MLB must equip Black youth for game’s future
Red Sox share their thoughts on Jackie Robinson Day
Ron Roenicke continues to be a voice of calm and reason for the Red Sox amidst their terribly disappointing and eventful 2020 season.
A day after delivering an emotional speech to the media about the importance of supporting Jackie Bradley Jr. and other Black individuals on the team, Roenicke spoke eloquently about playing baseball on Jackie Robinson Day. “Well the timing of this thing is an important day for baseball, and I think important for this country,” the Red Sox manager said. “We’re still not there, but to think about what Jackie went through when he first came into MLB, I can’t even imagine somebody going through what he went through. I know his teammates tried to back him in a lot of that, but I know how difficult those situations would’ve been in that time in our country. And I know it’s been huge for not just the progression of baseball and with Blacks or with all the international players we have now, but this country and where we’ve come from.
“We’re a lot better off than when Jackie first came into the major leagues, but we still have obviously quite a ways to go. And thinking of the Black players I’ve played with, I grew up in L.A., and I’m sorry guys but I was a Dodger fan, but Jackie was always the guy they talked about.”
That there are just 7.7% Black players in the big leagues is a contentious point right now.
Roenicke has been involved in the Southern Californian efforts to expand baseball into diverse neighborhoods.
“We have to provide,” Roenicke said. “And I know there’s an expense there, but we have to provide the equipment to be able to do this. It’s a lot easier to just have a basketball and go down to the park and play basketball. But to play baseball it has to be organized, you have to get enough people together, you have to have bats, balls and gloves. These things aren’t cheap. We have to financially keep doing what (Roenicke’s former Dodger connections) are trying to do (in California) and bring equipment where they can play and get them involved in the game.
“I know we’ve lost some of our fans to basketball and football. Thinking about it when I was young, everybody talked about baseball and wanting to go to the World Series. That was every kid’s dream. I’m not sure if those conversations are the same now. It’s more the NBA playoffs, the Super Bowl, and I’m not sure where those conversations are. But it has to start with the youth. Whatever we can do to provide things for them to be interested in the game is the only way we can continue to develop this game and still have the love of this game.”
Thin record with Black players
The Red Sox spent nearly an hour meeting with the media on Friday, when they spoke mostly about the racial injustice in the country and how it relates to baseball.
The Sox haven’t exactly been a leading example of diversity, with just one Black player (Bradley) on their roster. They haven’t added a African-American player to their active roster in two years, when they brought up Brandon Phillips from Triple-A for depth in September. Phillips was left off the postseason roster.
It’s impossible to say from the outside if there’s racial biased in baseball front offices, but Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said he doesn’t think so.
“One hundred percent no,” Bloom said. “I’m certain there’s no conscious bias. Obviously it’s hard to say authoritatively if there is an unconscious bias. But look, I’d be very surprised if that were the case. When it came to adding players to the system, knowing the dozens, the hundreds of permutations that we talk about with our roster, players we bring in, that it’s not something I think would ever factor in, certainly not consciously, and even unconsciously in who we bring in. Now do I wish it were different, like I said before, yeah, I do. I wouldn’t chalk it up to any kind of bias.”
Bloom acknowledged that the Red Sox could do better at fostering an environment that’s welcoming to Black players.
“While I would certainly argue that race never plays a factor in any sort of acquisition or player decision, I think it’s certainly possible to believe that very strongly and also feel like we have a lot of work to do to make our game more accessible to African-Americans and other minority communities,” he said. “In fact I feel equally strongly that we have to do that. I certainly have become more aware over the last couple of years — and some of it’s through tough conversations — how if you are African-American and you are a minority in this game, you may perceive this game, hopefully incorrectly, as a space that’s not for you. And we need to make sure, if one African-American player comes into our game and feels that way, and we haven’t done enough to counter that, we have to be very deliberate and make sure we’re countering that, and I think it’s possible to believe both of those things very strongly.”
When it comes to Jackie Robinson Day, Bloom said it’s time the story is rewritten for kids to better understands the struggles Robinson went through.
“Probably the most significant day in baseball history because of what it meant not just for the game but also for the country,” Bloom said.
“I think now is also a really good time to kind of get beyond the short, kids-book version of Jackie Robinson’s story and recognize his story was not just about breaking a color line in baseball. It was also about very strong, very passionate, very uncompromising stances on some of these issues that are unfortunately still with us today and we need to shine a light on those too.”
Injury updates
The Red Sox are unlikely to have Nathan Eovaldi available to make his scheduled start this weekend. The trade deadline is Monday and it’s likely the Sox are trying to keep Eovaldi fresh in case he’s traded. The official word is that Eovaldi has a cramp in his right calf.
Andrew Benintendi, out with a rib cage strain, is unlikely to be available anytime soon. Roenicke said “it’s going to be a while” before he’s ready to play again.