Can Baseball Win Back the African-American Community?

[same damn lo sweater]

there was an all star game a few years ago where Mike Piazza & Johnny Damon performed with a band that sounded like Creed. it was the whitest thing i've ever seen in my life. i remember thinking, no wonder black people stopped watching baseball


but baseball was way different in the early 90's. the majority of the stars were black. and i lived in a lot of different places at the time, but it seemed like it was alot easier to get pickup games going. like black kids were more interested in playing back then. they looked up to: Griffey, Daryl Strawberry, Eric Davis, Ozzie Smith, Bo Jackson, etc

 

[MegaTronBomb!]

there was an all star game a few years ago where Mike Piazza & Johnny Damon performed with a band that sounded like Creed. it was the whitest thing i've ever seen in my life. i remember thinking, no wonder black people stopped watching baseball


but baseball was way different in the early 90's. the majority of the stars were black. and i lived in a lot of different places at the time, but it seemed like it was alot easier to get pickup games going. like black kids were more interested in playing back then. they looked up to: Griffey, Daryl Strawberry, Eric Davis, Ozzie Smith, Bo Jackson, etc

The majority of the stars in MLB have always been white.

Black kids were more interested in playing back then, because their parents were raised by the last generation of blacks who deemed baseball as their team sport of choice

 

[GunRanger]

there was an all star game a few years ago where Mike Piazza & Johnny Damon performed with a band that sounded like Creed. it was the whitest thing i've ever seen in my life. i remember thinking, no wonder black people stopped watching baseball


but baseball was way different in the early 90's. the majority of the stars were black. and i lived in a lot of different places at the time, but it seemed like it was alot easier to get pickup games going. like black kids were more interested in playing back then. they looked up to: Griffey, Daryl Strawberry, Eric Davis, Ozzie Smith, Bo Jackson, etc

Black stars in the '90s didn't lead to more black players in the 2000s. And we really should only be talking about AAs, and not blacks in general.

Reigning NL MVP

3rd in Batting Average in the NL

Leads the NL in wins and has a 2.05 era

.308 batting average

Don't let those spanish names fool you. Puig and Cueto are black.



To me, I get why city blacks dont play that much, since there isn't a lot of space. Southerners have no excuse though.

I also believe the lack of fathers in households take away from the ability to pass down the game. Baseball is a game you don't just pick up out of the blue, like you can basketball or football because they're more exciting. The intricacies have to be taught to be seen.

 

[Thizzlam]

I hate how MLB acts like they are doing all they can to grow the sport in the black community while at the same time treating real nikkas like Barry Bonds and Milton Bradley like garbage. The NFL and NBA embraces the hood/hip-hop-generation (to an extent) while MLB wants nothing to do with it.

 

[beanz]

there's simply no space and not enough baseball gloves to go around in the inner city. i used to be a coach in an inner city league and the biggest reason kids didnt sign up was because their parents couldnt afford the league fee plus the gloves, cleets, and protective cups. plus we had 1 small field for 4 peewee teams (4-6) 8 junior teams (7-10) and 8 senior teams (11-13). thats 20 teams sharing one tiny field in a school recess yard. the kids had fun with it but most of the black kids just started gravitating to the basketball league instead because there were more courts and more chances to play and didnt need equipment except for shorts and a t shirt we provided. the spanish kids only had gloves because the majority were hand me downs.

 

[Ohene]

It's not the same when it comes to baseball, as it is for football and basketball.... being physically remarkable/outstanding matters to these hoes.

The Brandon Jennings/Nick Young's/JR Smith's of the basketball world are infinitely higher on the radar to these hoes than a Andrew McCutchen.

Lol good point. I know Matt kemp and Jose Reyes eat though

 

[NY's #1 Draft Pick]

I hate how MLB acts like they are doing all they can to grow the sport in the black community while at the same time treating real nikkas like Barry Bonds and Milton Bradley like garbage. The NFL and NBA embraces the hood/hip-hop-generation (to an extent) while MLB wants nothing to do with it.

Oh u mean like goddell Fidel banning dancing celebrations and stern implementing a dress code?

 

[BXKingPin82]

I love baseball
always have
always will
I was one of the nastiest shortstops in the Bronx before I got shot

 

[Black Hans]

Who cares? Why do people act like we are suppose to be a part of baseball? Can't people take the hint that we don't care about it like that anymore? We can't just not like it anymore it has to be "because there's a lot of fatherless homes in the black community"

 

[OG Talk]

I was watching the HS All American game on the MLB Network last weekend and noticed a concerted effort to make the game more "hip and urban"

A lot of the Nike gear the players were wearing had the flashy designs and neon colorways that are popular in the youth hoops circuit..The announcers kept using words like "swag" and other pseudo hip hop terms to describe the players and most of the players had artists like Drake, J Cole and Kendrick listed as their favorite entertainers..The two top players were Blacks kids that were sons of former MLB players (forget who) and they really went out of their way to spotlight them..

