Posted on 10/04/2011 4:30:57 PM PDT by Darren McCarty
A question occurred Monday around the time Juan Cruz was pitching to Nelson Cruz, which was a half-inning after Alexi Ogando got the Rangers out of a seventh-inning jam and one inning before Neftali Feliz came in to close out the Rays. The question was this: Do young American baseball players understand what they're up against?
Every year, hundreds of American college and high school players sign contracts and head out to go to work in the minor leagues. They show up and find the world doesn't look quite the same. Amateur baseball in this country -- especially college baseball -- could be mistaken for a country-club sport. There are shockingly few minorities and not even much in the way of socio-economic diversity. It's an upper-middle-class world, fueled by expensive travel teams, private coaches and the best suburban high schools.
Counting historically black colleges, a recent study by the United States Sports Academy found that 4.5 percent of college baseball players are black, In 2006, there were just 24 black players in the SEC, a conference that includes eight states with a black population of more than 25 percent.
That's the reality, not a judgment. Baseball has become less enticing to African-Americans, a fact attributable either to diminished opportunity (expense/infrastructure/support/coaching) or the allure of other pursuits (basketball/football). College baseball is by far America's most underrated and under-covered sport, but the racial makeup of participants is no different from women's soccer. Players are often groomed more than developed.
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.go.com ...
Because japanese and Hispanics aren’t raised on ice. Same reason blacks aren’t swimmers.. opportunities as children and sport priorities..
I never paid any attention . . . I only watch the performance . . . is that racist?
I took photos for some little league teams this summer and they were decked out like mini big leaugers.
I spent a day and took photos for 10 teams and charged $1000 and the coaches said it was a fraction of what “pro” photographers were charging but I’m fine with it because its not worth a lot more than that and I’m helping to keep costs down. All in all it was about a weeks worth of work and I just gave the coaches the photos on disk so they could have them printed as needed.
Looks like next year I’ll doing nearly 30 teams and watching to make sure none of the pros slash my tires.
Interesting points on the author’s part, though. I’ve long predicted that Major League Baseball would experience a steep decline in popularity in the U.S. as it became more “Hispanic” over time. Not that there’s anything wrong with professional sports teams going out and getting the best talent they can find, but at some point the foreign influence becomes so pervasive that it will take on many of the characteristics of soccer in this country. It will have a strong fan base, but will no longer have the kind of mass-market appeal to keep up with other professional sports.
Those were rhetorical questions.
But let me guess ... football and basketball are not too black, right?
Having coached youth baseball for several years my opinion is that most American kids are bored spitless playing baseball unless they are pitching, catching, or playing shortstop. Maybe it’s the region in which I live but a lot of the more athletic kids seems to be gravitating toward lacrosse or spring basketball or soccer. Also, some of the youth football leagues are doing spring football.
I don’t know how to make the kids more interested in baseball without materially changing the sport, but for a lot of kids there are too many more interesting alternatives.
The life blood of liberalism is injecting race and ethnicity into everything, and this article fits it to a T.
Back before video games took over, playing baseball, for kids, was the greatest time killer there was. I remember we’d literally play baseball games all day when I was a kid.
Most Hispanics in MLB are AFRO Hispanic from DR and PR. Why is it that blacks refuse to consider somebody like Sammy Sosa or Pujols as “black” just because they have Spanish last names.
Maybe I should stop watching tennis because the Americans can't compete against the Eurotrash. Maybe now that Tiger is gone I should make golf my primary sport as it is largely played professionally by upper middle to upper class white guys from many nations.
I watch my sports for entertain,net, not because of ethnic kinship.
Since he bleached his skin/contracted vertiligo, Sosa looks like a friend of mine from Grenada, causing my friend to get stopped on the streets by beisbol obsessed DominicanYorks of a certain age.
Riesterers in West Hempstead! Still a good bakery, btw.
I'm just guessing but I think this guy hasn't sent a kid to college for a while.
I never forgave Chico for writing, “Bad Stuff ‘Bout the Mets.”
>If I wanted to watch another country’s sports professionals I would buy Fox Sports International.
I will have to AGREE.
It is not racism to like or prefer the sports you want to watch. It’s like placing the lone white guy in the ghetto. Would that white guy actually feel comfy? No. Same thing if an Asian dude is stuck in a Bev Hills seminar with 99% of white people in the room. It happened to my right-wing Filipino bud and he felt alienated. It also brought more evidence that L.A. is truly balkanized.
LOL! Are we going to see affirmative action in baseball now?
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