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The Unbearable Whiteness of Baseball
NY Times ^ | April 6, 2016 | Jay Caspian Kang

Posted on 04/11/2016 11:54:19 AM PDT by C19fan

y instinct, honed reflex and general contrarianism, I root for all “flashy” “showboats” who are “disgraces to the game.” It has been this way since I left Boston at age 10 to move to North Carolina, a state with no notable baseball team save the minor-league Durham Bulls, who, at least when I was growing up, seemed more a Hollywood relic than a ball club. Freed from having to like the Red Sox, I began to root for Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics, mostly because I liked how deeply he squatted while taking a lead off first base. He seemed as if he were taunting the pitcher. As I grew older and started feeling alienated from my white classmates, I gravitated toward athletes who, in some way, flouted the white, stoic traditions of American sports — Allen Iverson, Ken Griffey Jr., Rasheed Wallace, Pedro Martinez. I felt as if this was a moral choice.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Society; Sports
KEYWORDS: baseball; race
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To: C19fan
The decline in black faces in the Major Leagues coincided with a surge in Latino players, who made up roughly 30 percent of rosters last year.

All these patronizing liberals are are going to be in for a rude surprise in 20 years. Maybe they should start thinking about how uncontrolled immigration is going to affect political power instead of baseball.
41 posted on 04/11/2016 12:54:30 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen (Beat your plowshares into swords. Let the weak say I am strong)
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To: C19fan

I agree with most of the comments here but I wanted to point something out. If the author wants to find someone to blame, look at the very liberal NCAA.

As schools are forced to limit men’s scholarships due to title IX the NCAA caps the number of baseball scholarships at 11.7 for DI and 9 for DII teams. DI limits rosters at 35 and only 27 can be on scholarship.

If all scholarships were divided evenly (they aren’t, some positions are more important) then everyone of the 27 would get a 43% scholarship with 8 players getting nothing.

A lower income kid is much less likely to get college paid for in baseball than football or basketball. Add that to the fact that DI talent level players are recruited from top travel teams (which are very expensive), and it is no shock that most American players are going to be white and from middle or upper class families.


42 posted on 04/11/2016 12:55:21 PM PDT by fungoking (40% share for a TV show is a hit; in the 2016 election it a loss in a landslide, hello Pres Hillary)
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To: rjsimmon
A pox on his house! Go Dodgers!!!

LOL!!

43 posted on 04/11/2016 12:56:09 PM PDT by ScottinVA
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To: fingers_crossed

Even basketball is going the way of the private club teams like baseball has on the youth level. Today’s typical NBA player is a lot different than the generations before. They may look the same, but today’s African-American player is more likely to have come from a middle or even upper middle class background than his predecessors did.


44 posted on 04/11/2016 12:57:02 PM PDT by gusty
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To: pgkdan

Tell Dusty Baker that he’s playing in a racist game. I’d like to hear what he has to say about it.


Well he is the guy who said that blacks and Hispanics have an advantage because they naturally handle the heat of summer better.


45 posted on 04/11/2016 12:58:51 PM PDT by fungoking (40% share for a TV show is a hit; in the 2016 election it a loss in a landslide, hello Pres Hillary)
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To: fungoking

LOL! I forgot about that!


46 posted on 04/11/2016 12:59:33 PM PDT by pgkdan (The Silent Majority Stands With TRUMP!)
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To: fungoking

The cap on scholarships is due to baseball not being a revenue producing sport. When the typical Div I games admission price is $0, there is not going to be many scholarships given out. Even the big conference schools try to recruit from within state. They can get three in state players for the price of one out of state player.


47 posted on 04/11/2016 1:02:00 PM PDT by gusty
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To: C19fan

Every week they discover another way to prove that the country is racist.


48 posted on 04/11/2016 1:25:43 PM PDT by I want the USA back (The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. Orwell.)
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To: pgkdan

It’s like there will always be a black center fielder in Washington. Hope Revere isn’t injured as much as Span was, especially last year.

Freegards


49 posted on 04/11/2016 1:30:38 PM PDT by Ransomed
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To: C19fan

That’s what I was thinking.
And they left out the ironic “unbearable whiteness of hockey”.


50 posted on 04/11/2016 1:39:21 PM PDT by tbw2
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To: sauropod

.


51 posted on 04/11/2016 1:42:26 PM PDT by sauropod (Beware the fury of a patient man.)
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To: Cementjungle

Not one smile.


52 posted on 04/11/2016 1:47:41 PM PDT by Roccus (Fighting POLITICIANS is the true WOT)
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To: C19fan

I think there was one black guy that played in major league baseball about 40 years ago. I don’t think there have been any since then.


53 posted on 04/11/2016 2:03:27 PM PDT by LivingNet
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To: ScottinVA
ScottinVA,

Very good observation. With the bottom line in their minds, teams started creating baseball schools in Latin countries back in the late 50's. The schools taught ABCs in the morning, and baseball by pro instructors in the afternoon. The schools were placed in these countries because they could get a legal signature by a 16 year old boy for a pro contract that was binding. they would train him from early age to that point of 16 after being hand selected, and then spend a little more time before bringing him to the US to compete professionally in minor league ball with a straight shot to the big club. Then, in many cases, when he wanted comparable money to the other players around him, he would be released and another young brought up for the cheap price. The most name schools are located in Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republic, and Guatemala. Baseball was and is a business first. Another problem is their competition with basketball and football concerning education. Baseball in college doesn't supply the high scholarships the other two sports do. So the path for a college education is paved in other directions by the money trail. And there have been more than a few athletes saw the inside of a classroom on the first and last day of the semester or quarter to get the study material, not used, and find out their grades, maybe. red

54 posted on 04/11/2016 2:45:30 PM PDT by Redwood71
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To: JBW1949

We know the outcome of that already, they would rebel and state that talent outweighs racial equality. Only when it favors blacks will they demand quotas.


55 posted on 04/11/2016 2:45:31 PM PDT by Robert DeLong (u)
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To: JoeDetweiler

Re: “8% Black”

From memory - more than 10% of all MLB players come from the Dominican Republic, more than any other country except the USA.

D.R. shares a 100 mile border with Haiti.

At least 50% of D.R.’s population has at least some African blood.


56 posted on 04/11/2016 2:51:29 PM PDT by zeestephen
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To: JoeDetweiler
Me either in general conversation but I was pretty young when he was around. Nowadays I have never heard him called Bob. Always Roberto. The only place I saw Bob was on some Topps baseball cards. There are Topps cards with Roberto and Bob.


57 posted on 04/11/2016 3:05:25 PM PDT by xp38
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To: C19fan

I read through the reader comments for this article, and was pleasantly surprised to see that even readers of the New York Times seem to agree that it is one of the dumbest articles ever written.


58 posted on 04/11/2016 3:53:01 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Sometimes I feel like I've been tied to the whipping post.")
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To: C19fan

MLB is only 50% European white with 25% Hispanics, compared to the NBA which is 75% black. No articles for that. Never mind the nation overall is over 50% European white but only 12% black.

PC race baiters are the most racist bigoted loudmouths on the planet, bar none.


59 posted on 04/11/2016 4:03:52 PM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free (The Confederate Flag is the new "N" word.)
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To: ScottinVA

Not to mention the arrival of more Asian players. Many of the younger players for the Minnesota Twins are Hispanic and Asian.


60 posted on 04/11/2016 4:46:17 PM PDT by MNMom
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