Hank Aaron sets the record straight
April 17, 2007 at 9:13 am by David Lee Simmons in SportsI’m still kicking myself for not having watched ESPN’s Sunday broadcast between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, which served as Major League Baseball’s chance to honor the achievements of Jackie Robinson. It was Robinson, as most of us already know, who broke the color barrier 50 years ago this month.
While the Dodgers on the field wore Robinson’s No. 42 on their uniforms, ESPN trotted out a number of baseball greats into the broadcast booth with announcers Jon Miller and Joe Morgan — including Atlanta’s own Hank Aaron, who played in both the Negro League and the majors with Robinson.
Salon sports columnist King Kaufman has a great take on Aaron’s reminiscences, which included the following:
Aaron talked about a game in his first year in the big leagues when he was playing second base and Robinson scored from third on a pop-up that Aaron caught just beyond the infield. He also compared his swing with Robinson’s, talking about how he derived his power from his wrists while Robinson had more of a sweeping swing.
And he recalled a little newspaper gamesmanship Robinson engaged in, threatening to talk about the Milwaukee Braves’ “playboy” ways just before a crucial series, which Aaron said made the Braves nervous and threw them off their game.
There’s been a ton of debate as to why African-American participation in baseball has waned in recent years. Why do you think that’s happened?
April 17th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
There are a number of explanations as to why African American participation in baseball has waned in recent years. One of them is marketing…baseball does not do a good enough job of marketing its young stars. And shoe companies can make more money marketing basketball players to youths than they can baseball players. Another is affordability. It’s much less expensive to maintain basketball courts than baseball diamonds and the equipment to play basketball or football (essentially the ball) is less expensive than the equipment for baseball. In addition, there are fewer college scholarships available in baseball that basketball or football. One other reason is probably the most obvious…baseball is just a harder sport to play than the other sports. Typically it takes year and years of playing little league baseball to be able to hone your skills as a baseball player and being a great athlete is simply not enough. If you look at most of the young African American stars in the game today, most of them are products of wealthier families who could afford to have their sons on little league teams and equipment.
There are some efforts being made. Baseball fully realizes there’s a problem, which is usually half the battle. One exciting initiative is the RBI (reviving baseball in the inner-cities) program. Through RBI, baseball has started to set up baseball academies inner-cities where athletes who show a proficiency in baseball can attend class half of the day and play baseball half of the day. It keeps kids in school who otherwise may not be and teaches them baseball skills. This program is a fantastic start and may help turn the tide in the declining number of African American players in the game.
April 17th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Economics is a major factor, as you pointed out, but it doesn’t explain why there are over three times as many Lationos as Blacks. Those Latinos usually come from impoverished parts of Central America and the Caribbean.
I think it is mostly cultural and related to the heroes that young kids see.
I agree about the skill level in baseball, but be careful that someone doesn’t twist your words to mean “black guys can’t cut it”. That isn’t what you meant and most will unerstand that, btu the sensitivity meter is running very high these days.
April 18th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Frank DeFord had an interesting take on all things baseball in this morning’s NPR commentary.
Here’s the link… and don’t forget the influx of Asians in the league, too.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9642211