Thoughts on Jackie Robinson Day

KeithLockhart said:
It's a culture thing. It's awful when I play tennis at public courts, and the football field is right next to us. All of the 20-30 year old dads who think they're NFL coaches making their 8 year olds do 30 laps around the field and such.
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Is that worse than someone playing tennis?
 
gilesfan said:
Is that worse than someone playing tennis?
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Just because you don't appreciate the skill required to play tennis at a high level, doesn't make it any less of a sport.

I'd never let my kids play football. The risk isn't worth any reward. Also, I don't need the know-it-all idiot coaches pretending to be NFL coaches with their yelling and laps.

As a coach/instructor, there are always other ways to positively motivate a player to succeed than useless running around and high testosterone yelling.
 
So the Diamondbacks and Cardinals HAVE to or SHOULD hire a black baseball player? Affirmative action, huh? It couldn't be that those clubs just decided that the best 25 players from their system, free agency, etc. just happen to be every other ethnic persuaion than black and suspicions instantly creep up? That is one of the problems today: seeing racism where there might not be any. Is every black player great? Do all black players have attitude problems? Of course not and I don't think you can generalize; you have to take every situation by itself. Until proof of racism and prejudice are found, I'll just assume that ballclubs see production out of a player and not color.
 
Yeah - Rico's assertion that St Louis should be ashamed they don't have black players is kind of ridiculous.

It wasn't long ago that the Braves didn't have any... and the rainbow coalition went after them. Now they have a starting outfield that is 100% African american. The unfortunate part is, there just aren't that many to choose from.

And GF is right (gulp), baseball is just too darn expensive to play for inner city kids
 
Baseball is no more expensive than football or basketball for kids to play (in fact, I'd argue that the latter two are MORE expensive).
 
KeithLockhart said:
Just because you don't appreciate the skill required to play tennis at a high level, doesn't make it any less of a sport.

I'd never let my kids play football. The risk isn't worth any reward. Also, I don't need the know-it-all idiot coaches pretending to be NFL coaches with their yelling and laps.

As a coach/instructor, there are always other ways to positively motivate a player to succeed than useless running around and high testosterone yelling.
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Im not talking about high level, I'm talking about you.
 
Baseball is inexpensive to play at the basic level. Just find a round object and a stick.

But in the U.S., most guys who get really good play travel ball most weekends out of the year, and that's very expensive.
 
Hawk said:
Baseball is no more expensive than football or basketball for kids to play (in fact, I'd argue that the latter two are MORE expensive).
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There are no 'pickup' baseball games. Its much easier to play basketball/football because you can play with many different combinations of people.
 
Hawk said:
Baseball is no more expensive than football or basketball for kids to play (in fact, I'd argue that the latter two are MORE expensive).
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You can play football with a few friends, only needing a football. You can play basetball only needing a park with a hoop. You kinda need a bat and a field and more than 2 guys to play baseball.
 
thethe said:
There are no 'pickup' baseball games. Its much easier to play basketball/football because you can play with many different combinations of people.
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Also assume everyone has a glove and or a bat. You can get away with one metal bat for all, but everybody needs gloves... and plus sandlots are going away and public baseball fields aren't so public.

Basketball requires 1 hoop, as many people and one ball. We used to play 25 man all-man in the hood... it was a PITA but it was better than nothing.
 
Get Wren on the phone with the Cardinals. Offer up BJ and Uggla for Wong. They need a black player, we need an Asian player.

Not to mention ridding 2 gaping holes in our OPS. (Had to throw that in for Zito)
 
bravesnumberone said:
The bigger issue is why more African-Americans aren't playing baseball these days.
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Compared with years past, the total percentage of caucasian players is probably down considerably in MLB as well. Yet, nobody dares raise the issue. Both groups experienced a decline in percentage of MLB players with the increased contributions of Latino players and obviously there are a few Asians making the jump as well.

The celebrations for Hank Aaron were great, but he's been uttering too many clichés from the 60's about "still got a long way to go" and "lack of opportunity." MLB RBI program has about 220,000 participants. What more are they supposed to do? OP noted that young blacks aren't really interested in baseball. They prefer football and basketball. By coincidence, black participation far exceeds their relative portion of the population in those sports.
 
Knucksie said:
Compared with years past, the total percentage of caucasian players is probably down considerably in MLB as well. Yet, nobody dares raise the issue. Both groups experienced a decline in percentage of MLB players with the increased contributions of Latino players and obviously there are a few Asians making the jump as well.

The celebrations for Hank Aaron were great, but he's been uttering too many clichés from the 60's about "still got a long way to go" and "lack of opportunity." MLB RBI program has about 220,000 participants. What more are they supposed to do? OP noted that young blacks aren't really interested in baseball. They prefer football and basketball. By coincidence, black participation far exceeds their relative portion of the population in those sports.
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I don't disagree at all. I think my point was the Cardinals aren't racist just because they don't have any blacks on the team. Is a basketball team racist because it has no whites on a team?

And I think blacks' greater interest in basketball and football is mostly because they have more opportunities with those sports from a younger age.
 
rico43 said:
I appreciate that baseball retired No. 42 in honor of Jackie, but it is ludicrous this day every year when every player on every team wears that number in his honor. Having 42 hanging from every stadium seems like sufficient commemoration.

Heard this morning that three major league teams currently do NOT have a single African-American player on their roster, including the D-Backs and the Cardinals. The latter is particularly egregious because of their terrific history of Black Americans: Gibson, Brock, Coleman, Flood, Bill White, Ozzie Smith ... need I go on. The current management team should be chagrined, if not ashamed.
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Just out of curiosity, what is Kolten Wong's ethnicity?
 
KeithLockhart said:
Also assume everyone has a glove and or a bat. You can get away with one metal bat for all, but everybody needs gloves... and plus sandlots are going away and public baseball fields aren't so public.

Basketball requires 1 hoop, as many people and one ball. We used to play 25 man all-man in the hood... it was a PITA but it was better than nothing.
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Then why is baseball thriving in 3rd world latin american countries? Isn't it easier to just play soccer? You just need a ball really.
 
I remember playing two-man baseball with a friend. One of us would pitch, one of us would hit and we'd set up bases. You hit a single, called "ghost runner" and went back to the plate. Then it became a matter of arguing how far the ghost runner would advance on any hit. Those were very involved discussions.

Of course, we were upper-middle class white kids, so that doesn't really address the larger issue.
 
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