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On the surface, he made some comments that sounded racist or even confusing. His choice of words cold have been better but the one part that I think sounded the most ridiculous was when he said that [clearly] black Dominican players are not black, but rather, 'Dominican.'
To the observer looking at players like Vladimir Guerrero, Hanley Ramirez, "Big Pappi, or even Manny Ramirez they see black players so why is Torii Hunter saying they are not black? People unfamiliar with the history of the Dominican Republic or unfamiliar with Dominican society might be surprised to find out that much of the population does NOT consider themselves black despite the evidence on their skin. Was Torri Hunter aware of this by being around Dominican players?
Read this to get a better understanding of a few things:
Race and ethnicity really start to break down when put under the microscope. This is more about culture, and money of course
Quote:
Originally Posted by Torii Hunter
"As African-American players, we have a theory that baseball can go get an imitator and pass them off as us. It's like they had to get some kind of dark faces, so they go to the Dominican or Venezuela because you can get them cheaper. It's like, 'Why should I get this kid from the South Side of Chicago and have Scott Boras represent him and pay him $5 million when you can get a Dominican guy for a bag of chips?' ... I'm telling you, it's sad," he said.
Gary Sheffield made similar comments a few years ago. In his opinion, these players looked like him, but didn't "talk back", and baseball found that attractive. His point being (I believe) that baseball could control the Dominican players because of the language barrier and cultural differences that often exists, while African-American players didn't take any garbage anymore. There have been instances where at least some of the Dominican players were told they could not go on the DL even though they were seriously injured. Guys like Sheffield would have told their organizations where to go, and they wouldn't have been shy about doing it in public.
All things considered, American baseball is not doing enough to make the sport attractive to young black kids as they enter athletics for the first time in their lives. I am not trying to start anything here when I say that, but they are now losing the second consecutive generation of black children to other sports. I would imagine that some of the black players in MLB do feel very isolated these days in that respect.
From my perspective being both Black and Hispanic I understood what Tori was saying, but I was also appauled by his examples of what Spanish Players do to get into the majors. It comes down to dollar and cents and the interest of young Black baseball players in America.
Tori knows that the Black youth in America, like Basketball and Football more than Baseball. Baseball players in the Carribean countries like DR and PR love baseball more. So you will have more Hispanic players that strive to be professional baseball players!
Tori sounds like a layed off American worker blaming Mexicans because of lack of jobs. The real culprit is American businesses sending our jobs abroad for cheaper labor. Thats not true with Hispanic baseball players. Manny is making like 20 million per year Tori.
the first one is very valid - just because they look like a black american, doesn't mean they are a black american ..... so when you are looking at the makeup of major league rosters you can't say that they are doing a good job at getting black kids into baseball because there are a bunch of people from the carribean and south america
there is an economic side as well - i think it goes more for scouting and promotion and to a degree cost of acquisition
major league clubs are spending millions of dollars opening up academies in these "latin" areas - they are trying to find and develop young, cheap talent - they can sign these kids young and really shape their careers .... given how developmental contracts are structured, arbitration years, minor league options and everything that goes into it if they find a good player from this area they can get a lot of years out of them
however, it's also possible to get a lot of good years for a good cost for american kids coming from HS or college .... it may be harder to find that overlooked star though due to exposure
what Torii completely missed was the cultural aspects - baseball is the prime sport (or #2) in most of these countries - it's a big part of the sporting fabric
baseball has a lot of competition in the US and isn't considered cool like it once was ...... when I was in MN there were kids who aspired to be Torii Hunter and were inspired by watching him play - most were white kids who played baseball ........ a lot of the black kids were sucked into football and basketball dreaming of running the game like KG or tearing up the field like randy moss
baseball could do a better job promoting and developing the game in the american black communities as opposed to the "latin" countries ..... however for the reward to their dollar they get a better return on the later
it's not like there is a barrier to black players in MLB or a lack of sporting outlets for talented black youth
It is quite ironic that there are probably more African-descended baseball players in MLB than ever in our history, but most are from non-North American heritage. Before there were lots of Latin players in the league, players such as Roberto Clemente, Tony Oliva, Minnie Minoso, Rod Carew, Juan Marichal, and other Latinos from the Caribbean, Central and South America were simply called black. The fact that all of these black men from Spanish-speaking countries, including the Netherlands Antilles, are now called Latino and not "black" is in itself a change. Of course, African Americans around the game are not pleased, because they are more and more culturally isolated every day. It is obvious that baseball is no longer making an impact in the African American population. And that's a shame. It will be even more interesting in 10-20 years when players from Africa begin coming into MLB or at least the minor league system. If you really want to see someone isolated, look up the story of Gift Ngoepe, the first black South African signed to a MLB team (well, he's with the Pirates). Who treats him the worst? The Dominican and other Latino players, who openly taunt him with jungle noises. A couple of earlier posters touched on something about Dominican culture; although the DR is the most biologically and culturally African country in Latin America, many Dominicans have internalized the white supremacist self-hate of its culture and refuse to identify with or even acknowledge the obvious.
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