Why are few African Americans playing professional baseball?

NYC Rebel

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well im not too sure about that
due to blacks being 16% in the 70's

so... i dont think they left us
i think its more like they(baseball) stayed / remained in that era -while we evolved
Well....I'm sure of it. This isn't some "well I think" bs. I KNOW MLBs once strong relationship to the black community left us for greener and cheaper imports....so did our interest. Baseball once strong relationship left Puerto Rico for greener can cheaper imports....and so did their interest....and you're going to tell me it's a "coincidence" and not economics? :childplease:
 

tremonthustler1

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is 1 of the top prospect in baseball black or something, why not get behind him?

the Byron Buxton kid, even though i read he';s still in minors
Low key, the few black baseball players in the majors mostly beast.

Kemp, CC, Granderson, Upton bros., Heyward, Price, Rollins, Howard, Adam Jones, McCutchen

The bullshyt excuse for why people at least here don't check for them is this whole "he's too swagless for me :wrist:" crap
 

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The baseball fields in the suburbs are fukking pristine and the ones in the innercity -- if you can find one -- are all beat up.
Yet niqqas like Willie Mays stick balled their way to dominance.

That's a poor excuse. Bottom line, MLB gave up on us so we gave up on the game. You see the same happening everywhere.

Saying it's boring is a symptom of people long removed from the game. That doesn't bother me at all and I understand. But we need to get to the root cause. shyt is the promise of integration all over again eventually failing us.
 

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well im not too sure about that
due to blacks being 16% in the 70's


so... i dont think they left us
i think its more like they(baseball) stayed / remained in that era -while we evolved
The game of baseball doesn't change as it goes along. It doesn't need to. If you have to keep changing what it is you do in a sport, then your sport is never gonna reach a good enough comfort level (since not every change is a good one)
 

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the bball court in the hood are beat up too
DOSENT stop nikkaz from hooping
And the fields we're fukked up back in the 50s and 60s and niqqas didn't stop.


Are you learning anything bruh? You said you "didn't think baseball left us" when it's clear that they stopped recruiting black players. The same happened in Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican youth are reacting the same way we are here.


You think it's a coincidence???
 

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Yet niqqas like Willie Mays stick balled their way to dominance.

That's a poor excuse. Bottom line, MLB gave up on us so we gave up on the game. You see the same happening everywhere.

Saying it's boring is a symptom of people long removed from the game. That doesn't bother me at all and I understand. But we need to get to the root cause. shyt is the promise of integration all over again eventually failing us.

Do you see kids in NYC playing stickball like they use to back in the day? Kids in the hood don't love baseball like they use to.
Because Dominican baseball fields are so good right? :dry:

shyt, because fields in the Heights or BX are so good right?

Breh, you can't compare the situation in DR to the one in America. American kids have a lot more options and higher standards. Baseball is in grained in the culture in DR; it's seen as a way to get the fukk up out of there. Baseball is a way of life in DR. You give a poor kid in DR some beat up gear and he'll treat that shyt like it's some high end gear. They have the hunger and passion for baseball.
 

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You comparing a baseball field to some run down basketball court made out of asphalt? It's not the same. You can find a bball court in NYC in every corner.


I'm going to repeat for the fourth time....that is a SYMPTOM of baseballs neglect of the black community. that's NOT THE CAUSE.

I'm speaking on the cause.
 

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I'm going to repeat for the fourth time....that is a SYMPTOM of baseballs neglect of the black community. that's NOT THE CAUSE.

I'm speaking on the cause.
What does the NBA do in the hood? :what: Why would baseball invest their time/money in a group of people that are not interested in their sport? Scouts would go any where in the world to discover talent. If there's a resurgence of baseball in the black community, they'll be there.
 

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Interesting article on Puerto Rican baseball and it's parallels to blacks.

Look at where baseball invested and look at where they divested.

http://www.stopmikelupica.com/2008/02/endangered_species_puerto_rica.php



Remember last year when Gary Sheffield got into trouble for telling GQ magazine that one of the reasons there are fewer African-American players in baseball than in the past is because Latin American players were "easier to control"?

Yeah, he caught a bit of flack for that. For a while. But he clarified his comments, and soon afterwards other players, most notably Torii Hunter, started to validate or echo Sheffield's comments. Even some Latino players, to a degree, publicly agreed with Sheffield's comments.

There was one group who I was surprised not to hear from: Puerto Rican players. And it appears that, quietly, the same trend of fewer players of Puerto Rican origin is likely on the horizon, perhaps for the same reason as with African-Americans. In fact, the number of Ricans has seemingly plateaued: 4 Puerto Ricans made their debut last season in MLB. That's the same number as in the 2006 season. Only one debuted during the 2005 season.

In fact, since 2002, only 21 players have made it to the big leagues in those six seasons. That's the lowest rate for a six-year period in over two decades. For perspective: for the 2000 and 2001 season combined, a total of 17 Puerto Ricans debuted in the majors. In 1998 and 1999 combined, another 17 debuted, including the following who are still active: Javy Vasquez, Alex Cora, Ricky Ledee, Mike Lowell, Carlos Beltran, and Bengie Molina. In the 1990 and 1991 seasons there were 16 new Puerto Rican players in the majors.

