do any of you really care? I could not care less. I want to see the best players regardless of race. If that means they are all Dominican then so be it. I think it cheapens the sport to purposely search for black players to increase the percentage. Not being racist just saying that you cannot force black children to be interest in baseball. No one is on a black driver search for Nascar.

4/15/2007 12:28:01 PM

the media wants us to care, apparently. aren't black latinos still "african"? maybe if baseball wasn't such a clean cut sport without shoe deals there'd be more blacks in the mlb

4/15/2007 12:30:41 PM

you racist motha fucker

4/15/2007 12:31:42 PM

^ you off all people should agree with me

4/15/2007 12:32:12 PM

Quote :

"the media wants us to care, apparently. aren't black latinos still "african"?"

Yeah, but white Latinos are still "European" but we don't call them white.

4/15/2007 12:35:28 PM

There are lots of factors and I think it has more to do with class than race, though many will say they are intertwined. One, baseball fields in the inner city are either close to unplayable on or locked until there are games. Two, there isn't immediate payoff for the elite. You don't get a 5-10M/yr payday your first year in pro ball and a lot of inner city kids aren't willing to play a sport where they know they will have to wait. And one thing I heard out here on the radio that I didn't think about is that there are only 11.7 schollys available to baseball teams in college and they are often split up so inner city kids can't afford to play college baseball by and large. Meanwhile the 4th and 5th string RB at a crap school gets a full ride.

Oh, and I don't care. If people don't want to play baseball, which is a personal choice, why should I care?

4/15/2007 12:35:52 PM

Quote :

"I could not care less. I want to see the best players regardless of race."

4/15/2007 12:36:23 PM

Quote :

"^ you off all people should agree with me"

I would if I was a racist

[Edited on April 15, 2007 at 12:39 PM. Reason : j/k "I could not care less. I want to see the best players regardless of race."]

4/15/2007 12:38:32 PM

Quote :

"Yeah, but white Latinos are still "European" but we don't call them white."

Good point. Just shows how stupid it is to classify people as latinos, I guess.

4/15/2007 12:39:15 PM

Related story...

http://www.newsobserver.com/730/story/564066.html

4/15/2007 1:03:58 PM

Quote :

"No one is on a black driver search for Nascar."

Actually they have been doing that for not just drivers but all roles in NASCAR for awhile now:
http://www.drivefordiversity.com/program_overview.asp

4/15/2007 2:21:20 PM

well i guess its better than 0.01% 60 years ago

4/15/2007 2:27:40 PM

why isn't anyone crying about that lack of whites in the nba

4/15/2007 3:25:09 PM

probably because whites were never banned from it, just like baseball. thats the only reason

4/15/2007 3:26:14 PM

I swear to god, black people are never happy no matter what. If white people came out bitching about how there were more blacks in the NBA, fucking Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would be all over that shit spewing their racist drool.

4/15/2007 3:51:06 PM

NyM hit it right on the money.

^racist

[Edited on April 15, 2007 at 3:52 PM. Reason : l]

4/15/2007 3:52:15 PM

I love how when black people dominate a sport it's becaue they are "better at it" and when white people dominate a sport it's because black people "aren't interested"

Because OF COURSE they could dominate any sport they wanted to, and to say that white people might be better at some sports would be racist garbage.

4/15/2007 3:56:51 PM

^^Umm, no, its not racist, its a fucking double standard.

4/15/2007 4:23:29 PM

Whats the NBA or NFL ratio?

4/15/2007 5:05:02 PM

who cares? black people as a general (not trying to stereotype) would rather play football in the fall and basketball during the winter and into the summer. I played football, basketball, and baseball growing up. The football and basketball teams where about 50/50 as far as race goes whereas the baseball team was 90 percent white. The black guys at my school thought baseball was boring. So my opinion is, who cares except for the media??? The media will do anything for a story because America as a whole is obsessed with what the media and what famous people think and we will tune into their station for a "top story"

4/15/2007 5:36:47 PM

^ inorite. MORE WHITES IN THE NBA!

somebody give me a million dollars!

4/15/2007 5:37:48 PM

Ok, according to the US census 2000:

Population
Race Proportion
Whites 70.0%
Blacks 12.5%
Latinos 12.5%
Asians 4.0%
Other 1.0%

MLB
Race Proportion
Whites 59.5%
Blacks 8.4%
Latinos 29.4%
Asians 2.4%
Other 0.3%

I think it would be a problem if whites were overrepresented, but this is not the case. The media is just being stupid and racists themselves. They are the ones who ask dumb questions like "Do you love the black man?" or "how it feels to be a black player?" It's really no surprise that they are ignorant enough to say that since there aren't many blacks in baseball, it means that there is no diversity in baseball.

4/15/2007 7:38:39 PM

This was bound to happen... and it's off to Soap Box!

4/15/2007 7:41:18 PM

^^AHA. I love the "How does it feel to be a black [blank]?" question. If someone cares to share an opinion about how their experience has been affected by their race, then they'll volunteer that information. No need to go shoving microphones in people's faces...

4/15/2007 8:21:59 PM

^^ I agree, comrade.

I don't even think white over representation would be a problem, unless there was some proof of a malicious plot.

4/15/2007 8:30:14 PM

95+% of 100 m sprinters are BLACK.

RACISM
RACISM
RACISM
RACISM
RACISM

4/15/2007 8:46:01 PM

how about swimming?

perhaps blacks and whites made an agreement to stay the hell out of each other's sport?

