Has Baseball Betrayed Jackie Robinson?

[mac]

Do I support the Thomas Edison scholarship for the deaf? Yeah. That's disability exclusive, shouldn't they include EVERY PERSON who hears just for the sake of postierity?

Deaf people, like poor people, have special needs. IMO, need-based scholarship funds are the way to go.

Do I think the Sons of Athena scholarship for Greek Students should remain for Greek students and Greek Students alone? Sure...

Why? Are you Greek? If not, why would you care? Personally, I would not support this, or any other sort of scholarship fund that selects winners based on their race or ethnicity.

Mac, you don't know jack about Scholarships, it would seem. If you want to imply hypocrisy and reverse racism about everything, I will simply assume you're a very bitter individual who feels left out and wants to blame a boogie man of society. In this case you've staked those African-Americans. "Look what we did for THEM and look what they are doing to US!"

I suppose it would be rather absurd to start lecturing the site administrator on community standards, and debating the topic not the poster, so I'll just leave that paragraph alone.

[LongtimeBravesFan]

Originally Posted by mac195

I suppose you would also support a "Ty Cobb Organization," which hands out scholarships only to white people?

Ty Cobb Educational Foundation

[mac]

Originally Posted by LongtimeBravesFan

Ty Cobb Educational Foundation

Heh. There really is a Ty Cobb scholarship fund, started by the man himself 50 years ago. Nice find, LBF. And, of course, it doesn't give scholarships only to white people. That would be racist.

elegibility

[Nimajneb]

I have no particular problem with a private organization arranging scholarships to accomodate any particular social disadvantage. As far as I can tell, from my experience, is that there is no problem whatsoever with there being too much funding of this type...

If you have a problem with it, mac, you could always organize or contribute to one of the scholarship funds decided solely on merit, and more power to you in doing so...

In the meantime, the Robinson Organization is doing a very, very good thing.

[mac]

I have no particular problem with a private organization arranging scholarships to accomodate any particular social disadvantage. As far as I can tell, from my experience, is that there is no problem whatsoever with there being too much funding of this type...

If you have a problem with it, mac...

Huh? I just finished saying that I approve of scholarships for disadvantaged people.

In the meantime, the Robinson Organization is doing a very, very good thing.

If you consider racialism a good thing, then I suppose so.

[BMW]

Umm, it doesn't say anything about being a Minority Race Student. It says minority student. That would include religious minorities, women, and all sorts of other groups of people. They were very vaugue with the wording of it, for a reason so they can extend the scholarship to reach more people. Is there a picture somewhere on this site of ALL the people that won the scholarship? I didn't find one...but you would be incorrect to just assume that everyone on the list is an african american based on their name alone...and even if you were to do that, here are some names that I just don't think are african americans...

Shelly-Ann Lawes
Steven Reneau
Dean Johnson
Shaun McCoy
Nhu-Y Ngo
Michael Fuentes
Dominic Rivera
Chinomnso Nnodum
Christopher Anderson
David Holliday
Albert Jimenez
Bieta Andemariam
Jay Anderson
Zachary Graham
Maikah Jusu
Carolyn Wright
Christopher Dean
Ogechi Echebiri
Sayam Ibrahim
Jason Haas
Michael Eaton
Tiffany Smith
Kareem Ayodeji
Courtney Thomas
Ashley Hill
Sandra Sanchez
Aaron Garcia
Xiaojun Jiang
Jessica Ogugbadero
Inez Jones
Lauren Hunt
John Hardy
Randolph Pena-Medina
Shruti Rangnekar
May Kong LeePalao
Boramy Kim
Corey Matthews
Babtunde Akinloye
Lauren Nwankpa
Christian Potts
Danielle Smith
Nassar Mufdi Ruiz
Chinedum Nnodum
Danielle McKinley
Kristin Jones
Melissa Johnson
Laurie Duncan
Ryan Duffy
Akpanoluo Etteh
Adeyemi Owolewa
Jessican Lane
Nicholas Green
Akil Foluke
Emefa Abotsi
Chelsea Lane
Lauren Foreman
Oyinade Aderibigbe
Adedayo Aderibigbe
Yetunde Tyehimba

Now I didn't actually see a picture, but you can't convince me that this is strictly a list of African Americans with these names on it. Have you considered that you have to APPLY for this scholarship, and maybe the reason that there aren't that many hispanic or asian ki9ds on the list is that they don't apply for it as often as say an African American kid would, being Jackie Robinson was an Afircan American. So while the list may have a higher percentage of African Americans, it probably has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with this organization being racist against everyone except African American students.

