Domincian Presence in MLB

[DWS1125]

Do you think MLB seeing the Dominican presence in the League is one of the driving reasons for wanting more African-Americans ( Urban youth academies) to pick up the sport? Its sad to know that a lot of people walking around may have the talent to be stars in Baseball but just never gravitated towards the sport because they thought it was Boring.

[fordman]

The Dominican (or latin-south American) presence has been there for 45+ years. Black youth in this country lean toward basketball and football because there is a lack of coaching for little league teams in the urban areas of the country.

How many black hockey players, Nascar-Indy drivers, swimmers, archery-skeet-target shooters, equestrian-jockeys or pro-golfers are there? Due to lack of exposure and thought that those are white only sports.

So, MLB has to look outside the box for players and the carribean region (as well as japan-korea) has lots to offer!

Fordman

[dougdirt]

Originally Posted by DWS1125

Do you think MLB seeing the Dominican presence in the League is one of the driving reasons for wanting more African-Americans ( Urban youth academies) to pick up the sport? Its sad to know that a lot of people walking around may have the talent to be stars in Baseball but just never gravitated towards the sport because they thought it was Boring.

Baseball is tougher to learn and organize. Basketball can be practiced on your own with a ball and a hoop (or even just a ball if you want to practice dribbling skills). Football requires two people and a ball to throw and a limited amount of space and generally speaking, you can easily control the ball and where it goes. Baseball requires two people, at least, two gloves, a bat and a ball. First off, that is already much more expensive. Secondly, unlike the other ones, if you want to practice hitting, you need a lot of space. You can't really control where the ball is going to go, so you can't play in the streets. You need a large area of space. That isn't always available in urban areas.

Then of course is the whole "boring" aspect of it. I don't know how people can say that, but apparently a lot of people do actually feel that way about it.

[Vander]

Originally Posted by dougdirt

Baseball is tougher to learn and organize. Basketball can be practiced on your own with a ball and a hoop (or even just a ball if you want to practice dribbling skills). Football requires two people and a ball to throw and a limited amount of space and generally speaking, you can easily control the ball and where it goes. Baseball requires two people, at least, two gloves, a bat and a ball. First off, that is already much more expensive. Secondly, unlike the other ones, if you want to practice hitting, you need a lot of space. You can't really control where the ball is going to go, so you can't play in the streets. You need a large area of space. That isn't always available in urban areas.

Then of course is the whole "boring" aspect of it. I don't know how people can say that, but apparently a lot of people do actually feel that way about it.

Add to that the fact that college kids can go straight from college to the NBA or the NFL, whereas in MLB, even the best of prospects spend a few years in the minors.

[dougdirt]

Originally Posted by Vander

Add to that the fact that college kids can go straight from college to the NBA or the NFL, whereas in MLB, even the best of prospects spend a few years in the minors.

That works for the NBA, but not the NFL. In the NFL guys must go to college for 3 years, or be 21. Sign out of high school and you can be in the Majors by that time if you are really good. Heck, the truly great ones sometimes make it as teenagers.

[DWS1125]

Originally Posted by fordman

The Dominican (or latin-south American) presence has been there for 45+ years. Black youth in this country lean toward basketball and football because there is a lack of coaching for little league teams in the urban areas of the country.

How many black hockey players, Nascar-Indy drivers, swimmers, archery-skeet-target shooters, equestrian-jockeys or pro-golfers are there? Due to lack of exposure and thought that those are white only sports.

So, MLB has to look outside the box for players and the carribean region (as well as japan-korea) has lots to offer!

Fordman

I can't even go a group of people to sit down and watch the sport without getting bored...we live in the age of the Iphone and Facebook..Baseball to some people is like AM/FM radio. The reason I think the sport is so dead..is the "unwritten" rules. Players try so hard not to show people up that its boring to see. I love to see trash talk...showboating .and passion when something good or bad happens..Managers and Umps arguing is so tired.

[DWS1125]

Dominicans play with a flare...passion. Thats the mission ingredient in African Americans loving baseball. And why they move their attention to other sports.

[Vander]

Originally Posted by dougdirt

That works for the NBA, but not the NFL. In the NFL guys must go to college for 3 years, or be 21. Sign out of high school and you can be in the Majors by that time if you are really good. Heck, the truly great ones sometimes make it as teenagers.

The key words in your statement are "really good". Heck, even the really good ones tend not to make their final promotion until they're about 23-24. And if we're talking about the general population here, then we have to consider guys like Trout and Harper to be outliers.

Originally Posted by DWS1125

I can't even go a group of people to sit down and watch the sport without getting bored...we live in the age of the Iphone and Facebook..Baseball to some people is like AM/FM radio. The reason I think the sport is so dead..is the "unwritten" rules. Players try so hard not to show people up that its boring to see. I love to see trash talk...showboating .and passion when something good or bad happens..Managers and Umps arguing is so tired.

