Jimmy Rollins says he never dreamed of winning an MVP award. To him, the Gold Glove always was the goal because it's emblematic of being the best player at your position. So, when the MVP call came yesterday from BBWAA secretary-treasurer Jack O'Connell, Rollins didn't know what to say. He didn't know how to react.As usual, he found the right words.
During a conference call with BBWAA members, Rollins was asked about the potential impact of his MVP honor and C.C. Sabathia's AL Cy Young Award on young black athletes, and he answered eloquently and passionately. He mentioned Jackie Robinson, Curt Flood and the Negro Leagues. He talked about his mother, Gigi, a competitive fast-pitch softball player. He referred to the long battle African-Americans faced just to gain access to playing in the majors.
And, then, he lamented the precipitous drop in the number of African-Americans playing today.
According to an annual report released in March by the University of Central Florida, 100 major leaguers -- only 8.4 percent of the total player pool -- in 2006 were African-American, the lowest percentage in nearly two decades. In April, when I was writing a story on this subject, Michael Bourn told me he was one of the only African-Americans on his high school baseball team in Houston. During spring training, Sabathia called it "a crisis." Rollins agrees.
"I know how black kids feel about baseball," he said. "I really do. They don't see it as street-credible. It's not about being street-credible. It's about doing something that you love. I hope that one day they say, 'I want to be Cy Young or I want to be MVP.'
"Black kids aren't playing. In the Bay Area, where I'm from, they're still playing. But across the board, they aren't playing. We fought hard, in a long battle, to play baseball. For these numbers to be going down they way they are, it would be a sad thing if one day we were basically, quote unquote, extinct from this game."
So, what do you think? Can Rollins, Sabathia, Ryan Howard, Dontrelle Willis, Prince Fielder and others help make baseball cool again for African-American youth?
3 comments:
I actually talked about this with a black guy in my dorm who is from Philly. He said that there are basically no baseball fields around where he was, and that nobody around him played baseball, all of his friends played basketball. While in contrast, I am from a suburb outside of Philly and there are 4 different parks in my little town that have baseball diamonds, one spot has 4 diamonds in the one park...
until sprite starts to market to black people and baseball gets cheaper, nope. but thats hard to say. football has a ton of black people in it, and thats an expensive sport that requires a big field, too. i don't really know how to save it for black kids. its just not marketed towards them.
If the Phils brass would read this post, they might be inclined to use their MVP's to market towards the African-American fan base of which, historically speaking, they havent had the greatest relationship with.
Just ask Curt Flood, whose so famous now for being the father of Free Agency because of the Phillies attitudes toward Richie Allen.
What the Phils brass now has the opportunity to do is one-up MLB as a whole. If they can find a way to market Rollins and Howard towards the african-american fanbase within the city, and bring those fans to the ballpark (or vice-versa) they will be attempting to accomplish something that MLB is generally regarded as not, and if they succeed then will have set precedent for a successful formula to raise those low participation percentages.
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