ESPN fired Rob Parker in 2012 after he questioned Robert Griffin III’s blackness, calling him a “cornball brother.”
Parker has since created a website called MLBbro. The site focuses on black players across the league. MLB has increased the site’s presence by way of promotion on MLB.com and MLB Network.
The Athletic — which still won’t comment on smearing Trevor Bauer as a sexual abuser — profiled the site on Tuesday.
The Athletic approves.
The outlet particularly approved of Parker, a former Deadspin writer, “tracking” players and pinning them down to make sure they are black.
Per the piece:
“The staff’s tracking players — keeping a list and verifying that player actually is of color — means getting in the clubhouse and actually asking players what some would think are obvious questions. Such was the case for Detroit Tigers outfielder Riley Greene. At a glance, one might think he is Black. But rather than assume, he was asked and said he was Hispanic. Greene was approached to play for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic because his maternal grandmother is Puerto Rican.”
Well, thank goodness we know he is black and not Hispanic.
“It’s trial and error,” Parker said. “We don’t want to assume anything.”
What difference does Greene’s race make? Unfortunately, neither the Athletic nor MLBbro explained.
But it would seem MLBbro wants to verify the player is the right minority, to use the industry phrase. And in baseball, Hispanics are not the right minority — as the media continues to admit.
In June, ESPN cited a study from the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport that black players account for 6.2% of the league. Stephen A. Smith — a close friend of Parker’s — referenced the study in an interview with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred last week:
“Let me transition, because I would be remiss not to bring this up,” Smith said. “African American participation in the sport, from a player’s perspective, is at 6.2%. How much of a concern is that to you as a commissioner? And what is being done to rectify that.”
(No, Smith didn’t ask about Trevor Bauer.)
Parker built his site around that premise: black people are underrepresented in baseball.
Here’s the problem: the premise is selective.
Major League Baseball is more diverse than the NBA and NFL. By far.
People of color represent 40.5% of the league. But because 30.2% of the league is Latino, and not black, Parker and Stephen A. have an issue with it.
We reported last week that Latinos make up just 3.1% of NBA players. Asians make up only 0.04% of the NBA. Yet there are zero sites built around Latino basketball players. The NBA does not partner with sites to emphasize the lack of American-born white players.
Nor should they.
The races of athletes ought to be irrelevant. Sports are a meritocracy. At least they should be.
ESPN included the word “equity” on the chyron during the interview with Manfred (as shown above) last week. Equity is an excuse to elevate minority groups to positions over majority groups on the basis they did not begin at the same starting point.
In the office, equity could equate to a minority receiving a promotion over a more qualified majority, using the argument that the minority, because of “institutional racism,” couldn’t earn the promotion without an assist.
Equity is what we call Excused Racism.
To apply equity to baseball, for which ESPN and MLBbro campaign, is to give less qualified players a position on the field over a better player in the name of diversity.
It’s called losing and undermining athletic competition.
There should be no place for that in professional sports. Nor a place for “tracking” baseball players’ skin colors.
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