Dominicans play with a flare...passion. Thats the mission ingredient in African Americans loving baseball. And why they move their attention to other sports.

Baseball is not for everyone, and if you get bored by it, then I suggest that you stick to faster games like basketball. To me, a sport doesn't need constant action to be enthralling. I also don't think certain ethnicities trash talk or play dirty more than others, so I really don't see your point...

[DWS1125]

Originally Posted by Vander

The key words in your statement are "really good". Heck, even the really good ones tend not to make their final promotion until they're about 23-24. And if we're talking about the general population here, then we have to consider guys like Trout and Harper to be outliers.





Baseball is not for everyone, and if you get bored by it, then I suggest that you stick to faster games like basketball. To me, a sport doesn't need constant action to be enthralling. I also don't think certain ethnicities trash talk or play dirty more than others, so I really don't see your point...

What I'm trying to say is I like to see competitiveness. . Baseball need more Jose Limas lol he was entertaining

[DWS1125]

Telling people to stick to another sport..is not a good marketing strategy..its baseball or commissioner's problem to solve. Kicking away income doesn't make sense to me.

[lidspinner]

I am not a huge fan of trash talking and showing opposing players up but this years WBC is the best I have seen and mainly because the Dominican Republic are having fun and showing off, doing what they do.....it's fun to watch them. It brings the "kid" out in each of them and that's why I watch sports at times, to see athletes act like I do when I get excited and lose control.....it's boring to watch a robot play baseball and hit a homerun and jog around the bases with his head down....it's like the batter is afraid to smile because espn will say he isn't respecting the game.....respecting the game is playing 100% and trying to win each and every game, even if your down by 10 in the 9th inning with 2 outs......

I for one want to see more of a Dominican presence in MLB and I hope their flare rubs off on some of today's stars of the game.....with that said there is a difference in having fun and showing someone up.....as long as the DR players respect the opponent and take it if it gets dished back out then I see no reason to not let loose and have fun while playing baseball.....I love Joey Votto and he is the consummate professional but he is a robot at times and he appears to be programmed to do his thing, which his thing is being the best player in the game so I am kind of ok with that but wouldn't it be great to see Joey hit a homerun against the Cardinals late in the game to take the lead and give a fist pump and smile ala Adrian Gonzales did against the USA last night in the WBC?

[DWS1125]

Originally Posted by lidspinner

I am not a huge fan of trash talking and showing opposing players up but this years WBC is the best I have seen and mainly because the Dominican Republic are having fun and showing off, doing what they do.....it's fun to watch them. It brings the "kid" out in each of them and that's why I watch sports at times, to see athletes act like I do when I get excited and lose control.....it's boring to watch a robot play baseball and hit a homerun and jog around the bases with his head down....it's like the batter is afraid to smile because espn will say he isn't respecting the game.....respecting the game is playing 100% and trying to win each and every game, even if your down by 10 in the 9th inning with 2 outs......

I for one want to see more of a Dominican presence in MLB and I hope their flare rubs off on some of today's stars of the game.....with that said there is a difference in having fun and showing someone up.....as long as the DR players respect the opponent and take it if it gets dished back out then I see no reason to not let loose and have fun while playing baseball.....I love Joey Votto and he is the consummate professional but he is a robot at times and he appears to be programmed to do his thing, which his thing is being the best player in the game so I am kind of ok with that but wouldn't it be great to see Joey hit a homerun against the Cardinals late in the game to take the lead and give a fist pump and smile ala Adrian Gonzales did against the USA last night in the WBC?

That's exactly what I'm talking about...You wanna see a guy having fun doing what he's doing! Why do we worry about how a person is feeling when we do something well?? Why do we care if a person admires his homerun or flip his bat? This 1920 mindframe is one of the reason's baseball has became America's past time..to just the past..All I remember in baseball is Kirk Gibson fist pump, or Joe Carter jumping up and down rounding the bases in world Series. Why does MLB choose to be so lame? Baseball needs a young Vibrant commissioner. Wipe the stale, stench of rules out of the game..Thanks for instant replay. Took you 15yrs to finally use it

[Ironman92]

Just flipped over to a 1-1 tie in the 9th with the DR vs USA and they got 2 separate RBI singles off of Kimbrel and that place was going bazerk...it was over the top, but also awesome.

[lidspinner]

The atmosphere in Miami was better than a World Series game......that's a direct quote from several USA players.....me has a feeling that the USA players will be begging to get on the roster in the next WBC......this tourney has always been looked at as a bore but something the players did out of respect for our country....it now just became about pride and its now popular.....can't wait for trout and Harper to headline the next WBC.....

[DocRed]

TEAM USA SUCKS