Torii Hunter, John Rocker and the Passing of America's Past Time: Baseball

Mighty Casey wouldn't recognize Mudville anymore. If the mighty poetic slugger could be brought to opening day in 2010, nary a soul would see him strike out (baseball attendance is woeful).

America's past time is dead. It is isn't dying, it is dead. Baseball is a sport behind NFL football, NASCAR, college football, college basketball (around NCAA Tournament time), Mixed Marital Arts and World Wrestling Entertainment (just look at the numbers WWE gets for Monday Night Raw) in popularity.

The only sport baseball beats in popularity in America is the WNBA, but never doubt the power of 200,000 lesbians to pull their beloved sport ahead of "America's game". Certainly, Tiger Woods is more newsworthy than baseball.

Ratings are woefully, attendance -as stated - is dropping faster than Lehman Brothers and Bear Sterns stock and the media is doing everything possible to drum up interest in a game that not even the magical appearance of Shoeless Joe Jackson could resurrect.

Baseball is no longer a game played by Americans (for that matter, the nation of America is no longer a nation of Americans, as the realization that half of all births are non-white).

Black people have long since abandoned the game of baseball for the greener pastures of the NBA and the NFL (or, if that fails, prison or Federal Government employment).

As the first pitch of 2010 prepares to be thrown, Los Angeles Angels outfielder Torri Hunter has decided to prematurely fling his bat directly into the delicate - unmentionable - glass foundation of the racial dynamics of the MLB. Bemoaning the lack of Black players in the league, Hunter told USA Today:

Fans look down from their seats onto the baseball field, see dark-colored skin and might assume they are African-American players.

But increasingly, the players instead hail from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico or Venezuela.

"People see dark faces out there, and the perception is that they're African American," Los Angeles Angels center fielder Torii Hunter says. "They're not us. They're impostors.

"Even people I know come up and say, 'Hey, what color is Vladimir Guerrero? Is he a black player?' I say, 'Come on, he's Dominican. He's not black.' "

Baseball's African-American population is 8%, compared with 28% for foreign players on last year's opening-day rosters.

"As African-American players, we have a theory that baseball can go get an imitator and pass them off as us," Hunter says. "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."

Hunter is correct in his assessment of MLB's dilemma: there is a major correlation between plummeting ratings, poor attendance and the lack of America born (Black or white) born players in the league. Sadly, Hunter's truthful admission of baseballs new color problem has been greeted with jeers instead of cheers:

Los Angeles center fielder Torii Hunter was at first startled, and then angered Wednesday when comments he made about diversity in baseball were construed as potentially racist.

Hunter, who found himself in a firestorm of online criticism about comments he made in a USA TODAY roundtable discussion, says he meant no harm or disrespect to Latin American players.

Hunter, in discussing the dearth of African-American players in baseball, referred to Latin players as "imposters." He was trying to make the distinction between Latin players and American-born black players with the seven other members of the roundtable...

"I'm not going to apologize," Hunter said in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon. "I told the truth. I'm sorry if I used the wrong choice of words...

In the USA TODAY story, Hunter said: "People see dark faces out there, and the perception is that they're African-American. They're not us. They're impostors. Even people I know come up and say: 'Hey, what color is Vladimir Guerrero? Is he a black player?' I say, 'Come on, he's Dominican. He's not black.' ...

"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?'

The African-American population in baseball is only about 8%, compared to 28% of foreign players on last year's opening-day rosters. Yet, although MLB is trying to increase the number of black players in baseball, the Latin population continues to grow.

"I think scouts look for talent," Guillen says, "no matter where you come from. If you have talent, they're going to sign you. I think it's not just African-American players, because I think they'd rather play basketball or football than play baseball. In our country, we play baseball.

"Here you can play basketball, you can be another athlete, you can do so many things when you have the opportunity. And that's why there's not many (African American) players out there. That's the reason I think Major League Baseball opened the RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) thing, to show more underprivileged kids how to play the game. ...

"The reason there are so many Latin American players here is because I think they earn it. You look around at who are the superstars in baseball right now, and who are the people making the most money, you're going to see a lot of Latin American players' names out there. I keep saying in 10 more years, American people are going to need a visa to play this game because we're going to take over."

Read the last quote by Ozzie Guillen again and let it sink in. Americans (the historic population as reflected in the 1964 population - 90 percent white, 10 percent Black... almost 0 Hispanics), will need a VISA to play baseball because it will be majority Hispanic!

