The NFL: Now America's most hated major sport

Yes, your lousy reading comprehension is well known.

 

Well, I can't see his posts.

 

Thou art blessed.

Sent from my Motorola Droid Turbo.

 

I gravitate to any discussion about the greatest sport on earth. I knew exactly what Ray Liotta's character (Shoeless Joe Jackon) meant when he talked about smelling his glove and being willing to play for free. I lived and breathed baseball.

I grew up in Kearny, NJ, a town about 10 miles due west of Manhattan. My hometown was a lot like the movie "The Sandlot". Spring, Summer, and Fall it was commonplace to see a bunch of us organize pick up games at the various school yard fields in town. We even played on asphalt when a field was not available. My mother never had to wonder where I was during those long summer days. I was always...always playing ball. If I was not at the Gunnell Oval, I was at West Hudson Park. If the park's diamond was being used we would play in the A&P parking lot. We had baseballs wrapped in electricians tape because we could not afford a new ball. I broke more windows and dented more cars than I can remember. We played for the love of the game and nothing else. No political or social justice agenda. I was just idealistic enough to think that baseball should be a requirement for all boys growing up in America. Skin color had no bearing on that. The game was all about what is good in America. I guess that is why I love attending minor league games more than major league games.

 

Your childhood sounds a lot like mine. Always playing ball. Either pick up games if we had enough guys or "pitchers hand" with right field being foul territory if we only had a few guys. We had pitchers duels, played 500 in the street, "hot box" in the back yard, etc. It's what we did. We played a lot with tennis balls instead of baseballs because of broken windows. I remember gluing and using screws to repair cracked baseball bat handles.

Almost 30 years ago I started a company that markets and sells my baseball equipment invention. Everytime I turn on an MLB, minor league, or college game I see my invention bring used, and I still get a kick out of it. Saw it just now on the Yankees/Indians ALDS game.

I passed my love of the game on to my kids, coaching them on their (yes) traveling teams for the 7 years they both played. I've been an umpire too, for youth leagues.

So I have a bit of an interest in baseball.


Sent from my Motorola Droid Turbo.

 

Don't leave me hanging. What was the invention? Baseball was life when I was a kid. We played seasons in our backyards and even kept stats.

 

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/op-e...rcentage-of-black-baseball-players-in-the-mlb

Where Are All the Black Baseball Players?
3 socioeconomic reasons for the declining percentage of black players in MLB.

This year is the 70th anniversary of Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians desegregating Major League Baseball. Baseball is known as the American pastime, but in 2017, it has the smallest percentage of African American players in the three major professional sports. Between 1946 and 1950, all three major professional sports had desegregated, and the total percentage of black players was less than 3 percent. In 2017, 75 percent of the NBA and 64 percent of the NFL players are black, but only 7.7 percent of MLB players are black.

 

From your little article here:

"While these statements are correct, many overlook the soci-economic transformations that occurred in America during the last 70 years: deindustrialization, suburbanization and mass incarceration. These had a disproportionate impact on black men and their community and are the major reason why the percentage of black baseball players has declined since 1981."

If these were true factors then they would effect more than just baseball. They would effect the other sports also. Since they do not it is clear they have had no clear impact on this issue. The entire article lacks support for its claims and ignores the social problems within the black community itself but instead blames all its ills on being sent to jail for breaking the law. It matters not that the offenses were non violent. You break the law you get sent to jail. The way to avoid that is .......Ready for it.......Don't break the law.

 

My childhood was spent playing baseball (when not swimming or fishing) about 20 miles farther west, in the Jersey Highlands, where there was sufficient room to use "real" baseballs -often wrapped in friction tape (lasts longer than electrical) until we had access to cheap rubber covered balls. 3 or 4 could play "flies and grounders", with one fungo-ing to the rest, who could earn a time with the bat by cleanly fielding a set number (3 grounders or 2 flies, something like that) of hits. 6 or more, we'd make two teams, employing "invisible runners" as needed - they never got thrown out but never took an extra base. The beach parking lot was our chosen spot, weekdays only when there would be just a handful of cars at the far end. Baseball was my first and greatest love among sports. Then they started throwing curveballs, after which I found it easier to hit linebackers.

 

Who's responsible for the socio-economic transformations that occurred in America during the last 70 years: deindustrialization, suburbanization and mass incarceration? Are black men being sent to prison for lessor crimes than white men? The answer is yes. We have two standards of justice in America. One is for whites and the rich and powerful. The other is for people of color and the poor.

 

Interesting. I lived in Red Bank for almost 30 years while working for AT&T. I grew up in KY and played baseball but not very well although I did play on the High School JV team. I was better at basketball, playing in Jr. High and almost for the JV HS team. ( The coach cut to 15 and handed out uniforms and lockers but the next day decided to cut to 12 and my twin brother and I lost out.) Tennis was my best sport. I played on the HS varsity team 2 yrs, for a small college and almost made a major university team (last guy cut because I had one year less eligibility than guys I had beaten).

 

No we don't

 

Making statements like this with no evidence and evidence to the contrary is actually racist. It seeks to falsely accuse an entire group. It's no different than the propaganda the neo-nazis put out.

 

When I was a kid, my sister's boyfriend, who is now her husband and my brother in law, worked for the Philadelphia Eagles. So I actually got to know a lot of the players from that era and became a pretty rabid fan. Bill Bergey and Vince "Invincible" Papale were in their wedding. On a related note, Jon Runyon belongs to a social club my brother in law and I belong to.

Part of it is that they signed Michael Vick and I couldn't root for somebody who abuses dogs, part of it's that I live in Florida now, and part of it is that there's just nobody to root for (although I hear Carson Wentz is actually a pretty good guy), but these days, I pretty much just stick to college football and watching videos of the USFL on YouTube.

 

Now that's funny! The fact is, the nation will survive just fine without the NFL. They cooked their own goose because of this - the players because they politicized the game and the NFL executives/owners because they didn't stop Kapernick by sanctioning him at the very beginning.