The Pampered Shef

Why has the number of African American baseball players decreased so drastically over the past two decades? I have argued that it is primarily the result of basketball and football becoming far more popular in the black community, but I'm willing to hear other theories. What say you, Gary Sheffield?

"I called it years ago. What I called is that you're going to see more black faces, but there ain't no English going to be coming out."

Fairly prescient of you Gary. Did you notice how passionate Latin American countries are about baseball. That Dominicans play it day and night, often using milk cartons as makeshift gloves. Perhaps you notice the growing of antipathy of African Americans to the sport.

… [It's about] being able to tell [Latin players] what to do -- being able to control them"

Oh boy. This sounds like it's going to remarkably stupid, but I'll hear you out.

"Where I'm from, you can't control us. You might get a guy to do it that way for a while because he wants to benefit, but in the end, he is going to go back to being who he is."

I'm sorry. Are you putting your people down or are you dissing the Latin American ballplayer? I think you were attempting the latter, but actually accomplished the former. You are essentially saying that African Americans are uncoachable. "Coachability" a valued trait in every profession. Okay perhaps you don't want your punk rockers to be coachable, but other than that...

"And that's a person that you're going to talk to with respect, you're going to talk to like a man. These are the things my race demands."

You are a pampered c**t, Gary Sheffield. You have been treated with kid gloves all of your life, because you are an excellent baseball player. You were admittedly involved in gangs as an adolescent. A major league team was willing to overlook your violent history and pay you a fortune coming out of high school. You have admitted to deliberately making errors, in order to get traded from Milwaukee. Since then, you have been a malcontent everywhere you have gone. And for these sins, you have been punished to the tune of making over $100 million in salary. How can you not understand that you have had every advantage in the world based upon your ability to swing a bat?

"These are the things my race demands. So, if you're equally good as this Latin player, guess who's going to get sent home? I know a lot of players that are home now can outplay a lot of these guys."

So you are saying that if two guys are equally good at playing baseball and one of them is a shithead, hellbent on doing things his way all of the time, and the other is cooperative and open to suggestion, the team is going to pass on the shithead. Finally we agree. You can take baseball out of the equation and this is still pretty much a universal truth. But I don't like your implication that black people are all ungrateful pieces of garbage. Speak for yourself on that one.