Missing
Prolific today, aren’t we?
Shortly after publishing “Aftermath”, I turned to ESPN to see if there was actually something newsworthy to pay attention to. Much will be said for the article featuring WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes and her revelation of her sexuality, but all that I hope is that people do not lose sight of her talents as a player. There was something else, of course that came to my attention. Amidst all of the talk regarding this year’s Fall Classic, it took an insightful listener today on ESPN Radio here in New York to point out to Michael Kay and guest Joe Morgan that the Houston Astros are the first team since the ’53 Yankees to play in the World Series… without a black player on its roster. Later on SportsCenter, Morgan brought up this point again, saying that there needs to be further recruitment of blacks in the high school and collegiate levels.
Here we go again… right?
With all respect to players such as Morgan, there is much more than recruitment that stands in the way of bringing in more American minority talents to baseball. I expand this beyond blacks in the game because tonight, MLB announced their Latino Legends Team, the crème-de-la-crème of Latin-born and Latino-American players. I expand this beyond blacks and Latinos because I doubt that there aren’t talented players of all ethnicities in this country.
For the sport heralded for Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby (first black AL player), it is the only sport in this country that has decreased percentage-wise in the last thirty years. In 1975, baseball was composed of 27% African-American players (in 24 teams of in the entire league). Today, it’s 9% (of 30 teams). Hey, even the NHL has seen a greater percentage spike than baseball.
I should admit something a little more personal. See, as all young boys and girls coming up, I wanted to do something glamorous and admirable to the general public. I wanted to play baseball, despite the fact that black participation in the game began to decline into the late 80s and 90s. It wasn’t that I could hit homeruns or threw heat. In fact, I hit two HRs in my life and despite being a great softball pitcher in intergender games, I preferred playing centerfield and robbing the neighborhood’s best of the long ball. I could run stats down if friends began to debate the better player between a young Darryl Strawberry and an emerging Ken Griffey Jr. Yet, I just wanted to play as all of the other kids coming up in Castle Hill Projects in the Bronx. We didn’t get so caught up in numbers though it is a game obsessed with them. And for the most part, we “young impressionable kids” probably knew more about steroids and other enhancers than today’s sportswriters. Over the years, it wasn’t just lack of power that kept me off teams (or the fact that I nearly got into a fist fight with the manager of the 7-9 year old team). It was looking deeper into the game and the surrounding elements (media, folklore, fans, stadium and history) and realizing how much I hated all of it. There was just something odd, disturbing and in many ways, uninviting about the game.
We talk about on-base percentage and other sabermetrics that no one really talked about a few years ago. We talk about building a farm and bringing guys up slowly in time for 2007 or 2008. We get pissed off if a player can’t actually get an eye on the ball for a couple of games. We also see the most beloved sport in the country surviving despite itself; horrible business management, too much resistance to change, too little thought to keeping fans away from live balls, etc. Kay said it best; the potential crop of talent is a part of the MTV generation. Okay, the MTV part is a bit of a stretch, Mr. Kay, but the observation is right on. This is a generation of instant gratification as he said. Kinda true. In other sports, action towards the ball/puck/object means points. In baseball, the ball has to be hit a few times in order for a run to score. In other sports, the pressure stems from the best offensive play vs. the best defensive play both against the clock. In baseball, the bottom of the ninth, full count against the top closer in the game can happen short of two hours of the first pitch or a week later as all Yankee games and last night’s Game 3 proved. It’s not necessarily that players have to work to score a run, but it could take longer than cross-country bus trip to score a run. Not that there is something wrong with that if you are at the game or playing in the game. These elements are part of the game and can be fun provided that you clear your schedule the next day for another game. And since MTV was born in 1981, this is not just an issue of finding teenagers as future stars, but when the opportunities presented themselves in the last twenty five years. Yet, if you look further back, the seeds of urban development and economics planted the roots that Morgan, Kay and others reflect upon every year.
