Gary Sheffield vs. MLB

Okay, so it's not really a battle or anything, but this is a hot topic of late that neither choi nor i have touched on. so i'm gonna give it some thought.

(for those who haven't seen his quotes from the gq article (in which he discusses why there are a decreasing number of blacks in the game and more and more latin players), here's one that basically sums it up: "What I called is that you're going to see more black faces, but there ain't no English going to be coming out. ... [It's about] being able to tell [Latin players] what to do -- being able to control them," he told the magazine. "Where I'm from, you can't control us. [source: espn.com]"

first things first. i can neither agree or disagree with what sheff said. now i personally have never been in a major league dugout, i don't know whether the control issue is real. i will say that the language barrier which presents itself between managers and players is definitely real, and its real between players and players too. so maybe there is some legitimacy to what sheff is saying. teammate carlos guillen certainly seems to think so.

however, white sox manager ozzie guillen disagrees. he had the following to say: "I guarantee that Latin American people play more baseball than any people, because that's all we have. You have more people playing baseball in Venezuela or the Dominican than anywhere, so there are going to be more players from there. [source: espn.com]" personally, being a statistician at heart, this trend has been something i've thought quite a bit about lately and my hypothesis has always been similar to ozzie's. in latin america baseball is the sport; its what kids grow up with so based purely on a numbers game its likely that people will get good and advance to the bigs. there's also the important factor that baseball is necessarily a team sport. unlike basketball, which you can play 5 on 5 or 1 on 1 equally easily, baseball needs at least 6 or 7 player per team. i loved playing baseball growing up, but it was hard to ever do anything more than play catch because its hard to get a game together. you don't have sandlots around neighborhoods anymore and its hard to get that many people together at once. so maybe this is a factor why more inner-city kids don't play baseball.. the opportunity simply isn't there.

now one could argue, as perhaps sheff is, that mlb should do more to encourage baseball in american cities. maybe they should set up baseball academies like we see in every latin american country. that probably would help increase interest in the game a bit, but it fails to take into account the fact that baseball while a sport is first and foremost a for-profit industry. it makes sense to set up baseball academies in the dominican because it might yield your ballclub the next a-rod or pujols. but if there's little interest in american cities in baseball to begin with and the amount of people playing is low, then the percentage of you finding a great talent is very small. if there likelihood of a return is low and the risk is high, then teams simply aren't going to make that investment.

but something should still be done. maybe it's the obvious solution... lower the prices of tickets to games so that more kids can come to games. in order for me and my three siblings to go to a game it would cost well over $50 and that doesn't even include a soda and a hotdog for each of us. if you want more kids in america to start playing baseball, you have to let them see the game and all its majesty in person. and trust me, there is a subtle beauty about baseball... be it the crack of the bat or watching king felix's slider make a-rod look like a little leaguer. but to fully appreciate these things they have to be seen in person. so that would be my solution... you want more kids to play the game sheff? try demanding a bit less than $10+ million a year so the kids can afford to come to the ballpark. (that's a bit of a cheap shot, but it's not meant to single out sheffield. it applies to all players... even my boy pujols.)

one final note though, i give sheffield huge credit for making his statement and then standing by it. there's been a decent amount of outcry about what he's said, but he has responded like a man saying basically, i'm just telling you what i see, if i'm wrong show me. so major major props to the man for behaving like a man and not running from what he said.