Wednesday, May 20, 2015


Where did all the black fans and baseball players go? Of course it is racist but it is also easy to pick out a group of people based upon their looks. We observe Jackie Robinson day every year in baseball but as we did, there were fewer black people in the stands and on the field than ever.  Is black fathers not bringing their kids to the game? Is it too expensive to go to a game? Where are the new young black athletes?  Blacks and baseball don’t seem to connect anymore and there are startling numbers to prove that statement. According to the Maris Poll for Sports Communication, compared to white respondents, blacks are half than likely to say their community follows baseball and half as likely to say that it is the most popular sport in their town.  What happened and when? Some of my favorite baseball players were black guys.

Why is a black baseball fan an endangered species? When I was growing up the Mets were the thing and in 1986 we won it all with black players like Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, Kevin Mitchell and Mookie Wilson. Back then 20% of all Major Leaguers were black guys and back then you could talk to a black guy about last night’s game. Now a black guy says,” What’s   a Met?”  Last year the San Francisco Giants won it all without any black guys on the team.  The closest thing to a person of color in the stands was their mascot which is a bi-racial seal. The team the Giants had to beat, the Saint Lewis Cardinals had no black players either. Where did they all go? We all know that black people are the best athletes in the world.

Saint Lewis is full of black people. You tell me none of them play baseball anymore? The crowds attending games are more than 90% white. Baseball is now about 2 black guys per team and those 2 pore black guys have to pretend they like listening to country music too. Stillman College founded in 1876, is one of the oldest black colleges in America. Every kid there is black except for the 36 white guys on their baseball team? Where did they find 36 white guys at Stillman anyway? Ok they have one black kid and 35 white guys.  At Howard University known as the Harvard of black colleges, they just cancelled the baseball team altogether. They still have volleyball, tennis and even Lacrosse but no baseball.  What is America without baseball and all that work Jackie Robinson did to get black guys in the Major Leagues?

Why? Some people say it is because of money and that baseball is too expensive. Bull crap!  People from the tiny poor third world country called the Dominican Republic play it all the time in the dirt with sticks for bats, diapers for gloves and Haitians for bases and they are great players. You can’t tell me blacks can’t afford baseball when they are all buying Jordan sneakers for $150 per sneaker.   The problem must be the game. You got the white haired white guy announcers and the old organ music.  Every new stadium is being built in an old style to remind you of the 1920’s.  The game is too slow and boring. Last year the Mets played a half inning with no hits and it took more than 20 minutes. This year they already had a 12 hour game that went into another day.

Baseball has a boring attitude. When a guy scores a touchdown in the end zone in football the guy slams the ball down and does something wacky to celebrate. When you score a home run just run the bases as slow and nonchalant as you can in boring baseball.  I blame it all on Fitty Cent when he couldn’t even throw a decent first pitch to a game. Embarrassing! We don’t really need baseball but baseball needs good black players again.  Magic Johnson is a part owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and he was a black basketball player and he don’t even have a black team. Little League participation has dropped by 20% since 1995. The World Series viewership is down 50%.  Of the people that watch baseball on TV 5 out of 6 are white and their average age is 53 years old.


Baseball is dying. If only you can find a black father taking his kid to a park and tossing the ball around, maybe there would be hope for blacks in the sport again.  First try to find a black father taking responsibility for their bare assed kids roaming the streets in the middle of the night. The police look to arrest the mother and are lucky to find the 80 year old big Mama raising the kids.  Maybe big Mama should learn how to play the game. Ok, by now you are totally enrages and can’t believe these racist remarks but I must admit that I stole most of them from Chris Rock a comic and Bryant Gumbel a sports reporter who do they happen to be black. Do they play baseball?

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