I somehow missed Torii Hunter’s ill chosen words yesterday:
“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.’ “
Hunter clarified his comments today:
What troubles me most was the word “impostors” appearing in reference to Latin American players not being black players. It was the wrong word choice, and it definitely doesn’t accurately reflect how I feel and who I am.
What I meant was they’re not black players; they’re Latin American players. There is a difference culturally. But on the field, we’re all brothers, no matter where we come from, and that’s something I’ve always taken pride in: treating everybody the same, whether he’s a superstar or a young kid breaking into the game. Where he was born and raised makes no difference.
I know that African-American and Latin American players see themselves as different, but segregation in baseball wasn’t based on where you were from, it was on how you look. The commonality between African and Latin American players who were not allowed in the majors before Jackie Robinson was the color of their skin. No one bothered to find out where they came from. If their skin was too dark, they didn’t play in the majors. Since the western hemisphere is pretty much all the Americas, African-American should really apply to every one there of African descent.
Hunter, however, gets at the heart of the problem, although I don’t agree with the reasoning:
“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.”
Yes, MLB goes to Latin America because on average players are cheaper. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, those cheap players were black players from the United States. The draft, however, took care of that. Once players realized they could leverage their draft position into big money, the majors looked elsewhere for cheap talent. Maybe there is racism involved in that, but that hasn’t stopped Hunter, Sabathia, Jeter, Crisp, Matthews Jr., Griffey Jr., Belle, etc. from making millions playing the game. Eliminate the draft, and poor black Americans would once again be a source of cheap players for MLB teams.
As for Hunter, he chose his words poorly, and his image took a hit. He apologized as he should. I suspect that leveling the signing money between players covered by the draft and those not will bring more black Americans into the game. I suspect, however, it will be through the implementation of an international draft than the elimination of the institution.
Eliminate the draft, and you have Scott Boras representing every phenom. That will increase the leverage every high-talent kid has, not decrease it, and it will push up the asking price.
@Rob McMillin: No, because teams will have a choice. Instead of having a binary sign/don’t sign, if one player is asking for too much money, there’s probably someone else just as good who might need the money more.
Maybe phenoms get more money, but phenoms, by their very nature, are more valuable (since they’re rare). No team, in a free agent signing of amateurs, gets shut out of players.
The only reason to go after the Dominican player rather than the South Side player is because he’s cheaper and of comparable level of play. “Race” has nothing to do with it. Can this player help my club & can I afford him/save money by signing him rather than someone else. Heck, David Ortiz is loved in Boston, which I think just shows how far this nation has come.
And quite frankly I’m tired of “race.” Biologically speaking, race is nonsense. There’s more genetic diversity within sub-Saharan Africa than the rest of the world combined.
Race is more of a social construct than a biological construct, if only because any human female before a certain age can have children with any human male. So probably a majority of the world’s population is descended from several “races”.
The way the US has defined race has been almost binary, “white” or “nonwhite”. In other countries where this has been important, the classification system has been more complex.
I’m Dominican, I’ve lived in the Dominican Republic and have lived in Washington Heights for a good amount of my life, and I agree with everything Tori Hunter said. You won’t find one Dominican player ever saying he’s black. No matter how dark his skin may be. I remember Sammy Sosa – after the homerun race of 1998 – getting a lot of grief for not wanting to speak at the NAACP. It wasn’t cause he didn’t have time, or whatever his excuse may be, he didn’t want to be affiliated with being black. That’s a big no-no in the Dominican community, whoever says otherwise doesn’t really know Dominican culture. Hunter is 100% right.
Now, I don’t think that makes Dominicans racist bigots either, they like to be identified as who they are – Dominican – the same way Roberto Clemente didn’t consider himself black but Latino/Puerto Rican. Latinos have a lot of pride in their identity. I think Hunter was basically saying he has a lot of pride saying he’s black, and he doesn’t consider them black but imposters.
I agree that Hunter may have used the wrong word, “impostors”, but I don’t disagree with what he said. Except for the cheap labor part. The lowest paid Dominican in the majors makes more than me, and I have a pretty good job.
I think it is very possible that Torri did not have a clue that slavery and discrimination against those of African descent existed outside of the US.
I suspect the education system, and a blacks minority status tends to develop kids who see themselves more as African Americans than those in Latin America who rarely think of themselves as African Americans but more as a citizen of whatever country they are from (as they are not minorities). But I remember reading that in Haiti that most of the richest folks are whites (minorities who are descendents of the colonists who enslaved the African Americans). Being a majority does not always translate into equality. (FWIW I am Irish-English-Scotch-French-American, half Irish, and never think of myself as such, even though Irish were not very well treated).
Also, this war on drugs has 2 million people in prisons, the highest incarceration rate on the planet, and more on probation, many of them young guys from the cities, and a disproportionate number men of color. Kind of reduces the talent pool.
Furthermore, those who escape the clutches of these laws, have a choice of sport to play. Basketball and football are more popular sports and seen as the best way to get a scholarship and end up in the big leagues sooner rather than later, compared to baseball where you can expect to spend time in the minors.
In Latin America, baseball is seen as the route to fame and riches, and baseball is more popular, and the sport of baseball has been more agressive in recruiting such players.
The fact that a team does not have to rely on the draft (random chance in getting the player you want), and the fact you can sign them at age 16, makes the Latin approach attractive to certain teams, especially those who end up with low draft picks as a penalty for winning.
It has nothing to do with racism when money is involved.
I don’t know what MLB is doing to get more US African Americans involved with the sport. Looking at the talent on some of these teams, the league could do with more talented players of any color.
Note: on the issue of race classification, I would refer one to the latest census report available online. It is certainly not binary (white or non-white). Latinos are given the option of identifying themselves as black or white, or Latino descent (hispanic). And of course you have those of Asian descent which have their own classification.
I think that important part of Hunter’s speech is overshadowed by his bad wording: MLB has very few African-Americans, compared to previous decades, but doesn’t feel pressured to do something about it, because of Dominican and other Latin players who give MLB enough “color”.