Gary Sheffield knows why African-Americans are disappearing from MLB

I don't put Sheffield's racist rant in Rocker's catagory because Rocker was being mean. I put Sheffield in the Reggie White catagory of being ignorant.

Are African Americans given less opportunity to play and learn baseball than any other group of Americans? If so, then there's a problem. Maybe that's why there are so few white basketball players and whites in the offensive and defensive backfields in in major college programs and the pros. Whites aren't given the opportunity

 

Several years ago when Jason Kapono was still a journeyman palyer in the NBA, he made a comment saying that if his last name was "Kaponovich," maybe he would've gone in the first round.

I didn't find a problem with his comments and agreed with him.

And if anything, its

 

or "J'asyn"

 

That's not true. Black basketball players aren't getting jobs based on one successful workout like many of the European imports.

 

OTOH, if Sebastian Telfair was named Arnold Holtzman, he'd get a good look, at Bumfulk Community College.

 

Chee, do you really believe the reason today's Latin major leaguers made it there is because they were willing to play for cheaper wages? Do you really believe that major league calibur African Americans are declining the opportunity because the pay isn't good enough? I'm sorry, but the outsourcing analogy is such a weak rationalization.

But you do hint at valid unmentioned point: this really is NOT about race at all, its about nationality. In truth, MLB has more black players now than ever before; and the NBA is now getting increasingly white. The only reason you don't hear it portrayed this way is because those trends are almost exclusively due to FOREIGN players. And there's a lot of people who wanna cling to the outdated notion that nobody can play innately American games like baseball and basketball like Americans, so they seek out excuses/alternative explanations beyond merit when they start seeing MLB and NBA roster filling up with foreign names.

Well, it wasn't just a fluke that our best major leaguers got utterly humiliated (didn't they finish SIXTH?) in the World Baseball Classic, and our NBA "Dream Teams" have now been similarly embarrassed in THREE STRAIGHT international competitions going back to 02. Some other countries have fallen in love with our games and learned to play em as well, and sometimes even better, than we do. That's the real reason we're seeing more and more Latins in baseball and Europeans in the NBA, it doesn't have anything to with compliant attitudes, cheap labor, preferential treatment.

 

I believe the initial contracts many Latin imports sign, many by the age 16, are much lower than what a person from the states to receive.


And I said nothing about African American's "declining" these opportunities. that's your assertion. My point from jump is that the African American talent base is on the decline.

Simply put, we're not playing the game.

I was just on another site with African American kids who were dismissing the game altogether. when I asked them if they ever played organized baseball, they responded by saying no.

The talent base is dwindling because we're not pushed to play the game the same way white americans numbers in the NBA have fallen because they've been cast aside by the NBA.

 

I have heard some sports editors that I know expose the benifits of female sports writers as compared to their male counterparts. They feel the are more compliant and willing to take on tough assigments.

 

we've moved on from your one word badgering.

You have nothing to add to this thread other than dismissing the overall point because of your issue with one word.

How convenient.

I mean really, why post?

 

Chee, I completely agree with this, but it leaves me a litte baffled as to why you've been claiming that there was truth in Sheffield's statement.

There's been far too much pigeonholing of sports by race. In my neighborhood is a large racially diverse high school, its basketball program appears to be over 90% black and its baseball program appears to be completely white but for a couple hispanic kids. I'm sort of shocked by that degree of segregation, I know 25 years ago you would've seen a more balanced split. A lot of white kids who love basketball and would've focused on it years ago are now told along the way that they need to give it up because they have no chance. Urban black kids seem to have given up on baseball for different reasons, and I imagine insufficient promotion and available facilities are parts of it. But the reason given by Sheffield is not.

 

No actually Big Chee he hammers home a very important point that you don't seem to want to come to grips with nor do you want to honestly answer any question that is even remotely tough.

 

I don't give a crap what Sheff says. All I'm concerned with is that he wasn't let go as a free agent so he could end up with the Red Sox. then he wouldn't have had to worry about being held back, cause Lord knows they can't keep a looney toon down for long in Boston. Manny in left, Sheff in right, Coco would have been singing clown to the left of me, joker to the right here I am stuck in the middle . . .