Baseball's RBI Program
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Lightly-political commentary follows.
You think James would give you a heads-up when he wanted to talk about life lessons from baseball? :- ) One wag complained, at BJOL, he didn't think it was appropriate to talk about politics on a baseball blog. Bill's terse reply: Who told you this was a baseball blog?
HEH!
To phrase it another way, it ain't like SSI is being funded by Congress with a mandated content mission. Who says that X, Y, or Z should go on in Dr. D's addled mind?
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Apparently RBI means "Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities," or somesuch.
We hear that baseball is 50% white, 40% Latin, 7% "African-American," and 2% Asian. Are the M's over 7%? Dunno. I thought they were over 30%. The Dominican All-Star team here discriminates against the black race?
How do you ensure proper representation among 25 employees ... make sure 40%+ are white, 8% are black, and you have one Asian ... while winning the pennant.
:- )
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Is a black Latin player, "black?" The Urban Dictionary says: "the black race can range from African-American to Polynesian." In 1860 in Georgia ... hey, maybe in 1960 ... a 1/32nd African ancestry meant that you were 'colored.'
It's hard to charge the M's with bias on any level, subconscious or otherwise. Pro sports got past that a long time ago, and I wonder whether the M's can afford to ignore skin color now. The way they ignore hair color.
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As to which sport is selected by inner-city kids at age 8 ... I'm confused as to why SOCIETY has any interest in choosing for them. Supposing that the pro volleyball league is sad that more kids from the 'hood don't play volleyball?
There will always be the next sport, "under-represented" in the 'hood or in Alaska or in Hawaii or in Spokane or some blinkin' place. What is the representation of blacks on USSM or Lookout Landing? Do LL and Fangraphs need to get a little color goin' on, in their writing staffs? Or is it enough that their doors are wide open?
The RBI Program makes a nice statement, and it redistributes a little bit of money into poor areas. That's wonderful. It's especially wonderful if baseball is doing it out of the warmth of its heart, out of human decency, as opposed to doing it for political capital. Or doing it as a token way to alleviate our consciences. A better way to alleviate conscience is to get personally involved, rather than to pressure Corporate America to do it for us by proxy.
You could actually argue that poor black kids in America have the "hope" of the NBA and NFL, and that all Latin black kids have is the "hope" of MLB. And that therefore America should not horn in on the meager territory that comforts those in the third world.
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Some people charged Russell Wilson with not being black enough. According to Charles Barkley, this was coming from blacks, not whites. (Why would Steve Raible complain that Wilson wasn't black enough?)
The idea was that Wilson is too cozied up to The Man, too interested in cooperation rather than individual glory. We argued back and forth, until Earl Thomas put "paid" to the conversation. "He does his job. This stuff is an insult to our race." Crickets followed.
Yes, it is. Barkley characterized it with his typical honesty. Some people think that "black enough" means being an idiot or a thug, says he. If being educated and being a team player means being white, we'd better all mate until we're the same color.
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It's okay by me if MLB wants to recruit inner-city kids to play baseball, and it's okay by me if the USCF wants to recruit inner-city kids to play chess, and it's okay by me if the curling fans want to recruit inner-city kids to play street hockey. But it means absolutely zero to me. As the Dalai Lama said, our job is to go about the business of living peacefully.
And Jay-Z's job is to go about the business of reeling in Melky Cabrera, as opposed to Steven Souza. Because of the 5.7 runs created per game.
Good stuff guys,
Dr. D