A better blogger would have answers. All I have is questions.
For instance, why are sports segregated? If you go back to the 70's there were alot of African-Americans playing baseball. And white guys starting in the NBA. And, as hard as it is to imagine, white running backs.
Now African-Americans don't play baseball and whites can't be found in the NBA. And white running backs? You see them about as often as someone sights the Loch Ness monster.
But is that a bad thing? Something that requires a remedy? Just one of those things?
Start with soccer and work up the sports food chain. Soccer in this country is day care for white kids. Let them go out and run around for a couple of hours until the ritalin kicks in. The rest of the world, everybody plays "the beautiful game". Here it's different. Why is that?
A part of me wants to give African-Americans credit for not taking an interest in soccer. What the world calls "football" reminds me of the punishment drills we used to run in school where you had to sprint to the top of the circle then back, then to mid-court then back, and on until your will to live was gone. Just with a goal at one end.
It could also be a question of space and where people live. Land is not plentiful for recreation in the inner cities. A basketball court fits just about anywhere, a soccer field requires real estate. But if space is the issue why is tennis not a bigger thing? After the Williams sisters, diversity among the big names in tennis is almost non-existent.
NASCAR is great at marketing and has opened up to places and demographics once untouched by the sport. Why no black drivers? Maybe because you have to start young at lower levels of the sport and it is a sport that requires an investment in not just time but financial resources. Can NASCAR bypass that part of the process and come up with an African-American driver on a major team? And would that draw any interest? Don't know, but we may find out eventually.
The NHL? Forgetaboutit. Or maybe not. Canada is becoming more diverse and basketball doesn't provide much competition. Here in America it's a matter, black or white, of having access to the relatively few available youth hockey programs. But hockey, played well, is a sport that combines many of the elements of football. Speed, skill, hitting. If football can be popular outside of white America, maybe within 30 years hockey could catch on. But not if you have to pay $60 for a decent seat.
Ah baseball. So much potential, so much decline, so much effort to change. I'll make what may seem to be an outlandish argument. This is our most integrated sport (and no, it isn't football despite what you may think). If you factor the wide range of foreign born players in, and the lack of stereotypes as to position (see the NFL) it is a remarkably diverse sport.
Here the drop in participation among African-Americans is part voluntary. It was there at one time and has faded. Basketball and football are the destinations of choice for black athletes. The shame is the odds are stacked against ever making a dime in either one. A good athlete has a much better chance of making money, big money, in baseball.
Culture kicks in. The youth culture embraces basketball. It is no accident rap and basketball intersect so often. Baseball is viewed as a "white" game even if no barriers were to exist to keep other groups out. The game itself is slower, equipment expensive, space to play limited. But there is nothing there which can't be overcome and to baseball's credit it is trying.
I have to bring up Barry Bonds. In retrospect, Bonds should have been baseball's Michael Jordan. If Michael Jordan had been surly, arrogant, self-absorbed, and chemically enhanced. To some degree baseball missed the boat in not promoting Bonds the way basketball did Jordan. But Bonds wanted to be the Godfather. RIch, respected, attended to. He wasn't interested in promoting the game. And so an opportunity was lost.
Now basketball. And the stickiest questions. Let's take as an assumption baseball is not diverse enough. That it has programs to reach out to inner cities. Should do more, and is criticized for not doing more.
Then about about round ball? At its highest level, the NBA, it is a reverse image of hockey in terms of diversity. Sure, there a few European white players, even a smattering of bench warmers from the states. But African-Americans own basketball.
If diversity is supposed to matter in other sports, if leagues are supposed to be working on fixing the problem, what is the NBA doing about its situation? Well, nothing, if you're watching the NBA finals. But is that such a bad thing?
Nobody is barring whites from courts. Nobody is keeping them from practicing hard and learning the skills they would need to advance. Whites do, in fact, participate in large numbers at lower levels of the game. So why even ask the question?
Well, there is this. The answer to the question of why America's most popular participant sport isn't beating out the NFL for #1 is simple. The TV demographics say that white America is losing interest in pro basketball. The ratings are way down from even ten years ago, and the demographics have shifted.
Walking out on a limb, some of this is cultural. Whites still watch college ball in record numbers. Is it because there are more white players? Or is it because the NBA is so strongly identified with African-American culture there is some sort of subtle "no whites" sign on the door nobody put there, nobody talks about, but everyone sees?
Another heretical question. Did white America watch Jordan and Magic in numbers which dwarf those of today's NBA ratings because they accepted them as "white" culturally? Is there a difference, even now, in how Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony play in the suburbs?
Have we crossed the Rubicon in basketball? And will the divide get bigger in the future? And, bizarre as this sounds, should the NBA be attempting with white kids what baseball is doing in the inner cities? I'm not at all advocating it, but there is a certain logic.
Finally, the big guy on the block. Football. Ah, you say, the exception to the rule. Maybe yes, maybe no. Quick quiz. Imagine a player at each position and tell me are they black or white. Offensive line, defensive line, linebacker, secondary, tight end, wide receiver, running back, quarterback, kicker?
I bet I know your answers. I'd wager also in twenty years quarterbacks, tight ends, and offensive linemen will be all have different answers. Not because of any genetic differences, simply because historically immigrant groups and the poor in general have embraced athletics as a way up and out. (That and another 30 years of white soccer moms forcing kids to play non-contact sports).
Last question. Does any of this matter? Should we ask the questions or just embrace the differences? Will individual sports become more segregated in the future, or will we look back in 50 years and laugh at it all (which I surely hope will be the case)?
