From: SPQRROMANS on
On May 8, 6:41 pm, rodneyk...(a)home.net (Rodney K.) wrote:
> http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2007/05/07/05...
>
> Braves meet with Rainbow/PUSH officials
>
> By CARROLL ROGERS
> The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
>
> Published on: 05/07/07
>
> Upset over the lack of African-Americans on the Braves roster, members
> of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow-PUSH Coalition asked for a meeting with
> team officials. They got one Monday.
>
> Joe Beasley, Southern Regional Director for the Rainbow/PUSH
> Coalition, said he and Dexter Clinkscale, the director of sports for
> the organization, met Monday morning for nearly two hours with Braves
> general manager John Schuerholz, assistant general manager Frank Wren
> and three other Braves officials.
>
> "The team slipped ... down to [no African-Americans]; it wasn?t
> something that just happened," Beasley said Monday afternoon. "I think
> it was a lack of diligence on the part of the Braves to recruit
> African-American players. There's not diminished enthusiasm for
> African-Americans playing baseball. It's simply the opportunity hasn't
> presented itself."
>
> Schuerholz acknowledged the meeting Monday but declined further
> comment, saying in a statement: "We had a meeting with Mr. Beasley and
> another member of his organization this morning and discussed a
> variety of topics."
>
> Less than 10 percent of major league players are African-Americans. In
> a recent interview on the subject, Schuerholz said: "You go to where
> the talent leads you. Finding major league-caliber baseball players is
> far too difficult if you try to narrow your criteria down to
> demographics."
>
> Countered Beasley, "As I expected, [Schuerholz?s] idea is the bottom
> line: I'll put the best 40 men I can get wherever I can get them from
> on the field, and that's fair. But the fact of the matter is if they
> put resources into recruiting here in the United States, and more
> specifically here in Atlanta, there are talented players here."
>
> The issue was brought to the attention of the Rainbow-PUSH Coalition
> during the 60th anniversary celebration of Jackie Robinson breaking
> the color barrier. The Braves and Houston Astros did not have any
> African-American players on their 25-man rosters at the time. The
> Braves' total grew with the promotion of left fielder Willie Harris,
> who is from Robinson?s hometown of Cairo.
>
> "You slipped down to nothing, now you've got one, we expect it to
> start going up higher," Beasley said was the sentiment he voiced in
> the meeting. "We want to see incrementally it move back up, rather
> than moving down. There was an openness on [Schuerholz's] part to talk
> and to be in dialogue and hopefully be in partnership in trying to
> make sure that it happens. He was very nice, a gentleman. I'm going to
> hold him to his word to work with us and move those numbers back up to
> a respectable level."

_________________________________________________________________-
How many White, Hispanic or Asian guys are on the Atlanta Hawks
basketball team? Absurd!

From: Bert Lewison on
On 8 May 2007 21:53:52 -0700, "SPQRROMANS(a)aol.com"
<SPQRROMANS(a)aol.com> wrote:

>On May 8, 6:41 pm, rodneyk...(a)home.net (Rodney K.) wrote:
>> http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2007/05/07/05...
>>
>> Braves meet with Rainbow/PUSH officials
>>
>> By CARROLL ROGERS
>> The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
>>
>> Published on: 05/07/07
>>
>> Upset over the lack of African-Americans on the Braves roster, members
>> of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow-PUSH Coalition asked for a meeting with
>> team officials. They got one Monday.
>>
>> Joe Beasley, Southern Regional Director for the Rainbow/PUSH
>> Coalition, said he and Dexter Clinkscale, the director of sports for
>> the organization, met Monday morning for nearly two hours with Braves
>> general manager John Schuerholz, assistant general manager Frank Wren
>> and three other Braves officials.
>>
>> "The team slipped ... down to [no African-Americans]; it wasn?t
>> something that just happened," Beasley said Monday afternoon. "I think
>> it was a lack of diligence on the part of the Braves to recruit
>> African-American players. There's not diminished enthusiasm for
>> African-Americans playing baseball. It's simply the opportunity hasn't
>> presented itself."
>>
>> Schuerholz acknowledged the meeting Monday but declined further
>> comment, saying in a statement: "We had a meeting with Mr. Beasley and
>> another member of his organization this morning and discussed a
>> variety of topics."
>>
>> Less than 10 percent of major league players are African-Americans. In
>> a recent interview on the subject, Schuerholz said: "You go to where
>> the talent leads you. Finding major league-caliber baseball players is
>> far too difficult if you try to narrow your criteria down to
>> demographics."
>>
>> Countered Beasley, "As I expected, [Schuerholz?s] idea is the bottom
>> line: I'll put the best 40 men I can get wherever I can get them from
>> on the field, and that's fair. But the fact of the matter is if they
>> put resources into recruiting here in the United States, and more
>> specifically here in Atlanta, there are talented players here."
>>
>> The issue was brought to the attention of the Rainbow-PUSH Coalition
>> during the 60th anniversary celebration of Jackie Robinson breaking
>> the color barrier. The Braves and Houston Astros did not have any
>> African-American players on their 25-man rosters at the time. The
>> Braves' total grew with the promotion of left fielder Willie Harris,
>> who is from Robinson?s hometown of Cairo.
>>
>> "You slipped down to nothing, now you've got one, we expect it to
>> start going up higher," Beasley said was the sentiment he voiced in
>> the meeting. "We want to see incrementally it move back up, rather
>> than moving down. There was an openness on [Schuerholz's] part to talk
>> and to be in dialogue and hopefully be in partnership in trying to
>> make sure that it happens. He was very nice, a gentleman. I'm going to
>> hold him to his word to work with us and move those numbers back up to
>> a respectable level."
>
>_________________________________________________________________-
>How many White, Hispanic or Asian guys are on the Atlanta Hawks
>basketball team? Absurd!
>