Guillen could have easily said Americans will need a VISA to visit many American cities that have become unrecognizable to white and Black people, but instead look like an extension of Mexico, but the baseball analogy is apt.

If this happens, baseball will be irrelevant and will have difficulty being shown on any channel save Telemundo.

Here is a racial breakdown of MLB players by position.

But these comments from Hunter were made - oddly enough - just barely a decade after everyone's whipping boy John Rocker accurately gave his infamous interview with Sports Illustrated that landed him in diversity training:

JOHN ROCKER has opinions, and there's no way to sugarcoat them. They are politically incorrect, to say the least, and he likes to express them.
On ever playing for a New York team: "I would retire first. It's the most hectic, nerve-racking city. Imagine having to take the [Number] 7 train to the ballpark, looking like you're [riding through] Beirut next to some kid with purple hair next to some queer with AIDS right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It's depressing."

On New York City itself: "The biggest thing I don't like about New York are the foreigners. I'm not a very big fan of foreigners. You can walk an entire block in Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English. Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything up there. How the hell did they get in this country?"

But Rocker reserves a special place in his heart for Mets fans, whom he began bad-mouthing during the regular season when the Braves were battling the Mets for the National League East title eventually won by Atlanta. Although the Braves beat the Mets in a grueling six-game Championship Series (and thus reached the World Series, in which they were swept by the other New York team, the Yankees), Rocker has not allowed himself to let go of the bitterness. You try to find different topics -- hunting, women, family -- but it always comes back to three cold nights at Shea, when bottles whizzed past his head, beer was dumped on his girlfriend and 2,007 sexual positions involving him and a sheep were suggested...

ROCKER BEMOANS the fact that he is not more intelligent, and though his father says John graduated with a 3.5 GPA from Presbyterian Day High in Macon, Ga., in 1993, sometimes it's hard to argue. In passing, he calls an overweight black teammate "a fat monkey." Asked if he feels any bond with New York Knicks guard Latrell Sprewell, notorious for choking coach P.J. Carlesimo two years ago, Rocker lets out a snarl of disgust. "That guy should've been arrested, and instead he's playing basketball," he says. "Why do you think that is? Do you think if he was Keith Van Horn -- if he was white -- they'd let him back? No way." Rocker is rarely tongue-tied when it comes to bashing those of a race or sexual orientation different from his. "I'm not a racist or prejudiced person," he says with apparent conviction. "But certain people bother me."

John Rocker was suspended, underwent diversity training for his thought crime and never recovered from the stigma of being baseball's version of Pat Buchanan. What happened to Rocker? Well, he started a campaign with the simple slogan of "Speak English" something that many on the rosters of MLB 30+ teams can't do:

The mission statement of the “Speak English” campaign is to encourage people to promote and support the sustainment of the American heritage and the American culture. Many people over many generations have invested blood, sweat, and tears into creating an America that affords all of us opportunities that are not available anywhere else in the world. Out of respect to past generations, the least we can do as the present generation is to promote the longevity of the culture that our forefathers have created.

Baseball is done. Stick a fork in the game. Mighty Casey isn't even bothering to put on his batting helmet anymore.

Not even James Earl Jones wonderful soliloquy from Field of Dreams could shock people into caring about a game that is now alien and foreign to them. Torri Hunter is correct: baseball is no longer a Black man's game. John Rocker was right, too, but he took the brunt of criticism and psychotherapy because in Black Run America (BRA), only white people can be racist.

Even when whites are a pathetic minority amid the non-white plurality, all Black failures (and Hispanic) will be placed on the shoulders of a people still longing for the return of limited government and Tea Parties.

Black players are becoming as rare in baseball as a white tailback or corner back in football, and some clubs won't even have Black players when the 2010 season starts:

The percentage of African-American players increased to 10.2 percent in 2008, according to the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports -- up from an 8.2 percent in '07, the lowest level in the more than 20 years of the study.

Still, a glance at several projected Opening Day rosters reveals some disturbing snapshots:

• The Cardinals, the team of Bob Gibson and Lou Brock, will be without an African-American.

• The Braves, the team of Hank Aaron, will feature an African-American only if rookie outfielder Jason Heyward and/or non-roster infielder Joe Thurston make the club.

• The Mets' only African-American will be outfielder Gary Matthews Jr., a player they recently acquired in a trade.

• The Tigers could be without an African-American if they fail to keep outfielder Austin Jackson or left-hander Dontrelle Willis.

