Tell the truth...
April 15, 2008
The date marked the 61st anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball. The New York Mets held a couple of ceremonies in Robinson’s honor; the first came in the form of a dedication of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda at the new Citi Field. The team then held a night ceremony before a game against the Washington Nationals at Shea Stadium. Players from both teams, and most players around the league, wore the number 42 in honor of Robinson and his achievements. There were many discussions about the ex-Brooklyn Dodgers’ life and how he paved the way for many American baseball players of African descent. Everything about the day seemed right. I appreciated my favorite sport acknowledging the great man that Mr. Robinson was and turning this breakthrough into an annual event.
Those thoughts changed when the discussion of the lack of American born blacks in baseball (only 8% in the major leagues at the beginning of this season) came to the forefront.
The general consensus opinion says the MLB needs to do more to bring young Black-Americans into the sport. The league needs to set up programs (like the RBI program) in the inner-city to get kids to embrace baseball as another possible athletic choice along with basketball and football. Even former front office personnel like Steve Phillips (former general manager of the New York Mets) parroted the aforementioned statements to Michael Kay on 1050 ESPN Radio in New York City. He, along with everyone else is wrong.
Baseball doesn’t need to do anything. Black-Americans should be able to embrace baseball without any help. The problem is that the majority of black culture sees baseball as a “white man’s game.”
Some people, like CNNMoney.com writer Chris Isidore, believe that socioeconomic factors play a role in the decline of baseball’s popularity in the American black community.
“The draft,” said Isidore in a column last April, unintentionally created a greater supply of foreign-born players and white American born players.”
I believe that the NBA draft also puts foreign-born players (from Europe) at an advantage, but with the game so entrenched in contemporary black culture, it doesn’t seem like as big a deal. A good chunk of the black community associates baseball with mainstream culture and the concept of upward mobility. Although the number of middle-class blacks and blacks who we can comfortably call mainstream have increased the past four decades, upward mobility, since the 1960’s, isn’t considered cool or something to aspire to.
In football and basketball you can maintain your so-called black identity while coming off as contrarian, opposed to the mainstream and therefore more palatable to the average Black-American who sees themselves as outsiders in America.
What exactly have the NFL and the NBA done to endear themselves to the “inner-city” (other than exist)? Why then should baseball have to take such a leap?
Speaking of inner-cities, isn’t there anyone out there who finds this concept insulting and condescending? Although a higher proportion of black people live below the poverty line in the United States, most black people are not poor. When you consider that the highest number of black people in Major League Baseball at one time was 27% in 1974, when the welfare state was beginning to take shape in the poorer parts of the black community, the economic argument doesn’t hold up. Somehow, someway blacks were able to find bats, gloves, a ball and a field to play in. In my hometown of The Bronx, most blacks and Latino-Americans live in the same neighborhoods and our Spanish-speaking brethren still find a way to play baseball when the weather is warm.
The style of baseball, the pastoral nature of the game, doesn’t mix well with the so-called hip-hop element. Black people have assisted in marginalizing themselves with limited views on music, culture, politics and race relations. Baseball is too much of an individualist sport for a culture that’s focused on the collective. Don’t be fooled by the faux “me-me” antics of some athletes. They know that they’re supposed to represent where they’re from more than themselves. In the black community, if you don’t toe the company line, one of the first insults you’ll hear is “white-boy” or “sell-out.” Just ask John McWhorter and Joseph C. Phillips.
Many Black-Americans see baseball as soft and align black culture with “aggressiveness” and “swagger,” which ironically are the same things used to stereotype black males. The limited worldview of “black people do this and white people do that” has contributed more to the decline of blacks in baseball than anything else.
It’s great that the MLB is bringing programs like RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) to lower-income neighborhoods as a community service. Boston Red Sox centerfielder Coca Crisp, a graduate of the RBI program, is proof of the fruits of giving back to the community. But blacks are the ones who need to embrace baseball or just leave it alone. Don’t attribute it to money, just tell the truth and say that it’s “too white” for you.
The date marked the 61st anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball. The New York Mets held a couple of ceremonies in Robinson’s honor; the first came in the form of a dedication of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda at the new Citi Field. The team then held a night ceremony before a game against the Washington Nationals at Shea Stadium. Players from both teams, and most players around the league, wore the number 42 in honor of Robinson and his achievements. There were many discussions about the ex-Brooklyn Dodgers’ life and how he paved the way for many American baseball players of African descent. Everything about the day seemed right. I appreciated my favorite sport acknowledging the great man that Mr. Robinson was and turning this breakthrough into an annual event.
