasm. And since Cuba Libres were sold at concession stands, ardor grew with each passing inning.


Watching those great players and the competitive games they played instilled me with an appreciation for the skills of what are generally referred to today as "Caribbean players." Since the time I left Puerto Rico through today, I marveled at the talent of Juan Marichal, Minnie Minoso, Tony Oliva, Luis Aparicio and many others too numerous to name.


I'm walking you down memory lane for a specific reason.


My last two VDARE.COM columns (here and here) have expressed grave reservations about the growing participation of foreign-born players in major league baseball and the inordinate hoopla that surrounds them.


I raise my objections because of the force-fed baseball diversity. See, as examples, this year's "Merengue Night" at Shea Stadium and Hispanic Heritage Night at Washington Nationals Park wherein the line-ups and the National Anthem were announced and sungâ€â€in Spanish!


Not only are fans are unwillingly and unnecessarily subjected to "embracing diversity", but their suffering is made more acute because, as I wrote in my last column, my research indicates that foreign-born players are a zero-sum game as far as their collective performance is concerned.


Some are outstanding and carry on the tradition established by the stars I followed in Puerto Rico.


Others, however, are total duds.


Examine the showing of two starting pitchers who took the mound last week in PNC Park in my new hometown of Pittsburgh, PA.


In one game, the Colorado Rockies' Dominican-born Valerio de los Santos gave up two hits and six walks in four innings; the following night, the Pittsburgh Pirates' Cuban defector Yuslan Herrera allowed ten base runners in five innings.


Those pathetic outings are consistent with de los Santos and Hererra's major league career records (such as they areâ€â€neither de los Santos or Hererra has done any starting pitching of any kind, either in the minor or major leagues or in Cuba, for several years). So the case is easily made that American players on your local college campus would do as well.


For the sake of today's column, we'll not return to an analysis foreign-born players' diamond skillsâ€â€or lack thereofâ€â€but instead ask simply: does diversity in baseball serves a common societal good, as its advocates insist? Or is it, too, a product of epidemic Political Correctness?


Since my last essay posted, one name has dominated baseball news:



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<TD vAlign=top width="100%">The Boston Red Sox Dominican-born, New York-raised (since he was 13) Manny Ramirez. Since Ramirez lived in the, rough and tumble Washington Heights section of New York that is heavily populated by his fellow island countrymen, you can argue that he never really left home. </TD></TR></T></TABLE>


All the news about Ramirez is ugly.


In June, as every fan knows, Ramirez threw 62-year-old Boston Red Sox traveling secretary Jack McCormick to the clubhouse floor in an argument about how many free tickets Manny would receive for an upcoming game. Ramirez, on short notice, wanted many more than his allotment and became infuriated when McCormick indicated it might be a problem.


Assaulting an elder is a felony, chargeable anywhere...except in Red Sox Nation, where superstars are coddled and their extreme behavior forgiven out of hand.


Subsequently, Ramirez entered into a contract dispute with the Red Sox over his $20 million 2009 option. To emphasize his displeasure, Ramirez variously took himself out of the line up claiming one type of injury or another, dogged it to first base, tanked at-bats, whined about how he is under-appreciated and carped about the ogres who manage the Red Sox organization.


Here are some things about Ramirez you won't read on the sport page.



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<TD vAlign=top width="100%">Ramirez speaks a primitive form of English that would place him no higher than with the intermediate students in my old English as a Second Language classes. </TD></TR></T></TABLE>

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<TD vAlign=top width="100%">An American citizen since 2004, Ramirez retained his Dominican citizenship. After taking his oath of allegiance, Ramirez made a pledge, unfulfilled to date, to "behave better."[Ramirez A Proud American, by Alan Ginsberg, MLB.com, May 11, 2004]</TD></TR></T></TABLE>

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<TD vAlign=top width="100%">On his official website, Ramirez, while claiming that children have a special place in his heart, is sparing with his hitting advice. He reminds youngsters merely to "keep their eyes on the ball" and assume a "comfortable" batting stance. This is the stuff of Little League coaches.</TD></TR></T></TABLE>


Under no circumstances would I ever suggest that any athlete be held up as a role model. But Ramirez, save for his batting skills, offers a great example of how not to conduct oneself, either in public or on the field.


When the disgruntled Ramirez accused the Red Sox of lying to him about his status with the team, owner John Henry found the charge "personally offensive" and shipped him off (plus agreeing to pay the $7 million on his contract) to the naïve and unsuspecting Los Angeles Dodgers.[Red Sox Send Ramirez's Homers and Headaches to LA, By Howard Ulman, Associated Press, July 31,2008]


Another Dominican player who got unfavorable ink is:



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<TD vAlign=top width="100%">Julio Castillo, a pitcher for the Chicago Cubs Class-A affiliate, the Peoria Chiefs</TD></TR></T></TABLE>


In the first inning of a game against the Dayton Dragons, Castillo hit two batters, one in the head. His third pitch, a high and tight fastball, triggered a bench-clearing brawl. (See it here.)


