Chris Rock wasn't talking about the Atlanta Braves specifically, but...
His op-ed about why black people have abandoned baseball sure hits home
Comedian Chris Rock gave baseball fans — and the whole nation — some food for thought this week when he suggested on HBO's "Real Sports" that the sport as American as apple pie is too white. It's classic Chris Rock — smart, funny, provocative. And particularly interesting to consider in a local context, where the hometown Atlanta Braves will soon be moving from the city's center to Cobb County to be closer to its fan base (read: whiter northern suburbanites).
Rock reminisces on an era when his beloved New York Mets won the World Series in 1986 led by star players such as Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, and Mookie Wilson. "Back then almost 26 percent of major league ballplayers were African-American," he says. "And I could actually have conversations with other black people about baseball."
I'm not much a fan myself. Never have been really. Chalk it up to a bad tee-ball experience when I was 5. I'm still emotionally traumatized. But the last Braves game I attended was in 1992, the second straight year the team won the National League penant on the way to a World Series win in ’95. I wasn't necessarily keeping score at the time. But yeah, the team was pretty black that season. All through the ’90s in fact: Dave Justice, Terry Pendleton, Ron Gant, Otis Nixon, Brian Hunter, Fred McGriff, even Neon Deion was on the team for a spell back then.
The team roster hasn't been that diverse since. During the last off-season, the team traded Jason Heyward and Justin Upton. I'm sure it wasn't because they were black. Positive, in fact. But it's hard to ignore the irony. Before anybody has a baby in the comments' section, Chris Rock isn't suggesting affirmative action be taken to diversify baseball. He just thinks African-Americans have abandoned the sport, in part, because it lacks cool points. You be the judge.