4/15/2007 10:24:00 PM

Searching out to find a player simply because you want a black one is stupid... but there definitely is nothing wrong with paying attention to what needs to be done to be sure inner-city youths, especially blacks, still have opportunities to try/play baseball.

4/15/2007 10:34:39 PM

http://www.wral.com

4/15/2007 10:42:01 PM

Quote :

"No one is on a black driver search for Nascar."

See, some people are quite content with being racist.

4/16/2007 12:50:56 AM

how's the next great baseball phenom from the ghetto supposed to practice baseball by himself at midnight?

cause he can go play basketball by himself at midnight

4/16/2007 11:08:37 AM

I've noticed that AZNs are getting into the MLB now. xvang junior is gonna be top a MLB player 18 years from now... well, more like 20 or so (since he doesn't exist yet).

[Edited on April 16, 2007 at 11:18 AM. Reason : sperm + egg + baseball training at the age of 1 yrs. old]

4/16/2007 11:17:23 AM

where are all the great black baseball players nowadays? probably playing basketball

where are all the great black heavyweight fighters nowadays? probably playing football

4/16/2007 11:18:37 AM

it really angers me that we're still on this... and to attack baseball for not being diverse enough is silly. Baseball IS diverse without having to be forced to be diverse (anymore). You have more rodirquezes, Julio's, Suzuki's, etc in baseball without having to forcefully integrated.

In the Hall of Fame, you can read several peoples' plaques that reward their integration of baseball. The manager that brought Robinson to Brooklyn, for example, mentions this.

But look at Jackie's. IT HAS ZERO MENTION OF THE FACT THAT HE BROKE THE COLOR BARRIER ON HIS PLAQUE. He actually requested this to be so. He wanted to be remembered because of how good of a baseball player he was, not because he was black.

4/16/2007 1:30:37 PM

I agree with the original post 100%.

but at the same time, as this truly goes on in sports such as MLB, and the black coach incentives in the NFL, Why aren't we doing anything to increase the amount of whites in the NFL?

4/16/2007 2:56:09 PM

beardawg you bastard. put this thread back where it belongs.

4/16/2007 6:20:53 PM

Quote :

"how's the next great baseball phenom from the ghetto supposed to practice baseball by himself at midnight? cause he can go play basketball by himself at midnight"

They manage to practice football, which is damn near impossible to practice on your own. In baseball you can work on plenty of skills with a wall and a ball. Hitting/coordination skills are easily done on your own or with one other person.

I think its more the pace and environment of the game. Baseball is about patience, repetition, attention to detail, and focus. You have to really want to play baseball because you like the game... much easier to be drawn in by flashy dribbling and high-flying dunks in basketball or speed and big hits in football.

4/16/2007 7:00:09 PM

theres still some merit in that you need nothing but a ball and net...hell all you need is a ball to be able to practice dribbling...get one person and a net and you can practice almost anything

and sure you can go up to brooklyn and see cats playing handball and whatnot...course most kids i've seen playing handball are latino!

4/16/2007 7:02:40 PM

What about Asians?

They are underrepresented in MLB, NBA, NFL.

Speaking of NBA and NFL. If someone is worried about "not enough" black players in MLB, they should worry the same if there are "too many" black players in other sports? Unless they're bigots.

4/16/2007 7:09:12 PM

does anyone really care about baseball in general anymore?

4/17/2007 9:48:54 AM

Quote :

"how about swimming? "

i didn't think black people liked swimming or cold weather

4/17/2007 2:56:37 PM

^you must not have seen the XXX movie with Ice Cube

4/17/2007 2:59:32 PM

^^^ considering it's the top American sport in terms of merchandise sales and people are going to stadiums in record number I'd say yes.

[Edited on April 17, 2007 at 3:04 PM. Reason : V yep.. ]

4/17/2007 3:01:52 PM

not as much as the NFL but sure baseball is popular still

not popular to blacks, but thats why this thread is here

4/17/2007 3:03:28 PM

Would it be considered racist to hope to see a really good white running back?

If so, why is it worse than cheering for black quarterbacks and golfers to do well?

4/17/2007 11:11:13 PM

On Sunday, I was listening to FOX Sports Radio and they were talking about this, and the hosts goes, "This just goes to show you the state of country." Yes, its all our fault.

4/17/2007 11:24:18 PM

instead of worrying why only 8.4% of MLB players are black; i think the more relevant issue is why 90% of basketball players are black when whites account for 70% of the population.



i think the double standard is ridiculous. i thought the original issue was equality which i am all for. why then isn't there white history month, a day to honor the 1st asian basketball player, or celebrate Santa Ana Day for all our mexican american friends.

4/17/2007 11:51:43 PM

Call me crazy, but I think the lack of black MLB players has something to do with the fact that fewer black people wanted to play baseball when they were kids. To be fair, the MLB is by far the most racially diverse major proffessional sport (NBA-77%black, NFL-65% black, NHL- gotta be 98% white) when you factor in hispanic and asian players. Also keep in mind that the 8.4% refered to in the topic only counts American born blacks, and classifies black people from spanish speaking countries differently.

But is this really a problem? Should we really be worried? Nevermind that we have disproportionately low numbers of black doctors, research scientists, CEOS, computer programmers, ect., there's not enough black MLB players!

4/17/2007 11:54:21 PM

damn i figured the mlb was like 30 percent black

i wonder what the nba and nfl are...i'd guess 80 percent and 60 percent respectively

4/17/2007 11:54:35 PM

Quote :

"i think the more relevant issue is why 90% of basketball players are black when whites account for 70% of the population."

cause blacks are generally better athletes? is that racist to say that?

4/18/2007 2:29:36 AM