During the ensuing melee, Castillo fired the baseball toward the Dragon's dug out. But he missed and hit a fan sitting in the stands who ended up in the hospital [Fan Goes to Hospital, 17 Ejected After Minor League Brawl, ESPN.Com, July 25, 2008].


Castillo only in the U.S. one monthâ€â€was arrested and jailed on a felonious assault charge. He surrendered his passport and faces up to eight years in jail plus a $15,000 fine.


"This charge is a result of outlandish and inexcusable conduct by a professional baseball player," Montgomery County Prosecutor Mathias Heck Jr. said in a statement.[Pitcher Charged With Felonious Assault After Minor League Brawl, USA Today, July 26,2006]


On a brighter note:



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<TD vAlign=top width="100%">New York Mets outfielder Fernando Tatis.</TD></TR></T></TABLE>


Tatis, an indifferent player from 1997-2003 with the Texas Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals and Montreal Expos, sat out (involuntarily) in 2004 and 2005. But when Tatis realized that his town needed a church, he knew that the only way for that to happen was if he returned to baseball, earned the money to buy the land and built it with friends.


So he made some calls to find a job. First Tatis landed with the Baltimore Orioles, then with the Mets where he currently stars in left field.


And about his completed church Tatis said: "You put something in your mind and when you see the reality, and when you see the church is so beautiful, so big. It's amazing."[ Building a Church Brought Tatis Back, By Ben Shpigel, New York Times, July 29, 2008]


Major league rosters are stocked with good guys and bad guys from all countries. Nevertheless, few are as petulant as Ramirez or as violence prone as Castillo. Unfortunately, there aren't many like Tatis either.


Assuming that neither Ramirez nor Castillo will return to the Dominican Republic, it's hard to imagine what contributions they may make in the United States when their playing days end. Ramirez's millions could create something positiveâ€â€but given his juvenile personality, I can't picture it.


Here are two interesting footnotes:



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<TD vAlign=top width="100%">As of August 1<SUP>st</SUP>, among the top 30 American and National League players in the key offensive and pitching categoriesâ€â€batting average, home runs, runs batted in, wins, strike outs and earned run average, 27 are Americans. </TD></TR></T></TABLE>

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<TD vAlign=top width="100%">In the old Caribbean League, no team could have more than three stateside-born players on its roster. The idea was that the league was a Caribbean thing and while it could easily stock its roster with outstanding American-born players eager to spend the winter in Puerto Rico, it preferred its own.</TD></TR></T></TABLE>


Perhaps major league baseball's addiction to diversity has gone way too far to expect any radical shifts that would bring it back to the great American pastime that we knew, loved and miss.


But at least we can comfort ourselves with the knowledge that, no matter what you may hear or read, the best baseball players in the world come from your hometown.


Joe Guzzardi [e-mail him] is the Editor of VDARE.COM Letters to the Editor. In addition, he is an English teacher at the Lodi Adult School and has been writing a weekly newspaper column since 1988. This column is exclusive to VDARE.COM.


http://vdare.com/guzzardi/080801_baseball.htm
 

Don Wassall

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Indians starter Cliff Lee is now 18-2 on team with a record of 59-67. No one will everapproach Steve Carlton's "one for the ages" season in 1972 with the last-place Phillies but Lee is having a remarkable season.


Brandon Webb is now 19-4 with the 67-60 Diamondbacks.
 

GWTJ

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Pathetic ESPN was trying to give scenerios where Sabathia could beat out Webb and K-Rod could beat out Lee for the Cy Young awards. I truly hope both Lee and Webb stay strong the rest of the way so the media doesn't get the chance to push Sabathia or K-Rod with any credibility to it.
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I had ESPN radio on briefly the other night and the clown-host at the time was arguing that Sabathia should win the NL MVP Award.
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He's had what, like 8 starts since leaving the AL?
 

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Roy Halladay got his 20th win last night, the second time in his career he's reached that now rare plateau.
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The AL has gone from non-white dominated to white dominated virtually overnight.
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Dustin Pedroia is trying to pull off a "triple crown" by leading the league in runs, hits and doubles. He's also second to Joe Mauer in batting average going into the final few games.


Justin Morneau leads in RBIs, Jacob Ellsbury in stolen bases, and Thome, Cust, Huff and Giambi are all among the home run leaders (though homers are down sharply since the new steroids policy went into effect).
 
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