• The White Sox and Marlins, teams with African-American general managers, will each have only one African-American player -- outfielder Juan Pierre for the White Sox and outfielder Cameron Maybin for the Marlins.

These teams are not racist; they are looking for the best players. As Red Sox outfielder Mike Cameron, an African-American, recently told me, "Different teams go through stages where they have more or less African-American players on their roster. With only about nine percent in the league, it's going to happen."

But therein lies the problem.

One point from the USA Today roundtable deserves more attention than Hunter's comments: The low number of baseball scholarships -- 11.7 per season -- permitted for each Division I team.

The scholarship limit in football is 85. In basketball, it's 13 -- and a basketball team uses only five players at a time.

On the other hand, football and basketball are revenue-producing sports and baseball is not.

"The colleges have corrupted baseball because they've taken away the scholarships," agent Scott Boras said during the roundtable. "They've taken away America's pastime from the grassroots level of homes."

The trend is just the opposite on the international market, where teams sign large numbers of Latin players inexpensively because such players are not subject to the amateur draft.

Stuff Black People Don't Like applauds Torii Hunter for taking a stand for America's game, although it is 10 years too late. John Rocker put up the only true fight, because the changing demographics of America spelled the doom for the game long before baseball scouts started targeting cheap Latin ballplayers.

A perfect example of the changing face of America can be found in baseball movies produced by Hollywood studios. Watch Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, Major League 1 and 2 (not the third film) Rookie of the Year, The Sandlot, Mr. 3000, For the Love of the Game. The team dynamics transition from majority white with a few Black players to majority Hispanic with a precious white players.

"The one constant through all the years, has been baseball"... it was said once. No longer. The past is being erased slowly, and replaced with the future of embodied by Ozzie Guillen.

You won't just need a VISA to be an American-born ballplayer in the major leagues... you'll need a VISA to visit many major America cities.

Pre-Obama America wasn't such a bad place after all, was it?

Torii Hunter is a proud Black man. He shouldn't have to apologize for what he said, because he is correct in his diagnosis of the deplorable state of baseball.

Equally, John Rocker is a proud white man. He was right about everything he said in his interview and about the changing face of America. He shouldn't apologize either.

Black History Month Heroes - Mr. Mertle in "The Sandlot"

Baseball. That quintessentially American game that once enraptured the entire nation when it was known as "America's pastime" is now but a shadow of its former self.

Like the washed up prize fighter in Raging Bull, baseball is a sport that has out-lived its usefulness and limps along on the glories of yesteryear and the memories of past great players in the bygone era of Pre-Obama America.

Don Henley sang a 1980s classic Boys of Summer, where he promises that "his love will still be strong, after the boys of summer have gone". SBPDL believes this song is of little relevance anymore, for the boys of summer are long gone as baseball fades into the realm of obscurity and of minor societal significance.

Ratings have been slumping for years and the deep disconnect fans have with the current crop of players competing on the diamond fail to rouse the same sentiments of loyalty that baseball players once commanded:

Baseball’s national networks felt the effects of a baseball season with only one significant pennant race and a dearth of compelling story lines, as Fox and ESPN saw their ratings decline.

Fox saw its Saturday afternoon numbers drop 10 percent to a 1.8 rating/2.74 million viewers. Fox ended its regular season Oct. 2 with a 1.2/1.7 million average for a Saturday afternoon schedule that had just one game with postseason implications. That’s 48 percent off 2008’s numbers, when the last weekend of the regular season featured three games that had playoff implications for Fox, drawing a 2.3 rating.

Baseball, we were told through the Black muse in Field of Dreams, is the one constant throughout American history... baseball has marked the time. The game had the ability to transcend generational gaps between family members, as grandfather-father-and son could attend a contest and quietly understand that the event unfolding before their eyes was a reflection of simpler times and the ultimate manifestation of innocence and youthful ambition.

Baseball is no longer these things, as the old stadiums where moments were immortalized are being torn down in much the same way Pre-Obama America is continually denigrated in the hopes that the current product being peddled won't be unfairly compared to the product it replaced (from an article written 12 years ago in The Weekly Standard):

This neglect by the media is nothing more than a reflection of popular taste. Fifty years ago, the three top sports in America were baseball, boxing, and horse racing. Horse racing has been displaced by legalized gambling and casinos. Boxing has descended to the point where the average person can't name the heavyweight champ. And baseball is living on its memories. In fact, the NBC Game of the Week for many years used to begin with the slogan, "The Tradition is Here, the Memories are Waiting." The game had not yet begun and it was already slotted for memory. Adrift in the age of TV, overtaken by football and basketball, baseball lives in, and off, nostalgia.

