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Message #4323 of 6634  *NEW* To :   All From :   Jaydawg   Subject :   'Lack of Black players in baseball has become a crisis', says Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia Date :   3/17/07, 10:28am Even with RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) and other programs, inner city kids are still becoming less interested in baseball. In '97, I went to the "Jackie Robinson Night" at Dodger Stadium, celebrating the 40th anniversary of breaking the color barrier and was surprised to see very few Blacks in attendance. Very few inner city kids realize that it's a whole lot more difficult to make it into the NBA--or even the NFL-- than Major League Baseball. MLB has 25 player rosters, while the NBA only has 12 spots with fewer teams. In recent years, I've seen a few ESPN documenteries of your average 5'8 High School Juniors with asperations of being the next Lebron James and when asked about baseball, kids would generally say how "slow and booorrrring" it is. The main reason why baseball has lost its luster in the inner cities is because of a lack of promotion. David Stern does a tremendous job of this in the NBA with "I Love This Game" and other slogans, along with some mandatory charity work in the inner cities. Bud Selig could learn a lot from Stern. • Previous Topic • Next Topic • Reply to Msg #4323 • Back to Topics 4416 reads 1359 clickthrough(s) You cannot start a topic in the Headlines or Classifieds area... if you want to post a new message, try one of our other message areas!

Message #4330 of 6634  *NEW* To :   Jaydawg From :   drrubb   Subject :   Re: 'Lack of Black players in baseball has become a crisis', says Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia Date :   3/17/07, 2:04pm To further elaborate Jaydawg, the NBA has pandered to the "hip hop" culture. I hate to steriotype, but let's face it, the hip hop culture is predominantly African American. In rap videos we see a lot of basketball. Dunking is an art form. It's just more appealing for a black kid, inner city or not to dunk a basketball than it is to hit a baseball. Believe it or not, it maybe a good thing in a very wierd kind of way for Barry Bonds to break that home run record even though he is passing another former African American player himself. A lot of black kids probably don't even know who Hank Aaron or Jackie Robinson is sadly enough because they just don't indentify with baseball in today's hip hop cultural society, which just happens to aline a lot of it's popularity with basketball. I for one wish more black kids would get involved in playing baseball & taking more of a interest in it. I speak from personal experience because when I played baseball growing up, some of the teams I played for had plenty of black players. Are teams were quiet mixed in fact & we all got along wonderfully. Are teams were very good as well. Personally, I do not like the hip hop culture because of the message it sends, particularly with rap music. I have never considered myself a racist by any means. I personally have a number of black friends. Baseball has got to find a creative way to promote baseball to black kids without getting into the whole hip hop thing. If barry breaks the homerun record, maybe that will somehow raise some interest with black kids & how they feel about the game of baseball. It's sad though that it might take something like that for black kids to become even moderately interested & captivated. • Previous Topic • Next Topic • Reply to Msg #4330 • Back to Topics 5127 reads

Message #4337 of 6634  *NEW* To :   drrubb From :   drrubb   Subject :   Re: 'Lack of Black players in baseball has become a crisis', says Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia Date :   3/18/07, 7:52am There is a flip side to the point I was trying to make. If Barry Bonds does break the record & the media continues to demonize Barry, steroids or not, the media might have a detrimental effect on black children & the way they feel about baseball because the media will be demonizing a black player over what should be considered a monster achievement, not only in baseball, but in all of sports. • Previous Topic • Next Topic • Reply to Msg #4337 • Back to Topics 5126 reads

Message #4380 of 6634  *NEW* To :   drrubb From :   attacksquad   Subject :   Re: 'Lack of Black players in baseball has become a crisis', says Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia Date :   3/27/07, 1:35pm After not visiting this site since last season, I was glad to see this was still in existance and the podcast is still being done. I couldn't be happier. I am still pissed that Ana Benson is still being mentioned, but then I saw this article/link and felt compelled to join the Geek Community again. I have to say that the previous posts made some excellent points. What has not been mentioned is the costs of being a baseball player these days. Now more so than when I was growing up (I'm 26) you have specialized and select everything. More kids have hitting coaches, pay to play and tryout for select leagues, have pitching coaches, and camps are more expensive. It gets expensive to buy all that equipment now, such as the average cost of the gloves and bats. Baseball in this country has become some what of an elitest White sport. It is no where near golf in that respects, but look around. Basketball players don't have the equipment issues, it costs less to play, and camps are sponsored by shoe companies that often foot the bill for more than they are legally supposed to. Baseball loses to football because football is king here. The glory of being a high school and college football player is greater than a baseball player for a kid of any race. The media encourages this. Look at shows like Two a Days, Friday Night Lights, and all the recent football movies. Black kids also have no one to identify with. Jimmy Rollins or D-Train the closest players I can think of that are marketable. When I was growing up, almost all my favorite players were black, and I am not black. They were just exciting players like Ricky, Ozzie, Tony, Joe Carter, Strawberry, Doc, and Dave Stewart. It goes on and on. Even the generation ahead of me had Dave Parker, Winfield, Reggie, Joe Morgan, etc. The best player, regardless of how you think he became to be,is Barry Bonds. No one wants to be affiliated or "go to bat" for Barry of any race really. The RBI program is a good start, but only a baby step. Baseball has to get through to the media and market themselves better. The steroids thing and the strike didn't help. Baseball Jerseys often cost more than a basketball or football jersey. There are so many things. I know MLB has a taskforce to handlethis issue, but whether or not MLB puts real money into this is yet to be determined. The WBC was at least 10 years to late and I think MLB wil market Asians before African Amercians. I think they feel it is a lost battle for the most part anyway. Any other thoughts? • Previous Topic • Next Topic • Reply to Msg #4380 • Back to Topics 5123 reads This message has been added to these BGEEKS Blogs: attacksquad's Blog

Message #4383 of 6634  *NEW* To :   attacksquad From :   Reedster   Subject :   Re: 'Lack of Black players in baseball has become a crisis', says Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia Date :   3/27/07, 4:42pm Thanks, attacksquad for the comment regarding the site and podcast. Nice to see you again. • Previous Topic • Next Topic • Reply to Msg #4383 • Back to Topics 5121 reads

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