Apparently there are no American-born black players on the roster of either World Series team. My question: why or how is that news?
- Thread starter ThunderCat98
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Thanks for posting. I'm not watching now. Will sit back in my BLM tshirt and watch bowling instead.
It's interesting but not exactly mind blowing. Now had you told me there weren't any Cuban players, might be a different story.
I don't know if I'm turning into Oldie or what, but I have no idea what you just typed out here.
It's very interesting, and absolutely should be news.
Why?
Because there has been a cultural shift in baseball in America. Youth baseball has become an expensive suburban sport, with all the travel teams and such. It's not for the poors. The travel teams are where it's at for kids to get better and play against better talent.
Now, this is not any different from some other sports. Soccer, softball, volleyball, etc. But those sports are not "the national pastime". So it is noteworthy. Remember when the 79 Pirates were like damn near all black guys? The sport has changed. And it's probably not for the better, not if you want the best AMERICAN athletes playing in the bigs.
Basketball and football are now far more popular with the urban kids. Football, the emphasis is still on school teams. Sure you have the camps, and they can be pricey, but if you are a badass on the high school team you are getting offers. Basketball, sure there are travel teams, but I 100% assure you the shoe companies have long paid for talented kids to do that shit (a main reason I support NIL is because of the fvcking shoe companies, might as well be open about it).
Now, we can argue about if this is a systemic racism thing...because of wealth racial disparities. And there is truth in that it is. I prefer to look at it as a cultural thing, which IMO does not make it less newsworthy.
Why?
Because there has been a cultural shift in baseball in America. Youth baseball has become an expensive suburban sport, with all the travel teams and such. It's not for the poors. The travel teams are where it's at for kids to get better and play against better talent.
Now, this is not any different from some other sports. Soccer, softball, volleyball, etc. But those sports are not "the national pastime". So it is noteworthy. Remember when the 79 Pirates were like damn near all black guys? The sport has changed. And it's probably not for the better, not if you want the best AMERICAN athletes playing in the bigs.
Basketball and football are now far more popular with the urban kids. Football, the emphasis is still on school teams. Sure you have the camps, and they can be pricey, but if you are a badass on the high school team you are getting offers. Basketball, sure there are travel teams, but I 100% assure you the shoe companies have long paid for talented kids to do that shit (a main reason I support NIL is because of the fvcking shoe companies, might as well be open about it).
Now, we can argue about if this is a systemic racism thing...because of wealth racial disparities. And there is truth in that it is. I prefer to look at it as a cultural thing, which IMO does not make it less newsworthy.
Not everything that gets an article pushed out has to be a big deal. It is interesting. And it’s not necessarily because anybody is racist, and it’s not necessarily even a problem, but it’s not bad to take note of it and consider the possible reasons why.
The day people stop talking about race in manners such as this will be a great day for all of us.
First black to do this, first latino to do that. Black History Month. I doubt most of the colored folk even want that sh*t.
Morgan Freeman was right, you know. Watch his 60 minute interview with Mike Wallace from over 20 years back.
First black to do this, first latino to do that. Black History Month. I doubt most of the colored folk even want that sh*t.
Morgan Freeman was right, you know. Watch his 60 minute interview with Mike Wallace from over 20 years back.
Travel ball killed the days of a good athlete playing 2 or 3 sports and being able to pick up their glove and bat come spring. THat is if they want to be highly competitive.
If you are going to be really good at baseball, you are going to likely play it all year or most of the year. Takes some dollars to do it and a good support structure and lots of time.
Football if you are big fast dude, you can learn to do that in high school in some cases.
Plus, there are many players from Latin America now, Cuba, etc.
I think Raoul is correct on this one. Travel ball changed a lot.
If you are going to be really good at baseball, you are going to likely play it all year or most of the year. Takes some dollars to do it and a good support structure and lots of time.
Football if you are big fast dude, you can learn to do that in high school in some cases.
Plus, there are many players from Latin America now, Cuba, etc.
I think Raoul is correct on this one. Travel ball changed a lot.
That travel ball is a racket. Dated a woman about 12 years back who had a daughter playing travel league volleyball. Took all her money travelling and staying all over the Midwest, gone pretty much every weekend, and I never got any snatch. Bad deal all the way around.
Agreed. And I’ve heard it’s led to a lot more injuries for kids. Instead of doing different stuff during the year (basketball, baseball, football all use different joints and muscles differently) now they’re overdoing the same thing all year. It’s a problem.
