Part 2 Making Baseball America’s Game Again Getting Its Soul Back

PART #2 MAKING BASEBALL AMERICA’S GAME AGAIN GETTING ITS SOUL BACK

LET THE GRAYS RISE AGAIN

What you say

Baseball is doing just fine

record attendance record revenue

the value of franchises soaring

things could not be better

WRONG

Sure if all you look at is the present and it’s only only the God Almighty Dollar by which you judge success. Then go ahead all you Suckers out there go lull yourself into believing Baseball is Perfect and it’s Future Rosy. If only reality were so simple or dull. It’s like all those who think America and the world are in great shape because the economy is booming. And the rich keep getting richer.

While “small scale wars” and vast waves of poverty and suffering engulf too much of the world. While industrial pollutants are crushing our planet’s environment and unresponsive government is in control almost everywhere.

Isn’t it perfect out there

Back to Baseball

Baseball has lost its Soul.

And without it’s Soul Baseball will increasingly become Hollow no matter how many clueless fans money gorging teams like the NY Yankees pay to build teams of circus “freaks.” Bud Selig and the Rich Boys of Summer have decided they can do without African Americans in Baseball. That they can and have found cheaper “product” to sell to the fans endless imports from Latin America.

The ultimate arrogance of the Wealthy. Money buys anything and everything and on whatever terms they decide. The fact is that just as the Earth will not be the same without fish in the oceans and ice in the polar zones, Baseball WITHOUT African Americans is a corrupted version of the Sport.

There is a spirit, there is a joy, there is a heritage of suffering and survival and a pivotal place in the American consciousness that African Americans bring to Sports and life outside of Sports that cannot be denied. Correction can be denied and oft is at a very heavy price to the fabric of our Society and now Baseball.

But what is worst of all about the Rich

here the Rich in Baseball is that

they are NOT anywhere as

smart as they think

Bill Rhoden can take credit ( even if he really isn’t responsible ) for this 2 part Black Box about African Americans and Baseball. We are on the same page as Rhoden except Rhoden wants to play “small ball” and thinks that will bring African Americans back to Baseball.

WRONG

small measures will

NOT do any more

We need a Grand Strategy. Amazing innovative bold thinking to bring BALANCE back to Baseball before Baseball is too far gone to be brought back to any kind of Life worth getting excited about. Yesterday we set the stage by probing for Baseball’s biggest weakness in the midst of its superficial current success. Not as some kind of academic exercise but to build a foundation for addressing and solving the problem of the absence of Black players.

Yesterday we proved that there are at least 2 of the 30 MLB teams that Baseball would be better without if they disappeared tomorrow. Sure 30 teams are better than 28 except if the result is 2 permanent money losers who further don’t even try to field good teams because why bother and lose more money.

Our Radical Solution to this problem

and bringing African Americans

back to Baseball isn’t

Radical at all

Except to the narrow thinkers whose small minds are locked in the past. Fact is Major League Baseball can be made far more exciting and create waves of new fans with a BOLD 5 year plan to transform its TWO worthless franchises the Florida Marlins and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays into Something very very Different. And just as well if they unexpectedly very unexpectedly begin drawing lots of fans as an alternative Baseball add two new franchises.

More facts it is pure BULLSHIT that some individuals are born with the ability to play Major League level Baseball. Success in every single Sport is based on generally athletically gifted individuals with enough determination and by focusing on a single Sport becoming outstanding players.

We are contending here without any doubt whatsoever if young African Americans REALLY had the reason to turn serious interest to Baseball just as many young Black boys would excel at Baseball as Football and Basketball as was the historical reality for most of the 20th century.

Given SERIOUS incentive

over very few years a large group

of outstanding African American

Baseball players would emerge

HERE IS THE PLAN

It is clearly doable ALL it would take is a decision by Bud Selig and the 30 owners to do it. And what we propose they do will not only bring African Americans back to Baseball it will make ALL of Baseball stronger and more profitable in the process. The only thing standing in the way of the following plan is the dark stain of Racism. Complimented by Inertia. Alive today as before.

Baseball is in a position to announce and has the legal power to offer the current owners of the Marlins and Devil Rays to either convert their franchises into very different kinds of Baseball teams or sell the franchisees back to Major League Baseball. Remember these are FRANCHISES !

Predicated on this Baseball would announce that it ts organizing to begin with the 2012 season in 5 years teams of African American All Stars one in each League that will be composed of at least 80% African American players, and have all Black coaches, managers, executives and even owners.

These TWO teams to be named the Grays and the Monarchs will be “traveling” teams ( Rhoden should like that ) they will not have fixed home bases no city that they specifically call their own. Rather they will play in the ball parks of the other 28 teams on a rotating basis for their “home” games. Quite possibly limiting themselves to 4-6 “home” stadiums one each month of the season.

Is this guy completely CRAZY

yea crazy like the truly Brilliant

are so often accused of being

BEFORE everyone else

FINALLY gets it

The fact is if young African Americans 5 years from now KNEW REALLY KNEW they could have Major League careers IF they 1) stayed with Baseball beyond Little League today, or 2) decided to focus on Baseball rather than another Sport within FIVE years we would see an EXPLOSION of African American talent in Baseball we have not seen since the demise of the Negro League.

And what about the fans

YOU MUST BE KIDDING

MLB games featuring ALL the other teams playing either the American League or National League African American All Stars either the NEW Grays or the NEW Monarchs would be a BIG draw in every city both WHITE and BLACK fans because of the inherent drama but BETTER because they would see Baseball played with a passion, with an intensity, with Soul that has never before been seen by fans alive today. Games to remember for a Lifetime.

Is this a Permanent Solution ?

NO it’s not meant to be

It is meant to be a FIVE year solution FIVE years to be put into operation then FIVE seasons in which the National League and American League African American All Stars will play. After that it is logical to conclude those teams can become either “normal” franchises offered to two willing cities and without legal requirements requiring a certain percentage of African Americans OR they can be disbanded and those players find positions on other teams by allowing slightly expanded rosters OR they can be given another FIVE year lease on life IF that proves the best decision by 2017.

We could fill in ALL the details bout how this program would be developed, orchestrated, marketed and EASILY funded but so far anyway no one is offering to pay us to write the Business Plan and to be completely honest we have already done the heavy mental lifting others are capable of filling in the Blanks.

WHY WON’T IT HAPPEN

Not because of any flaws in the Concept. This is a guaranteed money maker for Baseball and a truly innovative initiative that will take Baseball to new Heights. The problem is small minds wo are heavily invested in the Status Quo and Racism by extension if ever so well hidden in the 21st century.

The problem is also we live in an America where the Idiot Son of George and Barbara Bush can become the most powerful individual on Earth and send young Americans to their slaughter for no good reason at all while lording over the most morally bankrupt Administration in American history. Since the end of Slavery anyway. Our nation which prizes Mediocrity every bit as much as we give Lip Service to glorifying Innovation and Achievement.

The Point is African Americans

don’t have to disappear from

Baseball as players or fans

we just solved the Problem

and it works to everyone’s

benefit Black and White

except we live in a confused

country that now Worships at

the Altar of the Status Quo

and where Institutional

Racism is a way of Life

still the choice is

Ours to demand

Whenever you want to reach us with comments or better yet an idea for a topic for the Box ……. blackbox@blackathlete.net

AND THE MONARCHS TOO !!