Incredibly Stupid Article in Toronto Star Today

On Sat, 28 Jun 2003 13:41:06 GMT, "Larry Roberts" <roberl7.RemoveThis@rogers.com>
wrote:

>Actually, more than one as Griffin puts in his .035 cents. Check the
>Saturday Star.

I am assuming the one article you refer to is the one relating visible
minorities to economics (pasted in entirety below). I will not comment
on that part.

What I *do* believe though is that J.P. is indeed a product of the
70's & early 80's Red Sox teams (his "home team") where (along with
Minnesota) they fielded a basic white team so far as position players
go. All you have to do is go back and have a look at those rosters.


Here is the article (I hate pasting long waymoresports links or going
to make a shorter link, so sue me!

=====================================================================

Whitest team in the majors
Jays have the fewest visible minorities

Economics blamed for lack of diversity


GEOFF BAKER
SPORTS REPORTER

Venturing into the Blue Jays clubhouse less than two years ago meant
having your ears filled with the buzz of Spanish dialects from Puerto
Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and South America.

A glance around the room would take in not only the Latin American
players chatting among themselves, but also a good number of blacks
from the United States dressing alongside their white counterparts.
Such a scene was nothing new. A Jays team once led by Joe Carter,
Robbie Alomar, George Bell, Tony Fernandez and Devon White was for
years known to be as diverse as the city it represents. That is no
longer the case.

A study by the Star has found that this year's edition of the Blue
Jays had the fewest number of visible minorities on the opening-day
roster of any of the 30 major-league teams. A Toronto club that
boasted of its diversity in recent radio ads actually had the
visible-minority players on its 25-man roster drop from 11 on opening
day a year ago to only six this season.

Fuelling that change has been a rapid decline in the number of Latin
Americans suiting up for Toronto, a drop that comes even as their
numbers expand throughout baseball. The Jays in their glory years were
a haven for players of Latin American descent, but the three they had
on opening day — and the four they now have — were the fewest of any
team.

Opening-day rosters, not current ones, were used for the study for
easier comparisons between teams and years.

Despite being the most homogeneous squad in baseball, the important
fact remains that the Jays are winning and contending for a playoff
spot. Toronto was only three games out of first place in the American
League East yesterday as it entered a weekend series with the Montreal
Expos, who, coincidentally, began the season with the most
visible-minority players.

That raises the issue of whether the Jays truly need to be more
representative of the city they play in at a time when they are
satisfying fans by winning. A less obvious issue, one bound to
generate heated debate, is whether Toronto has somehow gained an
advantage by bucking baseball's diversity trend — and whether others
will copy this model and change the demographics of the game.

"I believe the vast majority of people will come to see a winning ball
club, whether it has nine Dominicans, nine Americans or nine people
from Japan on the field," Jays president and CEO Paul Godfrey said. "I
think the excitement generated by a winning team far outweighs any
other consideration."

Godfrey also doesn't believe the victorious Jays are setting any kind
of trend for teams to emulate. He believes that even to concede there
is a trend here would suggest the Jays have targeted white players as
a priority, an insinuation he rejects.

"Baseball teams don't sit down and say, `I'll take so many of those
and so many of those,'" he said, adding he wasn't aware of Toronto's
low visible-minority ranking until now. "I don't believe in quotas on
or off the field. I want the best person in the position, on or off
the field."

Peter Donnelly, director of the Centre for Sports Policy Studies at
the University of Toronto, was stunned to hear that the Jays, once
hailed for diversity, now have so few minorities relative to the rest
of baseball.

"You're talking about the most multicultural city in the world,"
Donnelly said. "In many ways, Toronto is more multicultural than New
York. So, there's a responsibility there and it probably makes
marketing sense to reflect your community.

"You go to a Jays game when Seattle's in town and look at the number
of Japanese fans in the stands," he said in reference to the Mariners'
Ichiro Suzuki.

Complicating the entire issue of race is the fact the Jays aren't
really seeking the best players available, many of whom happen to be
non-white. Budget-conscious Toronto instead is looking for value.