''During the last decade, the number of Puerto Ricans that made it to the major leagues has remained stable, whereas the number of players of other Hispanic and international countries has been doubled and even tripled,'' said Eduardo Pérez, who retired last year. "We must invest in our athletes." [1]

Catching On:
Speaking of Bengie Molina, I had a discussion with a coworker on Friday about the Molina brothers. He commented to me: "Their father must have known to make them catchers; it's the easiest way to the majors!".

Well, not easiest, but the quickest path, as teams can always use good hitting catchers. Of the 41 Puerto Ricans in the majors last year, 13 were used as catchers. Interest thing to note that the LA Times had an article yesterday about Hector Valle, the first Puerto Rican catcher and the "godfather" of them all. According to this article, it was Valle who mentored Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez when they played together in the Puerto Rican winter league. Pudge was originally signed to be a pitcher, but they decided to use his strong arm to throw runners out instead (that strong arm Pudge would become famous for).

Pudge, along with the Molinas and Jorge Posada, are part of the reason for this trend: 10 of the last 12 World Series have featured at least one team with starting catcher of PR origin. 17 of the last 18 AL starting catchers has been Ricans.

It's interesting to note that Posada was drafted as a 2B initially. Bengie Molina played every position. Pudge mentored the Molina brothers. These catchers were also inspired by the late 80's tandem of Sandy Alomar Jr. and Benito Santiago, who both won rookie of the year as offensive catchers.

Future Centers, Not Catchers:
Another LA Times article from yesterday points out that baseball is quickly dying in Puerto Rico, though. This was the first time there was no winter league in PR. The six owners voted against it this year, due to lackluster attendance (under 2,000 per game) and financial woes.

The Caribbean Series is without a PR team for the first time in the 59-year history. PR major league vets don't play in their winter league (compared to DR, Venezuela and Mexico), and that hurts attendance and interest. Also hurting attendance is that young Puerto Ricans now prefer basketball, volleyball, and video games to playing or watching baseball.

Major League Baseball has hindered PR baseball by treating them as Americans (and Canadians), subjecting them to the draft. That means they have to wait until they are 18 years old, on an island where high school baseball isn't as good as the rest of America. In fact, Puerto Rico has no high school leagues. There is only the Puerto Rican Baseball Academy and weekend leagues.

The results are pretty staggering: 55 Puerto Ricans were taken in the draft in 1989, the first year this rule went into effect. 37 were drafted the next year (1990). 23 were drafted in 2002. In 2006, I can only verify that 7 PR players were drafted. [2]

In the meantime other Latin American countries have passed Puerto Rico in terms of major leaguers. The Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Mexico all have a large number of players in the majors. It has become cheaper for baseball to invest in those countries, where baseball factories and labor cost less, and bonuses to 16-year old players rarely run past four figures.

The government of PR as lobbied for an exemption from draft. The initial reason for including PR in the draft was also likely monetary: Ivan Rodriguez, Carlos Baerga, Juan Gonzales, and Carlos Delgado all received large bonuses in the period prior to the rule change. [3] It should be noted that all four were All-Stars, and two still are to this day.

Something else happened in 1989: The Houston Astros became the first franchise to build a baseball academy in Venezuela. Pretty soon other teams followed, and now over 2/3rd of MLB franchises have an academy in Venezuela. These academies have produced players from Andres Galarraga to Ozzie Guillen, Omar Vizquel, Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Guillen, Melvin Mora, Victor Martinez and, of course, those great pitchers: Johan Santana, Carlos Zambrano, Kelvin Escobar, and K-Rod.

In a lot of ways, the struggle African-Americans baseball players are having to get to the majors mirrors the struggle of Puerto Rican. Looking at the first round of the last few baseball drafts, it appears MLB has become a prep school sport of sorts, like lacrosse. Either the players are taken out of college, or they come from prep "baseball" schools. It has become to costly an investment for MLB.

Of course, these Caribbean countries are not the end of the topic. On the contrary, globalization in general dictates that wherever there is cheaper labor, that's where baseball will go. The Yankees have signed a contract with China to build an academy there....


This is all about economics. When baseball moves on from people, expect the people to respond the same way.
 

NYC Rebel

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What does the NBA do in the hood? :what: Why would baseball invest their time/money in a group of people that are not interested in their sport? Scouts would go any where in the world to discover talent. If there's a resurgence of baseball in the black community, they'll be there.
The NBA CLEARLY invests in the hood. There is a direct pipeline of AAU to college to the pros to the nba.

As I pointed out earlier....we had that in baseball at one time. 18 players from one team was recruited by MLB. there was an indirect relationship with baseball and black players. That later died when they went to the carribbean.

You just don't want to be educated to win an argument
 
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the growth of the nba and nfl

case closed

not really....the number of jobs in the nba and nfl has been pretty static for a while....what i mean is that there arent new teams being added to the leagues. so what growth are you speaking of? players dont care about tv contracts or team revenue.

IMO it isnt cool to play baseball anymore....and the number of pee-wee leagues is almost non-existent in our communities. if i could do it all again, i wouldve concentrated on baseball :patrice:
 
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