tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post117675017282276492..comments2023-11-03T09:36:22.100-04:00Comments on In From the Cold: The Heirs of Jackie RobinsonGeorge Smileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07049707648660651119noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-1176901570093581632007-04-18T09:06:00.000-04:002007-04-18T09:06:00.000-04:00Maybe it's really a racist plan to punish blacks b...Maybe it's really a racist plan to punish blacks by coercing them into playing and watching the most tedious of our sports. Our capitalist elites will then benefit as the witless and numbed proles will enlist <I>en masse</I> for hellish, tedious jobs manning assembly lines. In the final insult, our hegemonic world order will be propped up as these new zombies enlist for real in the blood-for-oil endless murder of the Bush War Machine. Indeed!DWPittellihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02809996471988559374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-1176831274820267772007-04-17T13:34:00.000-04:002007-04-17T13:34:00.000-04:00Irey--I agree with your observations, and if I mig...Irey--I agree with your observations, and if I might add another. I believe one factor in the "disappearance" of baseball from the inner city is the disintegration of the African-American family over the past 40 years. Perhaps more than any other sport, baseball is "best" learned as part of a team, in leagues that are organized and run by adults. <BR/><BR/>Unfortunately, our so-called war on poverty made men superfluous among the urban poor. We've had two generations of young men (many of them black) who have been raised in single-parent households, largely run by women. Those women have been hard-pressed to keep their families together, and (quite obviously) few of them had the time or athletic skills to organize youth baseball leagues. IMO, the lack of a male presence in many African-American families is one reason that black kids don't play baseball.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12712369389411084085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-1176820500972522412007-04-17T10:35:00.000-04:002007-04-17T10:35:00.000-04:00Might it be increased urbanization, the concentrat...Might it be increased urbanization, the concentration of blacks in urban enviroments, the economics of real estate and it's impact on open spaces. Baketball requires a hoop and a few square feet. After the hoop all that is required is one ball. Have you priced a baseball glove lately? And the only way to get enough people together to play a game of baseball is to form a gang. Also baseball skills are things taught by fathers to sons- it starts with catch. I won't elaborate on that. Basketball is the sports equivalent of T.V.- the kids go off and occupy themselves without much parental or adult involvement.<BR/>Those of my generation who put our new mitts under our mattress to break them in, who got mitts, balls and bats for Christmas or birthdays and had friends similarly equipped spent our summers playing baseball as well as the other sports. Go to an urban environment and you will find teenaged boys who have never had or even put ona mitt. If you see enough grass for a diamond and field think strip mall or housing development. Jackie Robinson broke the barriers of all sports he just happenedto be wqearing a baseball uniform when he did it. The disappearance of blacks from baseball is probably not a sinister plot but just lack of exposure to the wonders and pleasures of the slow game.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00251580057570723302noreply@blogger.com