Will non-white free agents shun the Sox?/ Ken Rosenthal is a moron

[rondohondo]

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8670984/Will-non-white-free-agents-shun-the-Sox

Sorry if this was already posted or discussed in another post, I didn't see anything about it in the Red Sox section. This is a complete BS article. The Red Sox are the most successful team of this decade, year in and year out they are competing for a title. It was clear why they traded Manny for Bay, Manny was acting like a punk getting into fights with teammates and people behind the scene in the Red Sox organization, he also called out the owners .

    Big Papi is one of the most celebrated and loved players to ever wear a Red Sox uniform and for the past 15 years they have gone after the best available free agents no matter what their skin color was. To me this is one of the dumbest articles I have read in a long time. Bringing up that Bill Russell said that Boston is a racist town almost 50 years ago has nothing to do with Boston today. You are going to hear Racist people anywhere in the United States, but to take a few morons words and put it on the whole city of Boston is foolish. Rosenthal lost any respect I ever had for him with this garbage article.

[wdleehi]

In baseball, it doesn't matter.  Whoever offers the most money gets the player.

[Redz]

Minors maybe

Lester, Pedroia, Youk, Bucholtz, Papelbon, Ellsbury, Lowrie, Masterson, Bowden, Anderson, Bard

They haven't developing a hell of a lot of "non-white" talent, but at the major league level I just don't see the case.  And I don't think you can dispute the talent they've been attracting regardless of color, race, etc...

[BudweiserCeltic]

I wonder if "white" talent free-agents will shun the Celtics.

[rondohondo]

I wonder if "white" talent free-agents will shun the Celtics.

lol it doesn't look like it , we did signs that all-star Scal...

[xmuscularghandix]

I wonder if "white" talent free-agents will shun the Celtics.

lol it doesn't look like it , we did signs that all-star Scal...

are you trying to tell me that SCALABRINE is white? get out of here.

[Toine43]

What was Rosenthal trying to get at here? Basically, he went through all of Theo's moves and labeled each one as a "white player" move, meanwhile explaining why each of the moves made baseball sense.

Here's an example:

The Ramirez blockbuster was not about race; it was about money.

Then why does he bother bringing up race?


I've gone to dozens of professional sporting events in Boston, listened to countless hours of Boston sports talk radio, and I've never once heard the "racial comments" that Matthews Jr. claims he's heard. Well, there was the Dennis and Callahan incident, but you can't blame that on the fans. Anyway, the issue of racism in Boston has come up numerous times on this blog stemming from various articles and commentaries, and I have to say I just don't get it. Boston has an ugly history of racism, but the key word there is history. As I'm sure Rosenthal knows himself, and even hinted at the end of the article, the issue of racism in Boston sports is simply no longer relevant. So I'm not exactly sure why he wrote the article - maybe I'm not seeing something that others see, but I'm pretty sure that C.C. Sabathia doesn't care about Boston's "Caucasian roster." He just wants to make bank.

[xmuscularghandix]

its like the whole article he points out little things about race, then states that its just a coincidence, then just goes on about the race thing. what could have possibly made him wanna write this article. i hate this guy.

[Roy Hobbs]

Of the Red Sox's current players in the ALCS, the only African- American is outfielder Coco Crisp.

The only Latin Americans are designated hitter David Ortiz, who is from the Dominican Republic, and utility infielder Alex Cora and reliever Javier Lopez, both of whom are from Puerto Rico.

Center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury is Native American. Pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima are from Japan. Reliever Manny Delcarmen is of Dominican descent, and injured third baseman Mike Lowell was born to Cuban parents in Puerto Rico.

That's 9 players.  The other 16 players are white.  That constitutes 64%.  The major league average is 59.5% white (link.)  I don't see that as a terribly big deal.  Add one more minority player, and we're right at the average.

[Cman]

In baseball, it doesn't matter.  Whoever offers the most money gets the player.

Not just baseball -- sports as a whole. 
Look at the recent Euro raid on NBA players.

[blazingarrow]

I'm not a Sox fan, but this is not something I'm willing to bash them on.

