Baseball Prospectus – Shakeia Taylor: Tim Anderson hit a big home run and he flipped his bat. For that innocuous act, he was thrown at, but the story doesn’t end there. Anderson ended up with a one-game suspension because while yelling at the white child who hit him he called said child the n-word. There’s a reason I type n-word, the actual word is not my word to say. Anderson is African-American, it is his word to say. It is not a word that, when coming from an African-American or black player, Major League Baseball should be policing. Yet that group of white men did, and they wonder why MLB has such a racism problem?
Sporting News – Joe Rivera: I am a big fan of unaffiliated professional baseball. I am not a baseball fan who needs his baseball to be from MLB or Minor League Baseball. I don’t claim to watch a lot of the Atlantic League, but I have enjoyed what I have watched. It is pro ball, not of the same overall skill level as MLB, but it is still what I want to watch, professional baseball. ALPB players understand that they are not at the top of the baseball mountain, and those in charge of ALPB understand every one of their players wants to get to or return to the top of the mountain. It makes for an interesting dynamic, and ultimately for fun baseball.
Chicago Sun-Times: Gordon Wittenmyer: There are a lot of problems with the brand of baseball that is MLB. While those in power at MLB’s league offices want to push the idea that pace of play is the most concerning issue, in actuality, it’s really not even close to an issue. One of the actual issues is that all the people making decisions at the league offices and running teams, as well as the majority of the people managing, coaching, umpiring, scouting and writing about the MLB brand happen to be white men. Until MLB is willing to address the legitimate racial disparity in how their brand is run, presented, and discussed there is no need to even give pace of play an inkling of thought.
Lead photo courtesy of Jonathan Daniel – Getty Images