Great points, Dudski. It is very difficult to discuss race in any context; look at Willie Randolph's recent slip-up that now could contribute to his demise with the Mets. I just hope that people of all creeds can talk about this without hurling insults.
As i read this, once, twice, i come to realize im not that better blogger your looking for. But i will take a shot.
1. Marketing, We are fed commercial after commercial telling us who the faces of these games are. Kids are always the tarket of the adds and are also very impressionable. Maybe, in an effort to sell product, they are also steering children down athletic paths with these commercials.
2. When i was a kid, and still to this day in my town, we had two seperate little leagues and every big development had a sand lot with a batting cage, still does, guess what i played?
3. Who cares? Maybe im getting off the issue but as long as the kids are playing sports it leaves less time for drugs and other ills of society that every race is currently dealing with. If their being steared into individual sports, wheather its cultural, the media or where you live and whats available, as long as there playing something.
4. Do we realy want it any other way? Do we need a perfect balance? Why? If hockey is being woven into white culture and basket ball into the black culture, So what ? I thought the American experiment was to bring differennt cultures together, not make them all one new culture? As long as every race gets to make a choice and participate if their talented at their sport, let them choose, it shouldent be a forced issue.
5. Wheres that better blogger??????
Wow...great questions!! Unfortunately, I'm not the professional writer you were asking for. But you definitely have a few points I'd like to comment on.
Being from Florida, football is becomes a forced habit its played so much...with baseball being a strong number 2. I am African American and I happened to be one of the few that wanted to play BOTH. I wanted to be like Reggie Jackson and Walter Payton.
Well, not only are skills a major factor for future athletes, but the facilities and equipment play big parts as well. The effects can go both ways. Some kids like myself, played baseball with tennis balls and sticks...caught the balls with bare hands or gloves that you protect yourself from in the cold weather. Then once you get older and have the means to get better equipment, your skills aren't as good or you have to learn the entire game over again! Crazy.... while others, of course, flourish once able to get the proper equipment and become even better athletes...
Football was always the cheapest sport to play since the only requirement was "any type of ball" and throw in the football rules. No equipment needed to play in the neighborhoods. That made a big difference as a youth determining what sport to pursue.
Also, you mention Barry Bonds. Perfect example. You're right, IF he could have been the face of MLB I think the numbers today would reflect that..but the media was his enemy and along with a few other players it may have cost us a lot more black MLB players. There are a LOT of Deion Sanders and Bo Jacksons out there (especially Florida) but there was n
cont'd... there was no african american icon to follow in baseball. Football was always played year round while baseball has its spring/summer timeframe and that's it. Playing football more means you become better at it and enjoy it more and that's why football is the dominant sport in Florida. (in my opinion) Even with the peewee leagues/youth baseball programs going on every year, you had to be a dedicated athlete to play baseball or you just weren't interested because most of your neighborhood was playing football...
dudski
It goes back to the attitude of the country that was carried over into the realms of sports. If you can't see it then when it's as clear as night and day.
The military was segregated but yet the soldiers bled red .
Now we're supposedly more enlightened but yet there are still some remnants of it, that's still constant within the realms of sports. It's just that it's not highlighted. It's the dirty little secret that's best laid beneath the carpet. Where the dust can gather and settle and that's the way that many would want it to remain.
I think the only thing you've failed to specifically mention, yet hinted at, is the generational factor.
Often, these changes are difficult to see because they may have taken root ten, fifteen or twenty years ago.
For example, in Tampa, you couldn't find a Rays fan. But now that they've been around for a few years, and that they're finally decent, we have a generation of kids growing up as Rays fans because they never associated with another team.
I don't see how you come up with the idea that soccer is daycare for white kids. That is the silliest thing I have ever read.
My son and daughter in law have to take my youngest grandson to soccer practice a couple of times a week.
It is a haaale to get him there, several of the mothers take turns picking up some of the kids and taking them there. On her days, she has to take off work early. Fortunally she has a job where she can arrange this. Don't know what parents who can't take off from work do. I imagine they have to hire a babysitter to do so. On days when he has no practice, he can just walk home from school where his older sister can keep an eye on him until they get home.
They stay with him during practice as do most of the parents. Practice lasts an hour. Then there are the games, usually on Saturday morning. The whole family goes to the games. They have to go out of their way to arrange for him to play. It would a whole lot easier to just discourage him from playing which is what I imagine a lot of parents do.
BYU produces really good black, white and Polynesian RBs...
Luke Staley won the Doak Walker Award a few years back and was doomed in the NFL due to injuries, not lack of talent.
Now they have a non-Mormon at the "Y" named JJ DiLuigi...He might be special. White kid from Cali. Not that it matters too much, but just to say...
America is producing more soccer talent than ever, from all ethnicities.
And there is a constant infusion of white talent in the NBA. Of course, half of those are European, but there are great black Europeans coming over, too.
I call that assimilation. I love it.
Anyway, thanks for the compelling topic.
Last edited by edclinchsaint on May 27th at 8:30 AM.
It is a credit to parents who go out of their way to make it possible for their kids to play any organized sport. In a lot of the newer neighborhoods, there are no kids' sports venues within walking distances. They have to be driven. It is a shame that the old neighborhood ball parks are no longer available to kids. Sandlot baseball is a thing of the past in most places.
I seem to agree with the B&O. It's not sports that is segregated, it's the market. In business school that was called segmentation.
Of course, you need to target a segment that has relatively very little disposable income, a paucity of education, either through history or culture, and make $100+ shoes a necessity.
I think the same works for brands of cigarettes or booze in the larger market.