Without a degree in urban planning, sociology or better yet, horticulture, you can walk in ANY city in the US and find that baseball has lost its hold on minorities. Minority America resides mostly in cramped, congested urban America because many cannot afford to live elsewhere. With that in mind, it has been more economical to pave a piece of parkland or empty lot into new concrete and erect a few basketball rims than to grow AND upkeep a baseball diamond. Not just that, but it’s much cheaper for a family to buy a basketball and some shorts than a really good bat, ball, glove, cup, shields, etc. It’s easier to form a basketball team for many youth centers than a baseball team. Why? The economics of these families dictate so. Yes, the single black mother story seems redundant, but that’s something that can’t be ignored. Keep in mind that there are all kinds of family structures in urban America, but when you’re poor, you’re going to either improvise as some major leaguers had to coming up or you’re going to go with an easier option. You might call it an excuse, and it is, but it is also a reality that MLB has not been able to control.
This might be crazy, but wouldn’t the game itself be the biggest hindrance to bringing minority talent? Of the major sports in this country, baseball is the most resistant to change. There are too many quarks and intricacies in the game that get in the way of hitting the damn ball. Is it lazy thinking? No, it’s just the same reason why kids of any race don’t like the game, too much to think about. Yet, for a sport that allows all these in-ground cameras and broadcasters, no one has the gumption to look at a ball to see if it really was a double or home run. A baserunner is called out if a hit ball hits him on his advance? Managers change pitchers for one batter and change them a million times. And this postseason has shown baseball’s arrogance and stubbornness to maintain this “human element” that ends up becoming silly folklore. All the other sports have decided that instant replay can assist, not impede umpires and referees, but no one wants to offend traditionalists. And you’re asking kids from the Southside to try out for a team?
Morgan and others look to the return to college recruitment for the game. However, it’s not just the lack of minorities in management and scouting that make the numbers small. Most black athletes being recruited look to other sports. Some Latinos are recruited for other sports as well, but if they are taken, they come straight from high school as others. How many minorities did you see in the College World Series? Even less than those than the few of us that attended college. Though he may be right about the lack of scouting, maybe he doesn’t see that for the most part, there are too many objects in the way of just playing the game.
Say What?!?!: Keeping this short, who really gives a damn about Brian Cashman? Apparently, ESPN thinks you do. So as we enjoy the last few moments of the season, let us reflect on the joy there has been without the Yankees. Boy, does the media miss them.
Shortly after publishing “Aftermath”, I turned to ESPN to see if there was actually something newsworthy to pay attention to. Much will be said for the article featuring WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes and her revelation of her sexuality, but all that I hope is that people do not lose sight of her talents as a player. There was something else, of course that came to my attention. Amidst all of the talk regarding this year’s Fall Classic, it took an insightful listener today on ESPN Radio here in New York to point out to Michael Kay and guest Joe Morgan that the Houston Astros are the first team since the ’53 Yankees to play in the World Series… without a black player on its roster. Later on SportsCenter, Morgan brought up this point again, saying that there needs to be further recruitment of blacks in the high school and collegiate levels.
Here we go again… right?
With all respect to players such as Morgan, there is much more than recruitment that stands in the way of bringing in more American minority talents to baseball. I expand this beyond blacks in the game because tonight, MLB announced their Latino Legends Team, the crème-de-la-crème of Latin-born and Latino-American players. I expand this beyond blacks and Latinos because I doubt that there aren’t talented players of all ethnicities in this country.
For the sport heralded for Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby (first black AL player), it is the only sport in this country that has decreased percentage-wise in the last thirty years. In 1975, baseball was composed of 27% African-American players (in 24 teams of in the entire league). Today, it’s 9% (of 30 teams). Hey, even the NHL has seen a greater percentage spike than baseball.
I should admit something a little more personal. See, as all young boys and girls coming up, I wanted to do something glamorous and admirable to the general public. I wanted to play baseball, despite the fact that black participation in the game began to decline into the late 80s and 90s. It wasn’t that I could hit homeruns or threw heat. In fact, I hit two HRs in my life and despite being a great softball pitcher in intergender games, I preferred playing centerfield and robbing the neighborhood’s best of the long ball. I could run stats down if friends began to debate the better player between a young Darryl Strawberry and an emerging Ken Griffey Jr. Yet, I just wanted to play as all of the other kids coming up in Castle Hill Projects in the Bronx. We didn’t get so caught up in numbers though it is a game obsessed with them. And for the most part, we “young impressionable kids” probably knew more about steroids and other enhancers than today’s sportswriters. Over the years, it wasn’t just lack of power that kept me off teams (or the fact that I nearly got into a fist fight with the manager of the 7-9 year old team). It was looking deeper into the game and the surrounding elements (media, folklore, fans, stadium and history) and realizing how much I hated all of it. There was just something odd, disturbing and in many ways, uninviting about the game.
