Terrible Jackie Robinson Article

[ISUCY11]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/jackie/news/story?id=2828584

I can't believe this is the lead article on ESPN.com. It's basically saying Jackie Robinson would be mad that young black athletes are choosing football and basketball over baseball. So what if there aren't a huge number of black players in Major League Baseball? It happens to be one of the most diverse of the professional sports, with 81 Latino players as of last year, and an increasing amount of Asian players. So many writers and analysts are focusing on evening out uneven ratios instead of celebrating just how far we've come.

 

[CHim]

Yea, I didn't care much for that article either.

 

[CloneFan65]

They had a similar story on SportsCenter (or was it Baseball Tonight?) about how black boys aren't playing baseball. It was really interesting. They focussed on the Bethune Cookman team mentioned in this article:

Even baseball teams at historically black colleges and universities (known as HBCUs) are now often comprised of mostly whites and Hispanics. Bethune-Cookman University, currently the No. 2 ranked HBCU baseball team in the country, plays its home games at Jackie Robinson Ballpark in Daytona Beach, Fla., site of Robinson's first exhibition game in the Dodgers organization. Only seven of Bethune-Cookman's 31 players are black.

Although I thought it was a good story, they tried to somehow connect this to what Jackie Robinson did. I agree with you ISUCY11, they are two separate issues. One black coach in the story even said that because fewer blacks are choosing to play baseball it had made what Jackie Robinson did worthless. My eight-year-old, watching with me, looks up to Jackie Robinson because of what he did and how he did it. Then he hears this and asks me why what he did was worthless. There's a great story here about how young black athletes are choosing basketball and football over baseball and why. But I don't know why they felt it necessary to bring in the "What would Jackie Robinson think?" aspect.

 

[jtd9046]

Did you read the same article? It does not say that at all.

What would Jackie think?

Robinson would heartily approve of the diversity of today's game. It's not as if MLB has resegregated. In 2006, according to the institute, 29.4 percent of big leaguers were Hispanic and 2.4 percent Asian. Add in African-Americans, and major league rosters are more than 40 percent nonwhite.

and

What would Jackie think?

Robinson would also appreciate that the declining number of black players partly reflects growing opportunities in other sports.

 

[jparker22]

Did you read the same article? It does not say that at all.

Quote:
What would Jackie think?

Robinson would heartily approve of the diversity of today's game. It's not as if MLB has resegregated. In 2006, according to the institute, 29.4 percent of big leaguers were Hispanic and 2.4 percent Asian. Add in African-Americans, and major league rosters are more than 40 percent nonwhite.
and


Quote:
What would Jackie think?

Robinson would also appreciate that the declining number of black players partly reflects growing opportunities in other sports.

Read the whole thing again and I think you will see what everyone else does in this article.

 

[ISUCY11]

on 2nd reading, it does hold some valid points, but i still get a feeling this isn't the point Jackie Robinson was trying to get across. The article seems to be saying that we NEED to get more young black men to play baseball, and I don't think that's necessary. Any young kid of any race, should play whatever sport they are passionate about. This is almost saying we need to force black children to play baseball to even things out. I just think this article is fully unnecessary.

In other news, I think it is awesome how so many people will be wearing no. 42 on April 15th. The amount of African-Americans in Major League Baseball (or lack-thereof) should not cheapen the amazing feat accomplished by such a brave man. I can't wait to watch baseball all day long this Saturday!

 

[ISUCY11]

you just get a feeling reading the article that it is trying to cheapen his legacy.

 

[jtd9046]

Read the whole thing again and I think you will see what everyone else does in this article.

Other posters posted while I was writing mine. I was referring to the original post because I thought it was very shallow in commenting that:

It's basically saying Jackie Robinson would be mad that young black athletes are choosing football and basketball over baseball.

I didn't get that feeling at all from the article.

 

[jparker22]

I never understand the reason for getting more players of any race into any game. The opportunities are there now, if someone wants to play they more than likely can. Percentages are small for everyone trying to play pro sports, so goodluck to anyone trying to play, noone should be fasttracked based on race. This article is poor at best.

 

[jtd9046]

you just get a feeling reading the article that it is trying to cheapen his legacy.

I think the article is definately poorly written and jumps all over the place and may hit some ppl wrong... but I don't think it was intended.

 

[puckwarrior]

I remember when my son played in the Waterloo baseball league for 7th, 8th , and 9th graders. There was only one black player in the entire league. Most of the other kids preferred to play basketball in the Gates summer league. The had the opportunity to play baseball, they just didn't want to.