[mac]

Umm, it doesn't say anything about being a Minority Race Student. It says minority student. That would include religious minorities, women, and all sorts of other groups of people.

There is no reason to think they are talking about anything other than race when they use the word "minority".

Now I didn't actually see a picture, but you can't convince me that this is strictly a list of African Americans with these names on it.

True enough, some of the names are African African.

It would be interesting to see a group picture of their scholarship winners.

So while the list may have a higher percentage of African Americans, it probably has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with this organization being racist against everyone except African American students.

"Racist" may be too strong a word, but it's pretty clear that the organization excludes white people by race.

[Steve Avery]

I'm sorry, but I think this story is the most overrated non-story circulating at present. Let's consider some FACTS that nobody seems to want to deal with.

1) Blacks make up about 13 percent of the American population. They make up about eight percent of the baseball players. Of course, the counter argument is that they also make up 77 percent of the NBA and 69 percent of NFL players. And how many white heavyweight boxing champions can you name?

There are very few two-sport athletes at the highest level, none that I can think of at present. Obviously if you play one sport well it usually rules you out for another one.

What causes this? And why is it a story about how few blacks are playing baseball? To be a good (even great) baseball player takes a skill that has been called the hardest thing to do: hit a baseball. Football has a number of positions that can depend on speed, toughness, or even wits. Basketball tends to have faster guys in all positions but unlike baseball, you can sit out for ten minutes and go back in.

A person - regardless of color - who cannot hit a baseball is not going to be around the bigs for very long unless he's a whiz-bang pitcher.

2) Here's how baseball has 'betrayed' Robinson: he's the only player who had his number retired on ALL teams. Not even Babe Ruth, whose stats far exceed those of Robinson and who is given credit for reviving the game in a down time, was the recipient of such a gift.

3) He's 'saluted' with a day. Is there a Babe Ruth day or a Hank Aaron day out there? If there's any one black player who has been betrayed, it seems to me that it's Hank Aaron.

4) Jackie Robinson gets a ton of credit for what in my view is hardly something that he personally deserves credit for: he was the first black guy to play the game. First of all, some white guys had to decide to let him play - whatever their motivations. Secondly, if it hadn't been Robinson it would have been somebody else like Larry Doby, Monte Irvin, or Don Newcombe. It was going to happen anyway - just a question of when.

I don't say that to take credit away from the grace and dignity Robinson showed. But it's sort of like giving the rooster credit for the sunrise. He put up with a lot of crap that nobody should and played well. But he gets a day and a number retired simply for being the first one.

5) I've been watching baseball since 1977. Let's consider the MVP awards in both leagues:

National League

18 of 31 awards went to blacks (note: in 1979 there was a tie between Keith Hernandez and Willie Stargell) - not bad when you consider they have only made up about 20 percent and less of the players during that time.

American League

This is more interesting in light of the huge number of foreigners both Hispanic and Japanese that have won it - it's about 1/3 white, 1/3 black, and 1/3 'other' (no racism intended but including Rodriguez and Suzuki in the 'other' category).

Okay, someone is probably going to argue the NL stats are a little slanted because one black guy (Barry Bonds) won seven of the NL awards. But if there's so much racism and betrayal out there - particularly in light of the high level of suspicion - Bonds would only have maybe three.

And then look at the controversy regarding Bonds' 1991 runner-up - the guy who beat him was also black. 1988 was unique because the Mets have five viable candidates who split the vote and gave it to Gibson.

CONCLUSION

This is a non-story. I don't think statistics are a good measure of whether baseball is betraying Robinson anyway. I mean, over half of the population is female - and when's the last time you saw a woman professional baseball player in the major leagues?

[BMW]

Originally Posted by mac195

There is no reason to think they are talking about anything other than race when they use the word "minority".

True enough, some of the names are African African.

It would be interesting to see a group picture of their scholarship winners.


"Racist" may be too strong a word, but it's pretty clear that the organization excludes white people by race.

I am willing to bet money there are white people who win this scholarship. They may not be prevalent, but there are some.

[Nat]

Great posting, Mr Avery. I also see the lack of AA players in the league as much to do about nothing...
Leave it up to mac to make an MLB topic into another rant about those poor, oppressed white people in America.