Ok, in my first post I made two comments. The first was that I felt Drayton McClane was prejudice. We all have our built in prejudices but that doesn't make us full-blown racists. Part of the reason I feel that way is my second comment in that post. I just don't see the same kind of commitment from the Astros for inner-city baseball that I do see from other organizations like the Yankees, Mets, Angels, Dodgers, etc. Before I go on I'll address a few things that may come up. The first is that the Astros backed the opening of the Urban Youth Academy in Los Angeles. This is indeed a fact. Former Astros Enos Cabell pushed for the Astros to support the organization and put up $35,000 of his own money. Drayton then matched his donation to help get the Academy launched. I'll give him credit for matching Cabell's donation, but I highly doubt the Astros would be involved in such efforts were it not for players like Joe Morgan or Cabell. Also, just because Drayton throws $35,000 at an Academy in LA, and has qualified African Americans in upper-management doesn't mean he's buddy-buddy with the black community. Last time I checked President Bush had increased funding for AIDS in Africa and had two prominent blacks in his cabinet (Colin Powell included), but you’ll never see the NAACP endorse him as their friend. Last time I checked it wasn’t fashionable to be a bigot in public, and these days you can never tell. If I had told you a year ago that Mel Gibson was an anti-Semitic and Michael Richards was racist I would have been called a fool. Low and behold the truth is revealed…who would have known? I don’t go slinging racial accusations like they’re candy on Halloween, so this isn’t common for me. Something just doesn’t sit well with me about the man, never has. Also, while the Astros do renovate one field a year (only one of which can be considered inner-city Houston) and give scholarships away I still think they can do a lot more. Just for example, Harlem RBI is only one of several RBI programs in NYC and the Harlem program alone has a budget over a million dollars. I’ve been to the Houston RBI office and it sits in Emancipation Park in a run-down city recreation office run by one man. You’d be surprised to know how many teams participate, but they just lack the funding to make it as effective as it could be. What makes it worse is that RBI IS a MLB initiative and the Houston office has been around for almost 12 years! This again is not the Astros entire responsibility, but seeing that MLB pushed this I would think that the local team would help this organization strive to be as great as it can be. It may or may not be about ‘race’ but again the perception that it is remains. How so? Well, my entire posts have been about the inner-city disconnect with baseball. The inner-cities are predominantly African-American/Latino. I’ve been talking about the lack of African-Americans in baseball, because I know that the Astros invest in developing Latin players. I know they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in Latin America on top of their academy in Venezuela. So if they can spend that money in Latin America, where I have yet to see the great return in investment on the field, why can’t they develop inner-city talent here at home in Houston? You can’t tell me the talent is not there because it is. There just seems to be a disinterest to do so with the kind of passion I see them putting into South America. That’s on top of the fact that the Astros minor-leagues is predominantly white. I’ve also heard the arguments too. The kids just aren’t interested, or it’s harder to develop talent here because they can’t be drafted till they graduate or their class does. Well so what? If you’re all about winning then why wouldn’t you put in the time? Obviously this is frustrating for me, because I can’t understand how baseball can allow a group of people to fade away from the game. I don’t buy the idea that the interest isn’t there or the idols don’t exist. With names like Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Willie Mayes, Kirby Puckett, and current stars Vernon Wells/Dontrelle Willis you can’t tell me the star/legend pedigree isn’t there. If you want the athletes you can compete with basketball/football or whatever, you just have to want to. And I doubt Dr. King would disagree with my questioning of this issue. Unfortunately your nightmare is actually reality. Covert racism is the #1 threat because America is way past the apathetic stage when it comes to race. Any kind of discussion about race is thought of as exaggerated and that’s why we can’t even discuss issues like Rwanda. By talking about the Astros/baseballs involvement in the inner-city no harm has been done. Actually, if anyone reads this and decides that things like Rwanda are of no consequence then they are the morons, not me. The civil rights movement wasn’t set back 30 years or anything like that, but just in case let me send my apologies to Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, the NAACP, and I'll even throw Quannel X in there to be sure. In fact this thread has educated people who may have never noticed that there were so many ‘minorities’ in upper-management, or that a program like RBI ever existed. That’s what a forum is for; to discuss viewpoints no matter how ridiculous you may find them. People will believe what they want to believe, but not having the discussion at all is far worse. As far as my feelings regarding Drayton are concerned I don’t know what to tell you. Just that in 2006 or beyond you don’t know who is who when they’re in public. Something just doesn’t sit well with me, but that’s just me. I see this changing in the years to come, it shouldn't have taken this long.
You act as if baseball has control over their interests. Well, I don't buy Ford, but Ford is still out there. The interest is less, whether you buy it or not. Riiiiiiight. So, lemme go down to fourth ward tonight and I'll see a Vernon Freaking Wells jersey or a Dontrelle jersey on every corner? No, but I'll see T-Mac, Jordan, Kobe, Shaq, and D-Wade everywhere. Should MLB pay for marketing for jersey sales as well? Despite your wordy diatribes, you've convinced *no one*. Because you're wrong. It's your opinion, and you're free to have it. But your opinion is *wrong*. And stupid. Thanks for working with RBI, but you're representing a great organization very poorly with this crap.