I hate the Fenway "Faithful" (also known as the Fenway Fairweather)

But this conversation just does not carry too much weight.

You have to assume that the franchise itself is selecting and going after the best talent possible, to the best of their ability. They have a few World Series rings to back that up.

You can question a small portion of the fanbase itself. After the Kramer incident, I can't count how many WEEI callers actually tried to call in and defend what Michael Richards did.

However, you can't pin that on the Red Sox or Red Sox fans, just a small and vocal group of morons.

Believe me, I would love to bash the Red Sox, but this does not feel right.

[nickagneta]

Just another case of someone playing the race card againt Boston to drum up some interest in an article or book. I think considering the diverse make up of this team the notion is absurd.

[Michael Anthony]

Race can be a challenging and explosive topic, glad to see it handled here with maturity and class.

Rosenthal's article is junk.

[cavman]

Tied in with this, a Tampa sports radio knucklehead was trying to say that the best baseball was in the 50's-60's before expansion and the "watering down of talent".  He neglects the fact that since then there has been a huge influx of talent from the Dominican Republic, Venezuala, Japan, Mexico etc.  Far more foreign players, and more American players of Hispanic descent.

The Red Sox have invest in the Caribbean- with an Academy in the DR to develop talent there.

As Bryant's book indicates, racism under Tom Yawkey's ownership in the 40's-60's was one reason the Red Sox floundered so much in those decades.  But the new ownership group can't be reasonably accused of "racism".  Nonsense to me.  Some teams have a below average % of white players.  Are they racist against whites?
Nor can baseball be held responsible for societal changes.  Fewer African-Americans playing baseball in school, AAU etc.  There are many reasons for this- but to decry it as racism would be reductionistic as well as simplistic.  You have to look at the info behind the stats.  Maybe some free agents won't choose Boston because of their fears of racism (like Bonds), that also skews the data so there is an apparent self-fulfilling prophecy.  Make sense? 
Boston is racist => I won't go there => fewer minority athletes => ergo Boston must be racist.  Circular, and false, reasoning.
Rosenthal and Cowherd and the other clueless people need to stop perpetuating this garbage.  If they Sox refuse to contact a great player because of his race, or get rid of a guy because of his race- THEN we have a story.  Now all we have is hype.

[KevinGamble]

What was Rosenthal trying to get at here? Basically, he went through all of Theo's moves and labeled each one as a "white player" move, meanwhile explaining why each of the moves made baseball sense.

Here's an example:

The Ramirez blockbuster was not about race; it was about money.

Then why does he bother bringing up race?


I've gone to dozens of professional sporting events in Boston, listened to countless hours of Boston sports talk radio, and I've never once heard the "racial comments" that Matthews Jr. claims he's heard. Well, there was the Dennis and Callahan incident, but you can't blame that on the fans. Anyway, the issue of racism in Boston has come up numerous times on this blog stemming from various articles and commentaries, and I have to say I just don't get it. Boston has an ugly history of racism, but the key word there is history. As I'm sure Rosenthal knows himself, and even hinted at the end of the article, the issue of racism in Boston sports is simply no longer relevant. So I'm not exactly sure why he wrote the article - maybe I'm not seeing something that others see, but I'm pretty sure that C.C. Sabathia doesn't care about Boston's "Caucasian roster." He just wants to make bank.

I think you make some valid points here for sure, but perhaps we fundamentally disagree on one thing.  I think that racism is always relevant for as long as people are spending energy avoiding the subject.  It is a curse on our nation and will remain so until there is free and open dialogue from everyone on what happened and what we can do today to continue the healing process. 

There is nothing wrong with the logic that because 'you' do not contribute to racism in any way (and may even shoot down jokes you hear at work or in a party) that you don't have to talk about it as a social ill or do anything about it.  I just feel like we are responsible for facing the past to create a better future, even if the worst offenses happened to our grandparents' generation. 

Just a thought, but back to the article, it sucks and is garbage and they could have tried some interviewing.  Seriously, pick up the phone and ask people what racism has been and is like today?  Ask how do we fix this?  What is the next step to integration?

unassuming conformists?