We talk about on-base percentage and other sabermetrics that no one really talked about a few years ago. We talk about building a farm and bringing guys up slowly in time for 2007 or 2008. We get pissed off if a player can’t actually get an eye on the ball for a couple of games. We also see the most beloved sport in the country surviving despite itself; horrible business management, too much resistance to change, too little thought to keeping fans away from live balls, etc. Kay said it best; the potential crop of talent is a part of the MTV generation. Okay, the MTV part is a bit of a stretch, Mr. Kay, but the observation is right on. This is a generation of instant gratification as he said. Kinda true. In other sports, action towards the ball/puck/object means points. In baseball, the ball has to be hit a few times in order for a run to score. In other sports, the pressure stems from the best offensive play vs. the best defensive play both against the clock. In baseball, the bottom of the ninth, full count against the top closer in the game can happen short of two hours of the first pitch or a week later as all Yankee games and last night’s Game 3 proved. It’s not necessarily that players have to work to score a run, but it could take longer than cross-country bus trip to score a run. Not that there is something wrong with that if you are at the game or playing in the game. These elements are part of the game and can be fun provided that you clear your schedule the next day for another game. And since MTV was born in 1981, this is not just an issue of finding teenagers as future stars, but when the opportunities presented themselves in the last twenty five years. Yet, if you look further back, the seeds of urban development and economics planted the roots that Morgan, Kay and others reflect upon every year.
Without a degree in urban planning, sociology or better yet, horticulture, you can walk in ANY city in the US and find that baseball has lost its hold on minorities. Minority America resides mostly in cramped, congested urban America because many cannot afford to live elsewhere. With that in mind, it has been more economical to pave a piece of parkland or empty lot into new concrete and erect a few basketball rims than to grow AND upkeep a baseball diamond. Not just that, but it’s much cheaper for a family to buy a basketball and some shorts than a really good bat, ball, glove, cup, shields, etc. It’s easier to form a basketball team for many youth centers than a baseball team. Why? The economics of these families dictate so. Yes, the single black mother story seems redundant, but that’s something that can’t be ignored. Keep in mind that there are all kinds of family structures in urban America, but when you’re poor, you’re going to either improvise as some major leaguers had to coming up or you’re going to go with an easier option. You might call it an excuse, and it is, but it is also a reality that MLB has not been able to control.
This might be crazy, but wouldn’t the game itself be the biggest hindrance to bringing minority talent? Of the major sports in this country, baseball is the most resistant to change. There are too many quarks and intricacies in the game that get in the way of hitting the damn ball. Is it lazy thinking? No, it’s just the same reason why kids of any race don’t like the game, too much to think about. Yet, for a sport that allows all these in-ground cameras and broadcasters, no one has the gumption to look at a ball to see if it really was a double or home run. A baserunner is called out if a hit ball hits him on his advance? Managers change pitchers for one batter and change them a million times. And this postseason has shown baseball’s arrogance and stubbornness to maintain this “human element” that ends up becoming silly folklore. All the other sports have decided that instant replay can assist, not impede umpires and referees, but no one wants to offend traditionalists. And you’re asking kids from the Southside to try out for a team?
Morgan and others look to the return to college recruitment for the game. However, it’s not just the lack of minorities in management and scouting that make the numbers small. Most black athletes being recruited look to other sports. Some Latinos are recruited for other sports as well, but if they are taken, they come straight from high school as others. How many minorities did you see in the College World Series? Even less than those than the few of us that attended college. Though he may be right about the lack of scouting, maybe he doesn’t see that for the most part, there are too many objects in the way of just playing the game.
Say What?!?!: Keeping this short, who really gives a damn about Brian Cashman? Apparently, ESPN thinks you do. So as we enjoy the last few moments of the season, let us reflect on the joy there has been without the Yankees. Boy, does the media miss them.
posted by Jason Clinkscales @ 10:11 PM
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