While watching the Jackie Robinson tribute game here in Los Angeles hosted by the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium I was lucky enough to hear Hank Aaron make a statement about the current trend in professional baseball to scout players form the Dominican Republic and the decline of the number of African Americans in baseball. He said, and I quote, ” There must be some kinda conspiracy at work here. The number of African American players is now at 8 %. It’s just criminal.”

Aside from how incredibly inflammatory I found that particular remark, I also found it incredibly stupid. Is it possible that Mr. Aaron is naive enough to believe that nonsense? Or is he just that stupid?

Has it ever occurred to old Hank that perhaps there just aren’t that many black kids going out for baseball anymore? After all, baseball tries to project a clean wholesome image. It is after all the “Great American Pastime.” Simply put, it just ain’t ghetto enough for black people.

Statistically the numbers don’t lie. Baseball comes in third place in black households, behind football and basketball. The last recorded number I could find from The Nielsen Media Research Group said that only 23% of black households watch baseball. Less then one quarter of black households even watch the sport. If you compare that to basketball, 78 % watch. Football 73 %. So there is no conspiracy at work here. It just not a big sport anymore with the black population here in America.

I would like to ask Hank Aaron and Gary Sheffield (Detroit Tigers) a question. What kind of conspiracy is at work in Basketball? Or for that matter Football? I don’t know the numbers, but looking right now at my beloved Los Angeles Lakers roster, I see that eleven players are black. One is Ukrainian and three are white? Is there a conspiracy at work in the NBA? Or could it be that blacks are simply better at basketball than whites? Is that a bigoted statement? NO!!!

One more question for these two knuckle heads. Why does color matter in the first place. I will quote Dr. Martin Luther King here when he said ” I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Another favorite passage of mine from the very same speech ” I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.”

I guess Mr. Sheffield and Mr. Aaron are so blinded by their own bigotry that they forgot those words. Character. Something these two idiots don’t seem to possess. JD