Gary Sheffield knows why African-Americans are disappearing from MLB

Not even remotely true.

Sheffield participates in a sport. He doesn't (obviously) spend his time studying the intricacies of socio-economic dynamic of Latinos, African-Americans or the psychology of those that draft and sign players.

We know that if he actually had spent time studying such things, he wouldn't be blaming Latinos for the lack of black players.

 

For too many along these line, Intelligence and S.J. Com are like oil and vinegar. The don't work well together. The worst part is that many of these people criticizing Sheff would be the first to kiss his ass if they met him in person.
Sheff's a good kid. He's just misunderstood.

 

Would that be "along these lines" and "They don't work together?"

Try mastering basic spelling before you insult the intelligence of others on the board.

Please don't try to tell any of us how we would behave if we met Gary Sheffield. I'm criticizing the guy in here, but I sure as hell wouldn't be kissing his ass.

He does seem to me like a decent guy who suffers from an unfortunate case of foot-in-mouth disease. Being a good guy doesn't mean you should get a pass when you fuck up. And in my opinion, he did fuck up in this case.

 

Let's be real. You wouldn't say goddamn thing to him either in private or public.
You don't know Shef and probably the closest that you've been to him is through a TV screen.
You have your opinion, he has his. Leave it at that and move on.

 

so he couldn't have witnessed what Carlos Guillen saw?

I mean, we're the ones that can go into greater detail than he could, but to say he isn't aware of whats going on....

 

Carlos Guillen could very well be speaking about his own experience. Maybe he was scared about being sent back to Venezuela. I will state that I think missing a base when you hit a double will almost ALWAYS get you yelled at by someone. So, Guillen may be afraid of being sent back, but there is nothing that substantiates that fear.

It, also, has nothing to do with the REAL reason there are less black players.

 

Jeez, Chee, it really is time to let the quibbling over this point end. But one more time, it is not true because that is not the REASON why Guillen and other Latin players get signed. They get signed because of how they PLAY THE GAME. You're getting your correllation and causation mixed up.

Major League Scouts don't sit around and say "let's only look for kids who're gonna have to quit school, fight a language barrier, and have the hardest time starting out." Instead, they say "let's look for the most talented young baseball players anywhere in the world", and in recent years there happen to have been more of those kids in Latin American countries where those sacrifices are more likely to be necessary and fewer of those kids found in the United States.

The way you're torturously twisting this to try to find some way to blame it on the baseball establishment reeks of typical excuse making and is unsupported by the evidence--again, show me the superior African American talent in HS or the minors that's been unfairly pushed aside for the Latin players, it doesn't exist, and whenever African American kids with that kind of baseball talent do come along, the league snatches em up as soon as possible.

As much as you'd like it to be, this is not the fault of the white guys running baseball. It is NOT anybody's "fault". It's simply a natural result of shifting cultural values where, in recent decades, baseball has gradually fallen out of favor in the African American community, while simultaneously becoming more popular than ever before in Latin Countries. It wasn't designed by anybody's nefarious backroom plotting.

 

Boots, you have no idea who I am. None. You have no idea who I have met or not met (I actually have met Sheffield, not that it matters) and even less idea how I would act in any given situation. I work in journalism, so I don't have any problem approaching anybody. It's part of earning a living in the business and you know that (assuming any of the shit you say about yourself on here is true).

Save the personal shit for your next thread about neighbors who like it from behind. Some of us are trying to stay on topic. As far as I can tell, making it personal is just your way of trying to change the subject.

 

What about signing these kids while they're still in their early teens? He also said he left school to come and play. Baseball cast aside catering to potential African American athletes to chase after cheaper imports.

Wow. People are losing jobs to the outsourcing of the game and taking advantage of cheaper labor.

Is that unique? No...that's the American way. Especially to African American's that are disproportionatly affected by these realities.

 

Then baseball is also casting aside white american kids too.....and it's safe to say the number of white kids playing baseball is way down as well.

 

I'd say basketball is where white american players are getting the biggest shaft.

 

Sure, that could be a factor. And if you would like to discuss that aspect we certainly can. However, and this is the real key here, it wasn't what Sheffield said. Thus, the reason everyone is wondering why you don't just bail on Sheffield and start discussing the actual issue.