SI Sports Article

[Sark6354201]

Just read this from an SI article:

• In a rare serious All-Star moment, good-guy Phillies reliever Tom Gordon lamented the diminishing number of African-Americans in baseball. There's only one, Vernon Wells, in the starting lineups at the All-Star Game and just five on the two teams, including also Jermaine Dye, Gary Matthews Jr., Ryan Howard and Derek Jeter, who is of mixed race. "It's something we're going to have to find a solution for,'' Gordon said.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/jon_heyman/07/ 11/daily.scoop/1.html

Of course Tom Gordon is a "good-guy". First of all, if we are being PC correct and everyone is equal, why should this have been of concern ("serious moment") and secondly, why is a 'solution' needed?!

This sort of thing makes me disgusted.

 

[SoCalian]

this should be in the sports forum.

 

[Sark6354201]

Well, the discussion that might ensue may bring up non-sports issues. I don't think it really matters what forum it is in.

If some mod thinks otherwise, so be it.

 

[Keshik]

Racism is the last "whites only" environment! No one else gets accused of it.

 

[JerichoHill]

Well, its not like there's no minorities in baseball. Many of baseball's elite are Hispanic.

 

[Keshik]

Well, its not like there's no minorities in baseball. Many of baseball's elite are Hispanic.

The implication is that Tom Gordon is concerned about African Americans only, not minorities in general.

It would be interesting to hear Gordon's idea of why the AA numbers are down and what should be done about it.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Yes, put in an affirmative-action program! Playing baseball should be a matter of race not ability!

To be fair, whether one ends up in the bigs depends on the exposure one had growing up. But it is not like a major crisis if fewer blacks are playing baseball as kids. I mean, by this logic they are "overrepresented" in the NBA, which has few Asians or Hispanics.

 

[IglooDame]

The implication is that Tom Gordon is concerned about African Americans only, not minorities in general.

It would be interesting to hear Gordon's idea of why the AA numbers are down and what should be done about it.

Indeed, why must a solution be found, and why is it a problem in the first place?