The Color of the Game

Okay, here's the controversy: Professional Baseball players Gary Sheffield and Torii Hunter have publicly stated that the number of blacks in baseball is going down because of the increase of Latinos who are both less expensive and "easier to control." To read more, click here.

Of course, this is nonsense. Here's why:


Sheffield may be right about Latinos having less leverage as they come up. However, the same is true of Latinos having less leverage than white Americans. It's a red herring. It has nothing to do with why there are fewer blacks in baseball.

The answer is urban access and urban appeal. Many, though certainly not all, black athletes grow up in more urban areas. In such places, where fields are few, kids play basketball, and, through their schools, football, and track. Baseball just isn't as popular a sport to participate in.

School's out today. How many pick-up baseball games are going on today in Detroit?

Fact is, the best players on the radar screen of MLB teams will be on an MLB field. The owners are as competitive as the players. They'll put up with almost anything to get players.

One other thing to note: Sheffield is quietly insulting blacks in general. Professional sports is filled with many black athletes and they are also normal citizens, not needing to be "controlled." It is an insult to blacks to say that they have a level of rebellion that makes them undesirable to baseball teams.

Boys and men love to compete in sports (I know, women do to, but let's not be so PC that we don't see that a greater percentage of males love to participate in competitive sports), be they black or white. If you expose them to the games, they will play them, no matter what the game. The influx of white Europeans into the NBA should be proof that the issue of who plays at the highest level has less to do with race and more to do with what we have access to in our culture. Kids in Europe, especially Eastern Europe where the USSR urbanized the majority of the populations, took up basketball. They like it. They're getting good at it. It's what they play.

Urban kids just don't play baseball like they did at one time.

You want more blacks in MLB? Clear more lots, build more fields, send more coaches, and start more clubs. The MLB would do great to invest dollars in kid's baseball clubs in urban areas. And, according to Hunter and Sheffield and Guillen, they should have the money if they just use what they are saving by signing so many Latinos. :)