Home Run Derby

Gary Sheffield opened his yapper the other day and told us that the reason there’s fewer African-Americans in Baseball is because of the influx of Latin American players who teams keep signing … and then Torii Hunter waxed on the subject and agreed with Sheff that African-Americans would be out of baseball in ten years.

HRD chimed in a couple days ago that it’s simple economics … Let’s find out what other bloggers are saying about it …

The esteemed Hardball Times agrees with Home Run Derby that it’s about the money …

The money trail leads to the answer to Sheffield’s concerns about the increasing ratio of Latin American to African-American in MLB in 2007.

One of my favorite blogs, Our Book of Scrap pined that the Devil Rays and other teams just wasted a bunch of draft picks if Sheffield/Hunter are right …

Boy, I bet the Devil Rays wish they had that kind of information when they drafted David Price with the #1 overall pick yesterday. Figure three years in the minors and this guy is only going to have a six-year Major League career

But my favorite thought on the matter comes from the Drunk Jays Fans …

Considering that, give or take a few million, there is roughly the same amount of African Americans in the U.S.A. as there are Canadians in North America; we have uncovered an even more sinister plot.

MLB hates Canadians more than it hates African Americans.

Both the Hardball Times and Drunk Jays Fans also delve into the diminishing role of Baseball in African-American culture.

Go check them out.

One of the best things about the movie Major League was Bob Uecker’s role as Harry Doyle, the world-weary and sarcastic radio announcer for the Cleveland Indians.

Some of Harry’s quotes from the movie have become part of baseball’s lexicon…

Juuust a bit outside …

Don’t worry, nobody is listening anyway.

Personally, I think we got hosed on that call.

Well, the PA announcer for the minor league Reno Silver Sox played that last one after a close call at first base the other night.

So the umpires threw him out of the park and shut down the Public Address system. His follow-up punishment (handed down by the Golden Baseball League) was to be the 3rd base umpire for an inning at a game on Friday June 8th.

Dave Stewart was right. Umpires are getting too full of themselves.

Even in the minor leagues.

The Chicago White Sox used the 1,102nd overall pick in the 36th round of the 2007 MLB Draft to select Oney Guillen.

Let me guess … your first reaction is “who the Hell is Oney Guillen?”

He’s a sophomore from North Park University in Chicago. He hit .190 and committed 23 errors in 47 games as a second baseman for the Thunder Bay Border Cats (Ontario, Canada) of the North Woods League in 2006 (the NWL is a collegiate summer league).

Still not ringing a bell? Those stats not looking particularly draft-worthy?

He’s White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen’s son.
Kiss Kiss.