Torii Hunter was probably one of my top 5 favorite baseball players in the MLB. He is consistent every year, is incredible on defense, and had been a staple on my fantasy team for years. Then he had to go and do this...
"People see dark faces out there, and the perception is that they're African-American," Hunter said. "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?' ... I'm telling you, it's sad," he said.
Ummmm what? Listen Hunter black people don't play baseball because it just isn't that popular in their culture. Basketball and football are the two major sports right now. It is no ones fault, it's just the way it is. MLB executives are not sitting in some dark room thinking of ways to keep black kids from playing baseball (though that sounds like a great movie).
Nothing Hunter said made any fucking sense. "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?' Ummm Ozzie Guillen I'll let you take this one...
I was laughing because when he said, `They go there and sign for potato chips,' I said, `Well, we've got Chapman. They gave him $12 million. [Cincinnati actually agreed to a $30.25 million, six-year contract with pitcher Aroldis Chapman.] We've got [prospect Dayan] Viciedo. They gave him $10 million. I remember in my time, one scout goes [to Venezuela and] 30 players show up. Now, 30 scouts go there and one player shows up. In our country, we play baseball. That's no choice. 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."
When you make Ozzie Guillen sounds like a calm and rational person you know you fucked up. It is really sad that Hunter feels this way, because he is 100% wrong. Of all the major sports I think the MLB has done the best job of integrating different cultures. Over the past 10-15 years we have seen a boom of international talent from place like the Dominican Republic, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Venezuela, Netherlands, ect. The big bad MLB is not doing this to erase the black culture they are just scouring the world looking for talent, and at the end of the day there are just less black people playing baseball.
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