Remembrance of days past occurs when one steps on the baseball diamond, especially the fields of youth where dreams of heroic feats once filled young minds. Hitting the home run on a 3-2 pitch in the ninth inning to become the hero by winning the World Series was a fantasy for young men more universal then the desire date the most super of super models.

Striking out on those dreams occurs for most, but those dreams linger hauntingly in the stillness of every spring morning when young men gather to toss the ball around and take batting practice, with dreams of future glory filling their heads.

Rarely is it that we understand the importance of certain moments that will have lasting impact and one day be considered the most significant seconds, minutes, hours of our lives. They pass into memory with a joy reserved for lovers, but our recalled with melancholy fondness much later.

That was the glory of baseball, a sport which has seen better days and aspires for a return of proper importance.

One movie showcases the glory that is baseball and the games immutable bond of dreams and friendship with young men and it's appropriately named The Sandlot:

The film is told through the perspective of Scott Smalls, who is reminiscing on his first summer in Los Angeles. In 1962, Smalls moves with his mother and stepfather to a new neighborhood, and struggles to make new friends. One afternoon, he decides to follow a group of neighborhood boys, and watches them play an improvised game of baseball at a small field, which they call the “sandlot.” Smalls is reluctant to join their game because he fears he will be ridiculed on account of his inexperience.

Nevertheless, he chooses to play with them, but fails to catch a simple fly ball and properly throw the ball back to his infielders. All the other players, except for Benny Rodriguez, begin to jeer Smalls for committing defensive miscues, prompting him to leave the sandlot in embarrassment.

Benny, who is the best player in the neighborhood, shields Smalls from the insults of his peers, and invites him to rejoin their game. He proceeds to give Smalls advice and helps him earn the respect of the other players. In time, Smalls is accepted and becomes an integral part of the team.

As Smalls continues to play with the team, he begins to learn many of the customs of the sandlot, while experiencing many misadventures with his new friends. He learns that players avoid hitting home runs over the sandlot’s fences, as the property beyond them is guarded by a ferocious dog, called “the beast.”

One day, Benny hits a ball so hard, that he ruptures its leather, causing the balls entrails to come out. The group cannot afford to buy another baseball, and is forced to retire for the afternoon. However, Smalls runs to his step-father’s trophy room, and steals a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth, in hopes of preserving the game. The team is impressed with Smalls’ gesture, and allows him to have the first at bat with the ball. He proceeds to hit the ball out of the sandlot, but is shortly enveloped by fear once he realizes that he has lost his stepfather’s ball. The situation is further worsened when Smalls realizes that the ball was autographed by Babe Ruth, and is almost irreplaceable.

Smalls and his friends begin engineering elaborate plans to recover the ball from the beast. After five failed rescue attempts, Smalls prepares to accept his fate. Around the same time, Benny has an enlightening dream, where he is visited by Babe Ruth, who encourages him to run into the sandlot, and use his speed to recover the ball and escape.

Ruth leaves Benny with the words, “Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.” Benny rallies his friends the following morning at the sandlot, and prepares to recover Smalls’ baseball. Using his PF Flyers, he steals the ball from the Beast, and successfully manages to elude the dog as it chases him through town. At the end of the race, the Beast is injured after a fence collapses on it.

Smalls feels responsible for the ordeal, and helps the Beast (whose real name is revealed to be "Hercules") escape the rubble. Benny and Smalls then decide to tell the dog’s owner, Mr. Mertle (James Earl Jones), about the ordeal. They eventually learn that Mertle was a professional baseball player in 1927 and was a friend of Babe Ruth. Mertle, whose career was shortened after he was blinded by a stray pitch, agrees to give Smalls a ball signed by Murderers' Row – several of the best Yankee hitters in the late 1920s. In exchange, the boys are to visit Mertle once a week to talk about baseball. Smalls proceeds to give his stepfather the ball that Mertle gave him.

"Your killing me Smalls"... these words, spoken Hamilton "Ham"Porter as expresses incredulity over Scott Smalls lack of baseball acumen (he though Babe Ruth was a girl) showcase the bond baseball once had with young American males in Pre-Obama America.

Remember, in 1962 - when the film is set - the United States was 90 percent white and 9 percent Black, a far cry from the racial breakdown of the population now.