And the facts show the Jays took a dramatic, economically beneficial
turn toward a much whiter roster after J.P. Ricciardi was named
general manager in November 2001. Of the 39 players Ricciardi has
since acquired through trades, free agency or waiver claims, 36 of
them — 92 per cent — are white.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
`They come from Florida or Texas, where they've played baseball since
they were old enough to spit. Others hail from the Dominican or Puerto
Rico, where baseball is a way of life.'

Excerpt from Blue Jays radio advertisement last March that touted the
team's diversity

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Those moves have seriously altered the makeup of the Jays, who had 11
visible-minority players on the opening-day roster the past three
seasons and at least 10 each year since 1994.

Ricciardi is at a loss to explain the numbers as anything beyond
coincidence, although he does correctly point out that the number of
black players in the game has steadily declined. The number of Latin
Americans, on the other hand, has more than doubled since 1991 and
they made up 28 per cent of the 750 players on opening-day rosters.
Also, 54.4 per cent of the players were white and 45.6 per cent were
either Latin American, black, Asian or Native American.

"We don't look at players as black and white," Ricciardi said, adding
that his job was to put together the best possible team within the
budget. "We do look at players for what they can do for us."

Ricciardi, who has a Cuban-born manager in Carlos Tosca, doubts fans
care much about a team's racial makeup. He cited the Expos, who began
the season tied with the Texas Rangers at 14 visible-minority players,
including12 Latin Americans, one black and one Asian, as an example.

"Look at the Expos and all the players they have and they still get
only 5,000 people coming to their games," Ricciardi said.

Of the 21 free agents signed by Ricciardi, the only non-whites have
been since-departed outfielder Pedro Swann and recent bullpen pick-up
Juan Acevedo. Toronto's only non-white of 13 players acquired in
trades was relief pitcher Felix Heredia, no longer with the team. All
five of Ricciardi's waiver claims were white players.

Two of the four players Ricciardi kept from the Rule 5 draft, in which
teams choose unprotected minor-league prospects from other
organizations, have been non-whites Aquilino Lopez and Corey Thurman.
Even including their names among Ricciardi's acquisitions still means
nine out of every 10 new players coming to Toronto are white. Despite
that, no one is complaining too loudly about Ricciardi's moves.

That's because many of the white players Ricciardi imported, such as
Eric Hinske, Frank Catalanotto, Greg Myers, Tom Wilson and Mike
Bordick, are resounding successes. Their performances have
complemented the play of Toronto's two biggest offensive stars, Puerto
Rico native Carlos Delgado and black Texan Vernon Wells, who have
helped the Jays soar into contention.

Ricciardi has purged the team of higher-priced talent and replaced it
largely with imported players in their late 20s and early 30s who have
yet to attain free-agent service time. That nearly all of those new
players are white will be less interesting to some GMs than their
average salary of only $642,000 (U.S.) compared to the $2.5 million
being paid the average non-white who left the team.

Just as difficult to overlook will be the Toronto clubhouse, described
by Jays players and management as the most harmonious and clique-free
they've seen. It wouldn't be a stretch for some GMs to assume that a
clubhouse with fewer language divisions and cultural differences makes
for more harmony.

Ricciardi won't make that assumption, saying his players merely accept
their differences.

"We have guys who all get along," Ricciardi said. "I think it's only
an issue if you make it an issue. To go into a clubhouse and see
Carlos Delgado, (Eric) Hinske and Frank Catalanotto talking baseball
.... I don't think they care.

"I'd like to think we're beyond that at this stage in the world."

But Donnelly said having a team more in line with baseball norms
regarding minorities should be important to a team struggling to sell
tickets.

"I would say that it's crucial in Toronto," he said. "They can't be
happy that they're only playing in front of crowds of 18,000 to
20,000. Winning is important, but there may be more than one way to
skin a cat in the world's most multicultural city. And short of
winning a World Series, they're not getting the attention other teams
in the city get."

While players come and go throughout a season, the racial makeup of
most teams remains surprisingly consistent. The Jays temporarily upped
their visible-minority total to seven by adding Mexican-born Acevedo
two weeks ago, but the number could go right back down again with
possible upcoming trades involving black outfielder Shannon Stewart
and Venezuelan pitcher Kelvim Escobar.