Those thoughts changed when the discussion of the lack of American born blacks in baseball (only 8% in the major leagues at the beginning of this season) came to the forefront.
The general consensus opinion says the MLB needs to do more to bring young Black-Americans into the sport. The league needs to set up programs (like the RBI program) in the inner-city to get kids to embrace baseball as another possible athletic choice along with basketball and football. Even former front office personnel like Steve Phillips (former general manager of the New York Mets) parroted the aforementioned statements to Michael Kay on 1050 ESPN Radio in New York City. He, along with everyone else is wrong.
Baseball doesn’t need to do anything. Black-Americans should be able to embrace baseball without any help. The problem is that the majority of black culture sees baseball as a “white man’s game.”
Some people, like CNNMoney.com writer Chris Isidore, believe that socioeconomic factors play a role in the decline of baseball’s popularity in the American black community.
“The draft,” said Isidore in a column last April, unintentionally created a greater supply of foreign-born players and white American born players.”
I believe that the NBA draft also puts foreign-born players (from Europe) at an advantage, but with the game so entrenched in contemporary black culture, it doesn’t seem like as big a deal. A good chunk of the black community associates baseball with mainstream culture and the concept of upward mobility. Although the number of middle-class blacks and blacks who we can comfortably call mainstream have increased the past four decades, upward mobility, since the 1960’s, isn’t considered cool or something to aspire to.
In football and basketball you can maintain your so-called black identity while coming off as contrarian, opposed to the mainstream and therefore more palatable to the average Black-American who sees themselves as outsiders in America.
What exactly have the NFL and the NBA done to endear themselves to the “inner-city” (other than exist)? Why then should baseball have to take such a leap?
Speaking of inner-cities, isn’t there anyone out there who finds this concept insulting and condescending? Although a higher proportion of black people live below the poverty line in the United States, most black people are not poor. When you consider that the highest number of black people in Major League Baseball at one time was 27% in 1974, when the welfare state was beginning to take shape in the poorer parts of the black community, the economic argument doesn’t hold up. Somehow, someway blacks were able to find bats, gloves, a ball and a field to play in. In my hometown of The Bronx, most blacks and Latino-Americans live in the same neighborhoods and our Spanish-speaking brethren still find a way to play baseball when the weather is warm.
The style of baseball, the pastoral nature of the game, doesn’t mix well with the so-called hip-hop element. Black people have assisted in marginalizing themselves with limited views on music, culture, politics and race relations. Baseball is too much of an individualist sport for a culture that’s focused on the collective. Don’t be fooled by the faux “me-me” antics of some athletes. They know that they’re supposed to represent where they’re from more than themselves. In the black community, if you don’t toe the company line, one of the first insults you’ll hear is “white-boy” or “sell-out.” Just ask John McWhorter and Joseph C. Phillips.
Many Black-Americans see baseball as soft and align black culture with “aggressiveness” and “swagger,” which ironically are the same things used to stereotype black males. The limited worldview of “black people do this and white people do that” has contributed more to the decline of blacks in baseball than anything else.
It’s great that the MLB is bringing programs like RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) to lower-income neighborhoods as a community service. Boston Red Sox centerfielder Coca Crisp, a graduate of the RBI program, is proof of the fruits of giving back to the community. But blacks are the ones who need to embrace baseball or just leave it alone. Don’t attribute it to money, just tell the truth and say that it’s “too white” for you.
1 comments:
While the points are well stated, there is always one that is overlooked in regards to baseball that crosses all ethnicities.
Some people just aren't interested in watching, playing or casual observing baseball or any other sport.
While there is nothing wrong with that, the fact that blacks fought for inclusion in the sport that represented "Americana" keeps the debate fueled for years to come. Yet, in addition to the popularity of basketball and baseball, there is the popularity of minor, alternate or extreme sports.
Tony Hawk, Shaun White and Corey Hart did not enter the sporting lexicon until the mid-late 1990s into the next decade. Though their sports had existed for far longer than their recent popularity suggest, you rarely, if ever, heard of anyone in those sports. In our youth, kids built ramps for thrills on their new bikes, but how many of them that you knew of made a determined effort to become a BMX star?
Add to the fragmentation of media through new niche outlets and the lack of effort by many of us to discover them and you continue to have a greater debate.
Baseball, unfortunately, still thinks that there are only a finite amount of African-Americans to go after and that other sports are 'stealing' them as if there is some sort of quota or rights to draft them. These aren't the colonial days and we're not dying of dysentry over here.
In the immortal words of Judd Nelson; "It's not a white thing... or a black thing... it's a death thing." It just sounds like a great way to end this.
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