Baseball, a game rarely played by Black people now despite the prodigious efforts by Major League Baseball (MLB) to get inner city youth active in a game they care little for, can trace its decline in importance to the erosion of the white majority.

Black people were once denied the opportunity to play in the MLB, a great travesty of injustice that they are shockingly on a path to replicate as Black players in baseball are close to being a mere 7 percent of all players.

It wasn't until 1947 that Black people broke the color barrier, a feat performed by Jackie Robinson and one so important that Black History Month is routinely awash in reproducing this moment for a genuine lack of any other milestones or inventions worthy of celebrating.

Guilt is a powerful weapon and Black History Month instills an untold amount of guilt into the minds of impressionable white children who find the lack of significant Black contributions to world and American history puzzling, but with the knowledge of historic white oppression continually beat into them from Crusading White Pedagogues they become programmed and equipped to understand unpleasant realities through the eyes of future Disingenuous White Liberals.

The Sandlot refuses to wallow in the muck of white guilt and dares to tarnish the legacy of Jackie Robinson - a moment so powerful that his N0. 42 jersey has been retired by every MLB team - by casting James Earl Jones as the owner of Beast and the wise, erudite recluse who once played professional baseball.

However, if he played in 1927 then he would have been the first Black person to play professional baseball. Although stricken with blindness due to an errant baseball, the character of Mr. Mertle was a heroic Black baseball figure that predated Jackie Robinson by nearly a score.

His very presence in this beloved children's film has potentially damaged the obvious myth of Jackie Robinson, and thus, the No. 42 jersey is of no need for further retirement and should be eligible to adorn the back of one player from every team this 2010 season.

Stuff Black People Don't Like invites Mr. Mertle to the batters box of fictional Black History Month, for his inclusion in the film The Sandlot has the ability to confuse young people watching that have constantly been told about the inherent evil of whiteness.

Shockingly Mertle is a Black man and he played professional baseball in the roaring 20s. He is the true hero. More interestingly, the film took an actual photo of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx and airbrushed in Mr. Mertle's face on Foxx's (go to 3:29 of the first video to see this for your own eyes!!!)!!!

However, baseball is a game incapable of escaping the glorious memories of yesterday and will always be haunted by what it once represent. Resurrection of Pre-Obama America is impossible and it is becoming increasingly obvious that baseball was wedded to that particular institution.

So goes America, so goes baseball. An immutable bond exists between the two and both find themselves behind the count in the ninth inning, with two outs.

Black History Month Heroes: Terence Mann from "Field of Dreams"

We have stated that the day will come when movies from Pre-Obama America that showcase the close correlation between harmony, peace and happiness with a homogeneous population will result in the banning of thousands of films.

One of those movies will be Field of Dreams, a movie that glorifies baseball and the era of segregation as few films have ever attempted and yet, remains a beloved classic in spite of this faux pas.

Made in 1989, the film centers around Ray Kinsella's quest to find out the meaning of the voices he is hearing that persuade him to erect a baseball field in the middle of his Iowa farm. Played by Kevin Costner, Kinsella displays the "awe-shucks" qualities of Middle American Radicals that are constantly being derided by Disingenuous White Liberals.

Funny, Kinsella is actually a radical flower-child, a byproduct of the 1960s revolutionary movement that saw its true culmination with the coronation of Mein Obama. It could be stated that Kinsella is a DWL, for he was influenced heavily by the writings of Black radical Terence Mann:

The author Terence Mann (James Earl Jones) is fictional but inspired by the life of reclusive author J.D. Salinger. Salinger is the author sought by the main character in the original novel. In 1947, Salinger wrote a story called "A Young Girl In 1941 With No Waist At All", featuring a character named Ray Kinsella. Later, Salinger's most famous work, The Catcher in the Rye, features a minor character named Richard Kinsella, a classmate of the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, who digresses a lot in an "Oral Composition" class. (Richard Kinsella is the name of Ray's twin brother in the original novel.)

Terence Mann - played by the formidable, inimitable James Earl Jones - is a writer of profound importance in the film, for his work was vital to the cultural movement of the 1960s that helped overthrow the boring, WASP establishment and he helped cultivate a a disgust of all things traditional.

His book "The Boat Rocker" was important enough to (seemingly) forever erode the bond of the father-son relationship between the Kinsella's, although that bond would deemed immutable at the films stunning climax:

Ray Kinsella: By the time I was ten, playing baseball got to be like eating vegetables or taking out the garbage. So when I was 14, I started to refuse. Could you believe that? An American boy refusing to play catch with his father.
Terence Mann: Why 14?
Ray Kinsella: That's when I read "The Boat Rocker" by Terence Mann.
Terence Mann: [rolling his eyes] Oh, God.
Ray Kinsella: Never played catch with him again.
Terence Mann: You see? That's the sort of crap people are always trying to lay on me. It's not my fault you wouldn't play catch with your father.