The whole production came off as "Hey yall we're cool, we're not lame like the Bob Costas crowd anymore!!"

I had to admire their pandering efforts...

 

[FTBS]

I was watching the HS All American game on the MLB Network last weekend and noticed a concerted effort to make the game more "hip and urban"

A lot of the Nike gear the players were wearing had the flashy designs and neon colorways that are popular in the youth hoops circuit..The announcers kept using words like "swag" and other pseudo hip hop terms to describe the players and most of the players had artists like Drake, J Cole and Kendrick listed as their favorite entertainers..The two top players were Blacks kids that were sons of former MLB players (forget who) and they really went out of their way to spotlight them..

The whole production came off as "Hey yall we're cool, we're not lame like the Bob Costas crowd anymore!!"

I had to admire their pandering efforts...

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It's not even about seeing black faces or even swag it's about the game itself. Black folks have played baseball since it started. They have done so in congested cities, with a bunch of lily white faces as the faces of the game. The game is too slow and more importantly the money/fame that comes with it is too slow for this generation. Wiggins and Parker been getting hyped up since they were juniors in HS. Other than Harper, who is the last HS baseball phenom to receive that kind of attention? When is college baseball signing day? Ironically enough big money comes at around the same age and there is much more to get in baseball but most people don't really realize this.

 

[keond]

Baseball is boring tho. Ive never heard a barbershop convo about baseball. shyt is just like watching paint dry. NBA/NFL are way more conducive to shyt talking.

 

[superunknown23]

Baseball is boring tho. Ive never heard a barbershop convo about baseball. shyt is just like watching paint dry. NBA/NFL are way more conducive to shyt talking.

I can just imagine someone trying to start a convo about baseball or hockey in my barbershop...
Everybody would be like

 

[Da_Eggman]

shyt every black single mother out there needs to know baseball is where that money is get those kids into little league pronto

 

[Oville]

I honestly believe that if the next baseball commissioner can have a conversation with the players and managers about stopping all this unwritten rules nonsense and encouraging players to hype up the crowd during downtime it would lead to a more entertaining game. Imagine an outfielder waving his arms and telling the fans to get up when his pitcher has 2 strikes on a hitter or imagine a guy who it a double stands on second and starts motioning to the crowd to get up to drive him in. Those kinds of actions alone would make the game much more exciting. Crowd atmosphere even more so than pace is the biggest reason why a lot of people find baseball boring. Take football for example, a lot of people will say oh football is much more exciting and action packed then baseball. In reality studies have shown that there's really only 11 minutes of action in an entire 3 1/2 hours of football.

Anyone whose been to an actual game knows that there is plenty of downtime in football. I mean every play follows a situation where the team huddles, they get walk into their formation, some time passes the play happens, a player is tackled the, referee comes by spots the ball the team gets back up to huddle and the same process repeats. Thats not even counting the plays that are constantly interrupted by flags and the fact that the refs have to make an announcement of each penalty that just happened which takes away from the game as well. People don't notice as much because the atmosphere of the game is always electric because of the fact that the games are so meaningful and the players hype up the crowd on every play.

As a dominican watching carribbean series baseball the atmosphere and the showmanship make the games that much more electric and exciting because baseball like football is a sport where a lot of the fun is based on the anticipation of action. There is a stark cultural difference in the way white people (especially older ones) and black people perceive these kinds of celebrations. White people see it as arrogance and selfishness and a lack of professionalism and respect. People of African origins (i say african origins cuz i'm including latinos in this) we value extroverted celebrations. You can look at religion as one example of this. You got christian denominations like catholicism and other puritannical forms of christianity practice their spirituality by valuing humility. African and Native Americans before they were colonized largely practiced their brands of spirituality through dance and celebration. Once they were conquered and had christianity forced on them they took these elements of dance and celebration and implemented them towards their own brands of Christianity and today you see a stark difference in the way two races of people choose to worship one God.

So in turn, baseball's gotta be more open to allowing a more festive atmosphere to their games even if they do play 162 games.Baseball allows less teams into its post-season than do the other sports so there is a higher premium to making the post-season so regular season games are much more critical than they are in the NBA and NHL despite having twice as many games. The teams should try to hype up their fanbases more during games as it would make the games on television that much better and remove some of the negative "old boys club" perception that a lot of young black kids have of baseball today.