What do Miami Herald columnist Dan LeBatard, ESPN columnist Jemele Hill, author and SI writer David Zirin, ESPN writer Chris Broussard, and bloggers Temple3, MC Bias, Jordi Scrubbings, Signal 2 Noise, Diallo from The Commission, Modi and SML have in common? We all got to contributed answers to Mizzo (Mike Tillery's) great post 5 Questions To Take Advantage of a Black Sense of Urgency over at The Starting Five.
By the way, the best aspect of that post was the diversity of the responders - you have white writers (Zirin, Jordi, MC Bias), Latino writers (SML, LeBatard), and black writers, all writing and responding to questions about these issues. A great post, and one I hope we'll see regularly.
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And, on the flip side of that post... another post about Sports Media In Need of Diversity. Michael David Smith is the latest major blogger to acknowledge the lack of diversity among the media. In this case the scene was a press conference with Tom Coughlin.
Bottom line, quickly: acknowledgment is the starting point. Much work to be done, but it is good to hear more and more people admitting that... the sports media is just not that diverse. And it's not a matter of qualification, but of opportunity. Look at black head coaches and quarterbacks in the NFL - for a long time, we were told, quite simply, that there weren't qualified black people for the positions of QB, or head coach (or GM). Yet, here we are 15 years later, and because the NFL forced itself to take a hard stance on these issues (The Rooney Rule in particular)... it has been proven that blacks can be dominate and winning QBs, head coaches, and GMs.
You see it even in everyday jobs, too. Here in NYC, we're told that there are hardly any black firefighters (the fire department is majority of Irish decent) simply because they're not qualified, or they're not interested. Bullsh*t. Plenty of black men take the test every year, yet don't get hired. Why? Because the test, by definition, is discriminatory. It's suppose to discriminate - that's the purpose of the test. The real question is this: Is it properly discriminating in favor of those who are most qualified to work as firefighters? Or is discriminating in favor of a certain group over another? The numbers seem to indicate the latter is occurring.
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Then you have those businessmen who are smart enough to pursue the economic advantages of diversity. In this case, here's a story we'll be keeping an eye on in the upcoming months: the NBA
continues to be the global leader, and is trying to create and finance some
interest in basketball in
The bottom line here: Baseball and football maybe more popular here in
the
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Bob Klapisch (former Daily News writer) reports that the Yanks turned down a
deal with the Twins for Santana that did not involve Phil Hughes.
Honestly, I never knew why Hughes was treated as untouchable by fans, but
Kennedy is not. In my mind, they are both on the same level as prospects. The difference is that Hughes had more years of hype as "the next phenom", and a proven track record of success in the minors. Kennedy was a number one draft pick (like Joba Chamberlain) who just breezed straight through to the majors.
But Kennedy's minor league stats are impressive: Only 25 starts in all three stops (from A to AA to AAA), totaling a 12-3 record with a 1.91 ERA. His major league numbers last season? 1-0 in 3 games started with a 1.89 ERA.
The point being this: the Yankees have three stud prospects. One of them, Joba, is untouchable because he's proven that he will be a major league star, even if it is not as a starter - he can always fall back upon being a star closer. Hughes and Kennedy haven't proven much yet, but both come with very impressive pedigrees.
And both are more than anything the Mets offered. If the Yankees had included one of those two, they probably wouldn't have had to add much more (certainly not Melky Cabrera, who is a must-keep at this point, if only because the Yankees don't have anyone else in CF). I think the Yankees will regret not making this trade, however, because Santana is still the best pitcher in the game. Nothing is out of his capability next season, especially in the NL. He could have an ERA under 2.00, challenge for the all time record for K's in a season (400 might be in his reach), and win 25 games. I wouldn't call any of that shocking. In fact, I think it would be more shocking if he didn't win the Cy Young next year, when the last two season have seen the NL fail to produce a 20 game winner.
The one caveat: Unless...
Santana's elbow is messed up. Then the Yankees will look like geniuses. At 29 years old, though... his best years (28-34) are almost exclusively the Mets. Let's see how this turns out.
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Stat of the Week: The Commission points out that the Knicks Are only 5 games out of the playoffs! And considering that they have been playing well... shoot, if they can just get through this rough west coast trip... hmm... naaaah! No way...
Wages of Wins has their first half value of NBA players up (via Posting and Toasting):
My question: How can Al Jefferson have 7.4 wins (good for 19th on the list) when the Wolves
only have 8 wins?!?
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The Sports Hernia is funny.
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Oddest story of the week, and one which I wonder if it might come back later this year with some relevance... Why is MLB asking umpires' neighbors if they belong to the KKK?!? Again, nothing to suggest that it's anything other than a standard background check, except... it hasn't been a standard background check before for MLB umpires. So why start now?
Did something happen that we don't know about? An accusation? A rumor? An incident? Very odd....
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Comments
That Mizzo series was great. The umpiring article actually isn't that disturbing. That's why it's called a background check, because you dig deep to make sure that the person's clean. It sounds like the umpires are crying wolf to me, unless they are really members of the KKK (those ref shirts didn't have black stripes until forced integration, ha).
Brian: Fair enough. I don't know enough about the mechanics of WOW to dispute anything, and honestly, yeah, I could see Dalembert contributing to more wins this year than Curry. At the end of the day, I can't see too much of difference in the two players - they are both one-dimensional, overpaid, and their contracts are too long. Arguing about which one is better is silly.
MC Bias: The fact that they are looking into this now is what's disturbing to me. I agree that it's background check stuff. The FBI does intensive checks like that when they're hiring for their jobs. But why look into the KKK possibility now?!? Something must have put it on the radar, right?
Look how good the backs do when they get affirmative action.
They are now the best teachers in our school system, and look how good that is.
Hmm ???
I made no previous comments and you reject me for making too many of them.
Ha.
Check this out from that Wins Produced chart:
Samuel Dalembert: 5.9
Eddy Curry: -0.6