After the movie, credulous people searched in vain for this book, unaware of its fictional status. More importantly, Ray's wife was instrumental in keeping the lily-white Parent Teacher Association (PTA) from banning Mann's work from the curriculum:

Annie Kinsella: Terence Mann was a voice of reason during a time of great madness. Where others were chanting, "Burn, baby burn", he was talking about love and peace and prosperity. He coined the phrase, "Make love, not war". I cherished every one of his books, and I dearly wish he had written some more. And if you experienced even a little bit of the sixties, you would feel the same way, too.
Beulah: [indignantly] I *experienced* the sixties.
Annie Kinsella: No, I think you had two fifties and moved right into the seventies.

Terence Mann was a writer of vast importance. His work transcended race, class and created a revolutionary mindset that paved the way for the dismantling of Pre-Obama America. However, if genius is truly - as F. Scott Fitzgerald stated - the ability to hold to differing opinions at the simultaneously, then Mann is an intellectual giant.

Field of Dreams ends up being a film about ghosts returning to play baseball and these ghost(s) are all of the same race as Patrick Swayze from the film of the same name, hearkening back to the time when baseball was played only by white players. Not one baseball player who plays on the field in Iowa is Black, but when Mann arrives he is overwhelmed by the grandeur he views.

Though he is a radical and he distanced himself from his past and became a computer programmer, Mann still has a fondness for baseball that can only be personified by the white players that come to Iowa:

[Ray explains Terence Mann's "pain" to Annie]
Ray Kinsella: The man wrote the best books of his generation. And he was a pioneer of the Civil Rights and the anti-war movement. I mean, he made the cover of Newsweek. He knew everybody. He did everything. And he helped shape his time. I mean, the guy hung out with The Beatles! But in the end, it wasn't enough. What he missed was baseball.
[Annie looks at Ray's notes]
Annie Kinsella: Oh, my God!
Ray Kinsella: What?
Annie Kinsella: As a small boy, he had a bat named Rosebud.

Mann hated the world of Pre-Obama America, so he worked overtime to defeat it and bring a revolution where the mere thought of the United States of the 1950s would induce throat spasms and be a revolting task. His writing helped bring about the debilitating and fatal virus known as white guilt, that leaves its victims in a state of mental paralysis.

Yet, Mann simultaneously loves baseball and in Field of Dreams, that sport is played by a plethora of white males only. He even gets to explain the close connection that baseball plays with America in one of the films more poignant scenes:

Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon.

They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.

Mann is included in our look at fictional Black History Month, although begrudgingly. Though he is an icon of the Civil Rights movement and appears to be a Black writer of infinitely more esteem and notoriety - albeit in fiction - than a solid majority of real Black authors, he displays a pronounced admiration and love for baseball. And that baseball is only played by white people.

If, as he states of the game, "It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again," then he is most assuredly talking about Pre-Obama America.

Stuff Black People Don't Like lauds Terence Mann as a hero, a Black writer of unquestioned significance, but he displays an uncanny love of baseball in which only white athletes participate. Obviously, he is a genius.

#235. Playing Baseball

"If you build it, he will come," so spoke the ghost of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson in the classic, Pre-Obama America film "Field of Dreams".

The movie showcases America's pastime - baseball - and the deep connection the sport has with Pre-Obama America; the ritual of playing catch with your father; and the dreams that remain crystallized forever when you step onto the baseball diamond, memories so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces.

For Black people however, the film "Field of Dreams" reminds them of all that they were deprived of when they were denied playing in Major League Baseball and were forced to play in the Negro Leagues.

Also, the game of baseball has completely lost its popularity among young Black people, as Major League Baseball (MLB) find itself with less than nine percent of its players Black people:

"When the Red Sox became the final major league team to integrate in 1959 by signing Pumpsie Green, nearly 1-in-5 major leaguers was black. As recently as 1983, the ratio was better than 1-in-4.

Now the figure is closer to 1-in-12.

A report from the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport found that American or non-Hispanic blacks made up only 8.4 percent of major league rosters in 2006. Whites made up 59.5 percent, Hispanics (a group that includes Americanborn Hispanics, blacks from Spanish-speaking countries and others from Latin America) made up 29.4 percent and Asians 2.4 percent.