Travel ball is the devil. Coaches are getting rich. Parents are going broke kids are getting hurt. One of my coworkers has a kid playing travel hockey. They go all over the country every other weekend.
dr andrews and many other icons of sports medicine has come out against specializing so young.
dr andrews and many other icons of sports medicine has come out against specializing so young.
Come to think of it, I don’t recall ever seeing any professional Black bowlers. Racist!!
I agree with the travel ball comments. I do have sympathy for a parent of an exceptional young athlete…you want them to excel and the inertia is in the direction of getting him or her in a travel program. I could see myself getting roped into that.
?Fortunately? my kids are very average in sports so we haven’t had to make this decision…
But my kid showed up to his first baseball practice a few years ago with just a glove. I figured coach would have a bag of helmets and a few bats. Turns out every kid has his own bat and helmet and special bag for gear. My kid looked like some poverty welfare kid there. Crazy to think what families hard up on money have to shell out just to make their kid feel normal at city rec league . Of course we got him the gear but it’s so much different now. I played “all stars” and never owned a bat or a helmet of my own.
?Fortunately? my kids are very average in sports so we haven’t had to make this decision…
But my kid showed up to his first baseball practice a few years ago with just a glove. I figured coach would have a bag of helmets and a few bats. Turns out every kid has his own bat and helmet and special bag for gear. My kid looked like some poverty welfare kid there. Crazy to think what families hard up on money have to shell out just to make their kid feel normal at city rec league . Of course we got him the gear but it’s so much different now. I played “all stars” and never owned a bat or a helmet of my own.
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Baseball is one of the more ridiculous sports in that regard.
Equipment wise yes.
Travel distance it seems soccer in our area is nuts. By age 9-10 the Rec leagues are full of nearly special needs kids, average kids are playing “travel” and really good kids are on insane travel (Nashville one weekend, Atlanta the next, then Cincinnati, then Birmingham, then Raleigh, etc).
Yep. I remember a few years ago there was a highly recruited soccer player in our area. Female. I don't think she even played on a high school team.
Yup.
Even on middle school teams many kids don’t practice with the team. They just show up for certain games . Nuts to me.
Speaking of women's soccer, I know a kid graduating this year that's interested in playing at Marshall that can't get the coaching staff to even talk to her, despite the fact that she's a high-school and club player with great stats and accomplishments and plays in a position of need. College athletic recruitment is weird.
Because bowling has racist past. Seriously. While the PBA has never banned blacks, the ABC (which governed men's bowling until 2005) banned blacks until 1950. Segregation of bowling alleys continued well into the 60s...look up the Orangeburg Massacre, the events of which stemmed from protesting the local bowling alley not allowing blacks.
So yeah, you've got a sport where the good ones usually have fathers who were good, who had fathers or uncles who were good, etc. And not a lot of blacks had those influences because of segregation.
I was a pretty good competitive bowler as a junior (me and my friend/teammate were Kentucky Junior Doubles champions one year), and I saw VERY few black kids bowling, precisely because of that past. Of course I had no idea at that age why.
I was just kidding around, but I figured it was something like that. I remember as a kid going to an old bowling alley that was located under street level and still used pin boys to set the pins. It was the 100% white.
The RB for my town's high school has 2800 yards rushing this season and not a single offer at any level...like, WTF, surely the kid can play D2 lol.
A couple of my uncles were pin boys. One turned out to be a pretty damn good bowler. He and my father were why I bowled, and why I got good. So yeah, that's how blacks kids ended up not bowling.
This kid has several offers, and would probably even consider walking on at Marshall, but can't get a sniff.🤷♀️
I dealt with that as a track coach. Kids would want to miss meets to go play in a travel soccer game.. I didn't play that.
Baseball is king in Hurricane. There are two leagues plus several travel ball teams. It’s insane. It’s all dad ball too, which I refuse to be a part of. If my son really wanted to, I’d do it. But as decent of a ball player as he is, he just has no desire to put tons of effort into it. I’m halfway glad of that, but the other half would like for me to see him just get to enamored with sports because I was. Oh well…he’s his own person and I’m ok with that. We Play in one baseball league and one basketball league and that’s just fine. He does want to play football next year, so we will see how that goes.
Just FYI, since my take had a reference to bowling, which led to further discussion about bowling, I want to offer up a full disclosure. My reference to bowling was strategically designed.
You sly dog. Tricking us into multi level intellectual discussions.
