Posted on 10/27/2005 5:23:05 PM PDT by Aggie Dad
HOUSTON, Oct. 26 -- The Houston Astros are the first World Series team since the 1953 New York Yankees without an African American player on their active roster. That troubles all-time home run king Hank Aaron, who said Wednesday that the Astros need to make an effort to sign African American players.
"It is very disturbing to see something like this," Aaron said. "And you would think that this ballclub could find at least one or two African Americans, especially in this city. It's very disturbing. I think they need to look at that very carefully. They need to talk to people in the scouting department and everybody else because this needs to be addressed."
Only 9 percent of players on major league rosters on Opening Day were African American. Outfielders Terrmel Sledge and J.J. Davis were the only African American players on the Washington Nationals' Opening Day roster. The Baltimore Orioles had none.
"That's part of it because the numbers aren't there," Aaron said. "We don't have enough players. But I think each club needs to look at that carefully. The Astros need to address that. It's a thing where the way the game is played today you would think there is no excuse for an African American not to be on this club."
Aaron was in Houston to present Atlanta Braves outfielder Andruw Jones and Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz with the Hank Aaron Award as the most outstanding offensive performers in each league.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Makes you wonder if Hank has any issues with the percentage of blacks on NBA teams??
Want more Africans? Go join a basketball team.
So it turns out that Hank Aaron is a racist.
Sad.
or NFL teams.
He needs to take a look at the Detroit Tigers. Lot's of great black players here. About the only thing we don't have are asians and females.
It wouldn't have helped the Asteroids one bit.
This was the year of the Black Sox...
I want a cornerback job at a starting salary of 1,000,000 dollars maybe Aaron can work on that one as well.
Baseball will likely be largely Hispanic over time. Caribbean players stay sharp by playing winter ball at home. They LIVE baseball, year round.
I'm not an Astro fan or a baseball afficionado, but were there any Afro-Dominicans, or Afro-Cubans or Afro-Mexicanos on the Houston team?
If they weren't barred, Hank should stfu.
Oh, and they weren't barred.
It really is a shame when great like Aaron open their mouth without any kind proof to back it up. He assumes the Astros do not have any black players because the Astros system is racist. By his logic (and lack of proof) it is equally correct to assume that no blacks play for the Astros because they don't like Houston (or any other reason you want to insert). We have a similar "problem" at my university. People constantly whine that we do not have enough black students. They then whine that we are not doing enough to make black students feel welcome, and that we push black students away, and somehow make future black students not want to apply. Lost in all this is the FACT that few black students actually apply, and the ones that do apply enjoy a rather high acceptance rate- higher than the general pool of applicants. They would rather force black students to apply (even if they don't want to) just to make themselves feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel good.
There aren't a whole heck of a lot of blacks in the NHL, either. So?
The 2002 Angels' World Champ team had one starting black player, Garret Anderson. With all of the latin and asian players in the league now, it seems more like a lack of interest among blacks than a racist problem.
I hate to sound racist myself, but maybe the MLB should try to nurture that thug image like the NBA and NFL. Seems to work for them.
Bet he's not bothered at all by the dearth of White players in the NBA. What crap. Guess he doesn't believe in the Free Market and prefers quotas - That is when quotas mean more Blacks in a position. Hypocrite at the least.
Paging the Rev. Jackson.
When more black athletes have an interest in baseball, there will be more black major league players.
Failure to meet academic requirements also lessens the pool of available black players because they cannot be admitted to college and play college ball.
A lack of interest and not meeting academic requirements is not the fault of the Astros.
Well, they were doing something right. They made it to the World Series, Hank.
Can you imagine what would happen if a white athlete said there were too many black athlete's on a pro basketball team?
Calypso Louie, Jesse the pimp Jackson and Ghetto fabulous Al Sharpton would be all over it. Sheesh, give me a break Hank.
what about the high percentage of African-americans in hockey?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.