The percentage of American blacks was the lowest in 27 years.

Further, American blacks held just three of 30 manager positions, one of 30 general manager positions, and 31 of 519 vice president and senior administration positions. There were no American black CEOs or majority owners.

A list compiled by ESPN. com revealed that 69 out of 750 active players (not including the disabled list) on opening day this year were American blacks. Neither Houston nor Atlanta – cities that are 25 and 61 percent black, respectively – had a single American black."

White people, who make up roughly 66 percent of the United States population, are underrepresented in the major leagues, but Black people, who make up roughly 13 percent of the United States population, are slightly underrepresented (considering how many Black males between the ages of 18-35 are in prison, its amazing that the MLB has even that many Black people).

Recently, the 2005 edition of the Houston Astros made it all the way to the World Series and shockingly they did it without the help any Black people:

"Joe Morgan (Black guy) worries about the face of baseball. Watching the World Series, the Hall of Famer is troubled by what he sees.

His old team, the Houston Astros, is down 2-0 to the Chicago White Sox, but it's not their lineup that concerns Morgan. It's their makeup.

The Astros are the first World Series team in more than a half-century with a roster that doesn't include a single black player.

"Of course, I noticed it. How could you not?" Morgan said while the Astros took batting practice before the opener in Chicago. "But they're not the only ones. There are two or three teams that didn't have any African-American players this year."

Morgan said it's a predicament and a challenge for Major League Baseball. While more players from around the world are making it to the majors -- Japan, Korea, for example -- the number of blacks is declining.

"It's a daunting task to get African-American kids into baseball, and I don't see the trend changing," he said.

The last World Series team without a black player was the 1953 New York Yankees. It wasn't until 1955 -- eight years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947 -- that Elston Howard became the first black in Yankee pinstripes."

The Negro Leagues Major League Baseball ain't, as every effort to attract young Black people to the game are underway with the MLB's Inner-City Initiative, as the growing problem of few Black people on the 25-man rosters for MLB teams is a threat to all that is good about America.

Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Jim Rice and Jackie Robinson are all names that baseball fans know and respect, but recent Black players in baseball haven't conjured up the same images of the Black baseball heroes of the past:

"According to a report from CNNMoney.com, black baseball players total a meager 8 percent of all the leagues players many people involved in baseball have speculated as to why this is so, players and analysts alike. Gary Sheffield of the Detroit Tigers suggests that the rise in the number of Latino players has a direct correlation to the drop in the leagues overall percentage of black players. He was quoted as saying, ... Its about being able to tell Latin players what to do being able to control them ...Where I'm from, you can't control us... So, if you're equally good as this Latin player, guess who's going to get sent home The Twins Tori Hunter also suggested that it makes more economic sense to pay for a Hispanic player that costs 2,000 than a black player that cost 2 million.

This issue perhaps best relates to the perception of black players in the eyes of the media some of the more prominent black baseball players arent always shown in the best light. Barry Bonds is demonized solely on steroid allegations and his unwillingness to oblige the media. Gary Sheffield is often looked upon as a malcontent, simply because hes opinionated. Tori Hunter may have been viewed as culturally insensitive for his shortsighted comments regarding Hispanic players and baseball economics. All of this may have an unintended consequence, as it would appear that the black youth of America could someday be lacking appropriate black male athletes to emulate."

Hmm... Black youth not emulating Black male athletes? As Michael Vick Haters taught us, too late for that idea.

Interestingly, MLB players like Doc Goodin, Daryl Strawberry and Barry Bonds have done wonders for removing from baseball purists minds the lily-white images of the "glory days" of baseball that were depicted in "Field of Dreams", as that movie indicates the only diversity people want on the ball field is of the European variety (there does exist speculation that Babe Ruth was the first great Black home run hitter, but SBPDL will leave that for you to decide).

What are some reasons for the lack of Black people playing baseball? Here is a list:

--As youth programs dried up the past three decades, basketball courts offered an inexpensive substitute. Then the NBA exploded in popularity.

"Dr. J came along, then Magic Johnson and then Michael Jordan. They got icons that transcended the sport," Solomon said. ". . . It's like golf with Tiger Woods. Tiger didn't save golf. But he made it cool."

--Despite initiatives such as the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program and the Urban Youth Academy in Compton, Calif., many believe Major League Baseball still has not done enough to penetrate America's inner cities. Hank Aaron called on baseball to do more in June to increase participation.

