July 15, 2007

YOU COULD ASK ONE OF THE CURRENT PLAYERS...:

Lofton: Sheff is right on Joe (, July 15th 2007, NY Daily News)

Gary Sheffield isn't the only player who feels Joe Torre treated black players differently than white players, as Sheffield's former teammate, Kenny Lofton, chimed in with his thoughts yesterday before his Rangers played in Anaheim.

Lofton, who played for Torre in 2004, concurred with Sheffield's assessment of the Yankee manager and his attitude toward African-American players.

"All I can say is, Sheffield knows what he's talking about," Lofton told The Associated Press when asked to respond to Sheffield's comments about Torre. "That's all I'm going to say."


...except that, oddly enough, none of them are black.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 15, 2007 8:16 AM
Comments

I guess you're distinguishing between Latino players of African descent and Americans, but even so:

Jeter?

(And of course it's hilarious, coming from a fan of the most racist franchise in major league baseball history, one with fans who remain more than a match for the past ownership and management of said club . . .)

Posted by: Jim in Chicago at July 15, 2007 9:58 AM

Uh, the Yankees shortstop, for starters...

Posted by: Matt Murphy at July 15, 2007 12:45 PM

Jeter's white.

Posted by: oj at July 15, 2007 4:08 PM

OJ:

Considering that his father is definitely black, I'd love to hear your reasoning.

Posted by: Matt Murphy at July 15, 2007 4:10 PM

Since the mid-70s the most popular Sox players have been the black ones: Rice, Oil Can, Burks, Heathcliff, Coco, etc.

Posted by: oj at July 15, 2007 4:12 PM

The one drop of blood rule is just a remnant of the Jim Crow past.

Posted by: oj at July 15, 2007 5:50 PM

One "drop"?

His father's black, and I think almost everyone, himself included, would recognize his African-American heritage.

Or does one "drop" of "white" blood make him "white".

Sheesh, whose the remnant of the past here and who's trying to define what "Blackness" is or is not?

And oh dear, Coco's one of the most popular Sawx? Really? I wonder how many appearances he has lined up in Southie, for example?

And Jim Rice was too? Rice may be popular today, now that he's on NESN and everything's all cuddly-feely in Sawx nation, but I'm old enough to remember the racism directed at him, and Howard Bryant's book details it.

Indeed for much of his career, he was the only black player on the Sawx.

One only has to look in the stands at Fenway by the way to see the legacy perpetuate itself. It's lily white there.

Meanwhile not only do the Yanks field a team that consists predominantly of non-European-heritage players -- heck even Damon is part Thai -- many of them with some African roots -- but the crowd at Yankee Stadium (contrasted not only with the Fenway crowd, but also that at Shea btw) accurately reflects the melting-pot of NY.

Meanwhile with Lowell, Pedroia, Nancy, Tek, Youk, etc the face of the Sawx is still pretty white. Gotta appease the fans paying all that money for those seats off Kenmore Square.

Posted by: Jim in Chicago at July 15, 2007 10:54 PM

Yes, the Yankees are multinational, but the black guys are gone.

Posted by: oj at July 15, 2007 11:39 PM
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