So Mike Piazza's job search finally comes to an end as he signs a one season, two million dollar deal with the San Diego Padres.Of course you can debate the wisdom of signing an aging broken down catcher to shoulder the large workload in a ball park that's more condusive to nature hikes than hitting home runs. You can also debate the wisdom of a National League team signing him as opposed to a DH flavored league such as the junior circuit.
But here is the question I have:
Is Kevin Towers, the Padres white GM, signing too many white players?
I mean, look at their roster...it's laden with white players. And look at the players signed/acquired by Kevin Towers just this off season: Piazza, Shawn Estes, Doug Mirabelli, Doug Brocail, Chris Young, Mark Bellhorn, Geoff Blum, Bobby Hill, Seth Etherton...not to mention re-signing two other white players: Brian Giles and Trevor Hoffman. That's eleven white players in one offseason! Add those to the white players already on the team such as Clay Hensley, David Ross, Jake Peavy, Tim Stauffer, Scott Linebrink, Scott Cassidy, Woody Williams, Khalil Greene, and Ryan Klesko, you have twenty out of 25 players on the San Diego roster who are caucasian. Eighty percent white...in a city whose racial makeup was only 47% caucasian as of the 2000 census.
Where's the outrage? Where's the press coverage? It's time to put Kevin Towers under the spotlight reserved for Omar Minaya.
Get the point?
26 comments:
Dude, another classic post.
Dear Metsradamus,
Do you realize that, regardless of your sarcastic attitud, the Federal Government has declared it ILLEGAL to hire based on race or ethnicity.
Do you think that is not an issue IF a GM were actively hiring players to advance the interests of his own ethnicity? So this issue should just be ignored and everyone bringing it up is foolish according to you?
You PC types are the first to declare that others should not 'speak freely' when you disagree with their views.
Hairy Sack,
That is why I use a Mac! viva la manzanita!
Omar
En esta casa, rojo, rojo, rojo
En esta casa rojo, vivo yo!
En esta manzanita, manzanita, manzanita,
En esta manzanita, vivo yo!
Tiene una chiminea, chiminea, chiminea,
Tiene una chiminea, color cafe,
Ya se que es muy bonita, mi casita
Ya se que es muy bonita, ya lo se.
Omar,
You are indeed wise.
http://www.sandiegohistory.org/collections/sports/images/80-9074.jpg
http://www.sportsartifacts.com/pcl52pad.JPG
http://www.qualitycards.com/pictures/11280921.jpg
http://www.cvac.org/snapshots2005/CC0B8813.jpg
-omar
Liberals want hte Mets to lose because they always want to blame the victim first. That is why Fox News is patriotc and fair and balanced.
When did this become a forum for political stupidity. This is a sports page!
I dunno but go throw your politcal crap somewhere else....
There is too much of it in life these days and sports should be where we can detach from that crap & argue about the DH rule or QUEStec instead.
Quite possibly the best post I've seen on the subject...but don't forget Towers traded Nady (who, contrary to popular belief is white) to the Mets so he COULDN'T POSSIBLY BE RACIST NOW CAN HE?
(note the extreme sarcasm)
I see the McLaughlin Group has made it to the site, welcome.
Harry Sachs, yes I do realize that the Federal Government has declared it ILLEGAL to hire based on race or ethnicity. I aced Government Studies in high school, thanks. Oh, please forgive my sacrastic attitud...I find it hard to take a person seriously who chooses "harry sachs" as his alias.
Of course, I assume that that is an alias. Should I not have done that? I mean, perhaps that is your real name. I shouldn't assume something about you and make comments about things I know nothing about.
Oh but wait? I believe you did the same thing with your "You PC types" statement about me. You don't know me. You have no idea how "PC" I am. (An aside, who else but Metstradamus can be called "PC" and a "Militant" in consecutive comments regarding the same blog entry? Now THAT is fair and balanced).
And I also am NOT the first to declare that others should not speak freely when I disagree with their views. This is the first post I've written that has eluded to the Minaya/Latin angle. If I didn't want people to speak freely on the issue, then don't you think I would have kept quiet on the subject?
But if you want to speak freely on this issue, then by all means LET'S SPEAK FREELY!!!!!