--Baseball's marketing lags behind the NFL and NBA, especially when it comes to exposing its young, black stars, some players said.

"You look at the TV, you see LeBron (James) and you see Kobe (Bryant)," Sabathia said. "You don't see Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins or these guys out there."

--College baseball programs have just 11.7 scholarships to offer, meaning most players do not get free rides -- or even 50 percent scholarships -- unlike football (85 full scholarships) and basketball (13 full scholarships).

--Baseball has been a game passed down from father to son for generations. The absence of fathers in urban communities may have fractured that link.

"Baseball is a sport where you have to have a dad to teach you how to play catch, and a dad to be there with you to teach you the game," Sabathia said. "There's not a lot of dads in the community these days just for whatever reason."

--The increasing importance of travel teams on youth development may prevent working class and poor families from participating.

--The influx of new ballparks has fueled rising ticket prices, putting the game out of reach for many families. The cost of the average ticket rose 5 percent in 2009 to $26.64, according to the Team Marketing Report. The Fan Cost Index, which measures the cost to take a family of four to a game, including food and parking, rose 3.2 percent to $196.79.

Of course, the real reason so few Black people play baseball is for the same reason Stuff Black People Don't Like includes Father's Day, since nearly 80 percent of Black people are born out of wedlock.

Black people find baseball boring for a few reasons that most people don't want to consider: not because the average MLB game lasts three hours, but because the average MLB game is incredibly boring. Black people don't like baseball, not because there is no beer served after the 7th inning, but because there are so few Black players to cheer for in the first place.

Of course, some Black people still believe racism is the problem behind everything and is always the bogeyman behind every evil action of white people:

"An angry Milton Bradley lashed out at his treatment from Cubs fans Wednesday, suggesting he has been the victim of racial abuse at Wrigley Field.

But Bradley declined to give specifics, saying no one wanted to listen to him.

"America doesn't believe in racism," he said sarcastically before repeating the remark.

Speaking to beat writers in the Cubs clubhouse Wednesday before their 9-4 victory over the Nationals, Bradley was asked to clarify his comments from Tuesday night, when he said he faced "hatred" on a daily basis.

To what exactly was Bradley referring?

"I'm talking about hatred, period," he said. "I'm talking about when I go to eat at a restaurant, I have to listen to the waiters bad-mouthing me at another table, sitting in a restaurant, that's what I'm talking about -- everything."

Milton Bradley might be booed by white people, because it is only white people who go to MLB games anymore. He might not get good service at restaurants, because he is a bad tipper, another SBPDL.

Worse, Jackie Robinson, the man who integrated baseball and has an entire day -April 15 - for his honor, can't catch a break anymore, according to Black MLB player Tori Hunter:

"Jackie Robinson was special, and I don’t think a lot of players know what they’re wearing his number for. I think some players are wearing it because the teams want them to wear it. I don’t think they know what’s behind the number.

You don’t have to be African-American to know what he went through. You’ve just got to be a smart person or a person who knows what pain is like.

For the past 10 years, I’ve been called the N-word, like, 20 times. Not in Minnesota. In Kansas City. In Boston.

I think Jackie Robinson went through a lot just for us to play this game. Had he not gone through that, we probably wouldn’t be playing this game. I probably wouldn’t be here today.

Rondell White was going to wear Jackie Robinson’s number, too, but he’s on the disabled list. And Jerry White will wear it. They represent Jackie Robinson, too.

What bugged me was that Houston doesn’t have a black player . . . and this might not be true at all, but, in my opinion, I feel like everybody (on the Astros) is wearing it because they don’t have a black player. A lot of teams are wearing it, and they barely have black players."

SBPDL has tried to tell everyone that Black people will not be happy until everything in America is 100 percent Black. You can't make Black people play baseball and you can' put Black people on baseball teams, just because they are Black. Sorry Mr. Hunter, that is not how it works, as sports are the ultimate test of talent and affirmative action policies don't work on the playing field.

Stuff Black People Don't Like includes baseball, for "Field of Dreams" shows the ultimate fantasy of baseball fans and it simply to another catch with Dad, a sensation that most Black people never felt in the first place. Also, the movie shows what most Black people believe about white people anyway, that they would like to watch only white people play sports.

Baseball will always be a Pre-Obama America game. As the game fades in popularity and relevance, so does the majority population that built America. Baseball is still seen as a white thing, and remember, SBPDL includes Acting White for a reason.