Marlon Byrd has had enough with the negativity in Jackie Robinson Day stories

steveox

steveox

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In addition to everyone donning the No. 42, it's become somewhat of a Jackie Robinson Day tradition to note the declining number of African-Americans in the major leagues. USA Today took care of that on Sunday by reporting that the percentage of black major leaguers on opening day rosters — 8.05 percent — was the lowest in over 60 years.
The Chicago Sun-Times, meanwhile, identified Cubs outfielder Marlon Byrd as the lone African-American ballplayer on the roster of either Chicago baseball team with a nonsensical "Black Hole" headline.
It was a note that Byrd didn't appreciate and he used his platform on Sunday to say that enough was enough and that Jackie Robinson Day should be a day for accentuating the positives and not the negative.
From the Chicago Tribune:
"If you want to take polls, then take polls asking how many black lawyers do we have now, or how many black judges or black doctors there are now," Byrd said. "Just because we're black doesn't mean we have to play sports. You can go through other avenues. If the decrease (in baseball) is because they're going into academic fields, so be it. More power to them."
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I'm actually really glad that Byrd spoke up because I've felt the same way every time I see those numbers rolled out each April. Could baseball stand to get more African-American youth interested in the game? Sure. But the game really needs to work toward added interest from children of any color in a culture that has been holding its NFL and NBA heroes a little higher than those from Major League Baseball.​

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-b...gh-negative-slant-comes-jackie-165717318.html

Just Imagine if a white player said this. It would be full of Choas.
 
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