Jessie the Jackal doesn't care about that!
From: sfb on
The comments are directly contrary to affirmative action where demographics
trump achievement.

"BR Eagle" <goc313(a)yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:K2b0i.53733$OT4.21424(a)newsfe19.lga...
> "Rodney K." <rodneykerr(a)home.net> wrote in message
> news:46412684.1040556531(a)news.easynews.com...
>> http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2007/05/07/0508bravesminority.html
>>
>>
> Schuerholz said: "You go to where
>> the talent leads you. Finding major league-caliber baseball players is
>> far too difficult if you try to narrow your criteria down to
>> demographics."
>>
>> Countered Beasley, "As I expected, [Schuerholz?s] idea is the bottom
>> line: I'll put the best 40 men I can get wherever I can get them from
>> on the field, and that's fair. "
>
> What is wrong with either of these statements?
>


From: shawn on
On Tue, 8 May 2007 22:17:15 -0500, "BR Eagle" <goc313(a)yahoo.com>
wrote:

>"Rodney K." <rodneykerr(a)home.net> wrote in message
>news:46412684.1040556531(a)news.easynews.com...
>> http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2007/05/07/0508bravesminority.html
>>
>>
> Schuerholz said: "You go to where
>> the talent leads you. Finding major league-caliber baseball players is
>> far too difficult if you try to narrow your criteria down to
>> demographics."
>>
>> Countered Beasley, "As I expected, [Schuerholz?s] idea is the bottom
>> line: I'll put the best 40 men I can get wherever I can get them from
>> on the field, and that's fair. "
>
>What is wrong with either of these statements?


Nothing is wrong with either of those statements but that isn't how
the Beasley thought the meeting ended since he said that he believe
the makeup of the team will change. I doubt it will unless an African
American player that is better than the current players becomes
available at a reasonable price. A professional baseball team is a
business and as they said you can't let demographics rule whom you
recruit. If a great black player is available then fine. If only white
players are available then that's fine too. Heck, if the best players
are from India then that's whom you want on your team. Race is
secondary since they really only want the best (barring other factors
like cost, off the field issues (will they embarrass the team))

From: Nicholas Beaudrot on
On May 8, 8:17 pm, "BR Eagle" <goc...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
> "Rodney K." <rodneyk...(a)home.net> wrote in message
>
> news:46412684.1040556531(a)news.easynews.com...>http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2007/05/07/05...
>
> Schuerholz said: "You go to where
>
> > the talent leads you. Finding major league-caliber baseball players is
> > far too difficult if you try to narrow your criteria down to
> > demographics."
>
> > Countered Beasley, "As I expected, [Schuerholz?s] idea is the bottom
> > line: I'll put the best 40 men I can get wherever I can get them from
> > on the field, and that's fair. "
>
> What is wrong with either of these statements?

Nothing. It's possible that some old-line scouts harbor a good bit of
prejudice, but no one's said anything publicly about that.

There's of course a very big bootstrapping problem here, which has to
do with the lack of African-American outreach by the MLB, which has
reduced the talent pool over time as more players go to football and
basketball (it would be hard to get back to early 1970s levels of
black players in the NBA, but certainly getting up to 13% from 8%
seems doable), so African-American youth participation in way down.
The other problem is that it's "cheaper" to spend money on a baseball
academy in the DR or Venezuela than it is to recruit at an HBCU. So in
general it's not really the GM's fault.

It's a tiny bit frustrating to me that the Braves have several Georgia
native players, none of whom are black. But JS is probably right ...
by the time you get to age 18, other forms of discrimination --
economic, lack of access to ballfields, discrimination by little
league coaches, etc. -- have already had much more of an impact than
anything the Braves are doing.

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