Decline of Black Baseball Player

[Don Wassall]

I was going to post this on the homepage but the site is having admin problems today so I'll post it here:


THE FADING IMAGE OF THE BLACK BALL PLAYER


[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2948-2005Mar2 6.html[/url]


It can't be that most blacks just aren't very good pitchers or all-around players;any decline in black numbers in a sport the propaganda says they are supposed to dominate,must be attributed to "lack of interest" or white racism.

 

[Bart]

Oh brother,this is a typical anti white piece disguised as objective journalism. It's filled with typical Caste System horse manure.The writers are bothered by the dwindling number of blacks in baseball. The inner city youth don't relate to the game, there arent enough African baseball players to look up to, it's so so sad. At the same time, the NBA and the NFL are something like 75 % black, inner city kids have countless role models to chose from.


No one's concerned about the lack of white faces on the football field and basketball court. Whites are supposed to cherish black players and teach - our kids - to love, respect and adore Michael Vick and Allen Iverson but yet it's horribleblacks have to see so many whites playing baseball. Don't white youngsters need white role models? It's always wonderful for whites to worship black athletes but ilt's wrong if the reverse is true.


The writers feel that since most of Washington is black the team should be too. You can't expect blacks to support a team if most the players are white or hispanic. Well, I agree, turn around is fair play. Every majority white city should demand their teams reflect the make up of their community or we will boycott.Wouldn't that be a great idea? Let me see now, the Green Bay Packers should be 98% white. The same writers who want the Washington Nationals to reflect the black citizenry would be the ones leading the charge to defeat my proposal.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Good points Bart. I wish that every sport had a makeup equal to that of the general population. That would take us back to the late 1950's in terms of the numbers of blacks on the three major sports teams.

 

[Bear-Arms]

Found a similar article in 2003 on sport illustrated website

 

[Bart]

The premise of this article is very misleading.It can more honestly be said that the image which has been fading out is that of the white player. Even after the color barrier was broken during the late 40's the face of baseball for many years was white.A massive infusion of black and latin players decimated the ranks of the whites. Although the number of blacks has diminished by favoring the latins, it is whites who have suffered the greatest percentage of loss over the years.


Lets get real.Check outsome faces of the latin players who have purportedly replaced blacks.



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<TD colSpan=3>David Ortiz
<TABLE =ysptblclbg3 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%">
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<TD colSpan=3>Carlos Delgado
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<TD colSpan=3>Armando Benítez
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<TD colSpan=3>Liván Hernández
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<TD colSpan=3>ÃÂ￾ngel Berroa </TD></TR></T></TABLE></TD></TR></T></TABLE></TD></TR></T></TABLE></TD></TR></T></TABLE></TD></TR></T></TABLE>

 

[Bear-Arms]

The article was just dealing with American black's which I guess makes
a difference. It just make's it even worse that all the good
white players in the NBA come from Europe. This strenghens our argument
if you went by the standards of that article in the SI. They're
not enough white American born players in the NBA. You won't see an
article like that in ESPN or SI. No, that would be considered white
racism. You're right Bart a good number of those latin ball
players are black. So I'm guessing African American kids shouldn't look
up to Pedro Martinez because of his Spanish surname?

 

[IceSpeed]

Americans are losing their grip on baseball. Blacks(americans) see basketball and football as their sports. So there is the reason for decline.
The question that should be asked is why are there programs like "Urban Initiative" and such a push to get more blacks involved in baseball, but no push to get other americans involved in baseball.

 

[KD52171]

Maybe because its just a little harder to hit a curve ball than it is to put a ball in a basket or tackle another black person?





Ya think?

Edited by: KD52171

 

[Bear-Arms]

From the movie Major Leagues:



Willie Mays Hayes: "I'm Willie Mays Hayes. I hit like Mays, and run like Hayes."

Lou Brown: " Well you may run like Mays, but you hit like sh*t."



It's like this article I read the other day people will only play in a sport they think they will succeed in.