Posted on 10/25/2005 5:01:38 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
HOUSTON (AP) -- Joe Morgan worries about the face of baseball. Watching the World Series, the Hall of Famer is troubled by what he sees.
His old team, the Houston Astros, is down 2-0 to the Chicago White Sox, but it's not their lineup that concerns Morgan. It's their makeup.
The Astros are the first World Series team in more than a half-century with a roster that doesn't include a single black player.
``Of course I noticed it. How could you not?'' Morgan said while the Astros took batting practice before the opener in Chicago. ``But they're not the only ones. There are two or three teams that didn't have any African-American players this year.''
Morgan said it's a predicament and a challenge for Major League Baseball. While more players from around the world are making it to the majors -- Japan, Korea, for example -- the number of blacks is declining.
``It's a daunting task to get African-American kids into baseball, and I don't see the trend changing,'' he said.
The last World Series team without a black player was the 1953 New York Yankees. It wasn't until 1955 -- eight years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947 -- that Elston Howard became the first black in Yankee pinstripes.
Black players accounted for just about 9 percent of big league rosters this season.
``We know that we have to work to do,'' Commissioner Bud Selig said Tuesday. ``We'll continue to intensify our efforts. I'm very aware, I'm extremely sensitive about it, and I feel badly about it. But we need to get to work to change things.''
Astros general manager Tim Purpura agrees.
``I think it's a huge, huge problem for baseball,'' he said. ``The pool of African-American players just isn't there. And as baseball becomes more college-oriented in its draft, there aren't a lot of players to pick.
``The African-American athletes are going into other sports,'' he said.
The most recent survey by the NCAA, taken during the 2003-04 season, showed that only 6 percent of Division I baseball players were black. Half of the men's basketball players were black, as were 44 percent of football players.
Houston has a half-dozen Hispanic players -- it was the first team to open a baseball academy in Venezuela, about a dozen years ago. Bench coach Cecil Cooper is black.
Outfielders Charles Gipson and Charlton Jimerson, both black, played for the Astros during the regular season.
The White Sox have three black players on their Series roster: Jermaine Dye, Carl Everett and Willie Harris, along with coaches Tim Raines and Harold Baines.
They also have eight Hispanic players and Japanese second baseman Tadahito Iguchi.
``We're diverse because we're looking for the best in talent and character,'' general manager Ken Williams said before the Series started. ``It just happened that way. I could care less what the makeup of the club is as long as it works as a whole.''
Williams is the only black general manager in the majors. A former big league outfielder, he joined the White Sox in 1992 as a scout, confident he could find players in the inner cities. After a year of trying, Williams felt as if he'd failed.
Morgan is disturbed by what he's found, too.
A two-time NL MVP, Morgan helped Cincinnati win two straight championships. In 1976, along with fellow black teammates Ken Griffey, George Foster and Dan Driessen, the Big Red Machine swept a Yankees team that had 10 black players on its roster.
Just 10 years ago, Atlanta and Cleveland each had five black players when they met in the World Series.
In 2003, Derek Jeter and the Yankees lost to Florida. Jeter's father is black and his mother is white; the All-Star shortstop has said he considers himself both black and white.
``There's a perception among African-American kids that they're not welcome here, that baseball is not for inner-city kids,'' Morgan said. ``It's not true, and I hate that the perception is out there.''
What's wrong with just getting the best players, period.
Joe Morgan was dismayed to find that there were so many blacks in these sports. "There must be some way to get more whites to fit the quota. It sends the wrong message." Yeah, right. Joe Morgan, once a racist, always a racist.
``There's a perception among African-American kids that they're not welcome here, that baseball is not for inner-city kids,''
unfortunately if baseball players came out on the playing field wearing some gangsta style uni's and flashing a lot of bling bling the inner city kids would elevate in droves towards the sport. sorry joe morgan, but your statement shows that you are still of the ted and hillary plantation mentality.
JMHO
Sounds like a perfect opportunity for Jesse Jerkson to blackmail MLB.
Is there a similar outcry to get more whites and hispanics into the NBA?
Funny I don't recall the NFL ever mentioning this as a problem. If African Americans want to play there's nobody stopping them from trying
9% is in line with the proportion of blacks in the general population. If the black athletes with skills in 2 sports choose against baseball, there's nothing to be done there. I'm no expert, but my guess is that it takes a long time to get to big money in baseball. A star basketball player very rapidly gets to the big paydays. Ditto in football. The free market is working in its mysterious ways.
I've watched the first two games and five 1/2 innings of game 3 of the World Series up to this point, and I hadn't noticed that the Astros didn't have any black players on their roster. But then, I guess this is the type of thing that you'd notice only if you were actually looking for it, as Morgan apparently was.
I think Williams meant to say that he couldn't care less. By saying that he could care less, he's not indicating where his present level of caring is on this matter, other than to say that it's not at zero.
Yes, college football and college basketball are revenue sports almost everywhere. College baseball makes money at some schools although at many others it does not.
I did not notice it until I saw this article. So stick it Joe.
Is there a similar outcry to get more whites and hispanics into the NBA?
How about the NFL? Hey Joe, check out the starting defense for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The QUOTA system simply doesn't work. People just don't FIT into quotas, when the "job" REALLY is based on performance, even if those quotas are mandated.
That just life and Joe Morgan wants it both ways.
That just ISN'T life. But it IS reverse racism.
Why don't we stop worrying about these ridiculous quotas?
Perhaps African-American males are spending more time in their youth with BOOKS instead of BALLS. That MIGHT be why there are fewer of them in sports like baseball. Since the income of African-Americans HAS risen, the source of that rise in income (home ownership, etc.) MIGHT be due to its male memebers getting MORE education, better jobs, etc. That is, those male members MIGHT be spending LESS time playing basketBALL, footBALL and basebaLL.
Is that such a bad thing for African-American males?
I don't think so.
The conclusion is possible in a world without a racist mentality. However, according to this article, somehow MLB is to blame and it must "do something." THAT is a racist mentality.
Hey, if the shoe fits.....
Besides, in beisball African-American males are competing with Hispanic American boys, all gazillion of'em, playing beisball like African-American boys play basketball.
Since MLB recruits, that is OUT-SOURCES, abroad where beisball is almost a religion, no one should be SO surprised about the, er, changing color of beisball.
Uh oh. Williams is just asking for a nasty note from Jesse Jackson reminding him of his responsibility as a leader in the "community" to demand more preferences. ;)
That is flat-out false. There are several black players on the Astros WS roster. While there may not be any African-Americans, there are four African-Dominicans, all of whom look to be to some degree of the Negro race:
L to R: Ezequiel Astacio, Wandy Rodríguez, José Vizcaíno, Willy Taveras
I bet those Dominican Astros must be laughing uproarously at the stupid gringos who think that the fact that they speak Spanish means that they aren't black. Wait until Ezequiel Astacio tells his buddies back home that he apparently became a Caucasian when his plane landed in Houston!
I think the last World Series team without any black players was the 1953 Yankees.
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