Even you Harry, have to admit that there is a severe double standard regarding the acquisition practices of Omar Minaya, and the example I have used, Kevin Towers of San Diego. Minaya gets Latin players, and it's back page news. Towers gets eleven white players, and not a peep (and if there are ANY articles referring to the hiring practices of Towers, please post them and prove me wrong...forgive me though if I don't hold my breath). Yeah, Minaya is in New York where everything is scrutinized to death and the northeast is "baseball country" as opposed to San Diego which is...I don't know, zoo country? But all I am saying is if you want to put Minaya under a microscope, then let's arbitrarily put anyone else under a microscope who isn't bringing in one player of every nationality therefore making his team into the "rainbow coalition", shall we?
And if you are complaining that there are too many Latinos on the team, then let me ask you all out there: What exactly are you complaining about?
Are you complaining about last year's acquisitions of Pedro and Beltran? Were those not the two best players in that season's free agent market BY FAR? Were they acquired at the expense of better players out there? I think not.
Are you complaining about the acquisition of Carlos Delgado? Are you complaining about his stance on "God Bless America"? All he's doing is speaking freely. He spoke freely when he said Minaya's hiring practices were too Latin. And yes, I did wonder at that point whether Omar was putting together a team on the sole criteria of ethnicity. It's fine to wonder, and it's fine to explore that.
Are you complaining about, perhaps, Benson and Seo for Sanchez and Julio (who by the way will be setting up for 2006 free agent acquisition Billy Wagner...not a latin name last I checked)? Let's see, ninety four starters, no bullpen to speak of. So starters are traded for relievers. Do the math.
Are you complaining about, perhaps bench players such as Julio Franco and Jose Valentin?
Well, they don't make sense to me either...from a baseball standpoint.
But you know what? If there are a bunch of latin players on a team, and Omar has it in his mind to bring in older spanish speaking players on the bench to help these players feel more comfortable and build a little thing known as CHEMISTRY? Then guess what, good for him. And good for an organization that has had chemistry issues in the past. The New York Rangers have a high influx of Czech players this season and this is their first good season since 1997. Is anyone complaining about that? No, nor should they be.
And if Omar was really planning on putting together a "Latin Kings" team if you will, then wouldn't it have been easy to sign Ramon Hernandez or Bengie Molina to catch, instead of trading a good prospect like Gaby Hernandez (gasp, latin!) for Paul LoDuca? Was LoDuca's mother from Bolivia or something? Please tell me.
So what are we complaining about here?
And where were all the complaints about this during the long courtship of Manny Ramirez? Why now? Why are all the newspaper and talk show yahoos coming out now?
BOREDOM!
Everyone is bored. There's nothing going on. I have nothing to post about. Everyone is waiting for baseball to talk about. And it will be baseball that will ultimately judge these acquisitions...not whether their last names end in "ez" or not.
But I have spoken freely enough on the subject. Now, please, go ahead and exercise (or exorcise, if you are a priest) your inalienable right to free speech. Please, allow yourself to make your views, which I will probably disagree with, known. May God bless you, and may God continue to bless America.
Your 100% right though towards last year I had the Minaya Latin opinion and was really the rep of that o Metsblog that has long since faded.
Your right because there is no media coverage adn I don't know if you were going in this direction or not but i think this is what the media wants. There's a reason there's a "hush-hush" attitude by the media and that 'cause this is what they want. When you think about it the majority of the media and a lot of teh press notoriized or not have racist opinions. I talkk about the media in this old Terrel Owens entry on blog it's more about the media than TO.
This a read I think you'll agree with and all should read.
http://journals.aol.com/y2cooljadeegssj1/sportsflames/entries/599
Going back to your entry I think there's no press coverage because all-white is jsut how they want it.
Great Entry
I like the makeup of the team and dont' have any issue with Omar.
I'm just saying that you shouldn't tell people to 'shutup' for having the audacity to suggest that racially based hiring practices are wrong.
And also Juan Samuel is Satan. He has a 666 tattoo on his left forearm and he is 'charming' and speaks more than one language. All characteristics of the anticrhist.
THe beast has come. Anyone who wears a met hat has taken the mark of the beast and will be condemned.
The endtimes is upon us.
that "666" was the highest fielding percentagd Juan ever attained as a second baseman and he is proud of it. Metsra--criticize SD all you want. Remember Eric Show and the John Birchers were toeing the rubber for San Diego. Hmmm, I see a pattern here.
I have an off topic question--I just thought of this: is Todd Zeile riding that elk or has he just shot it? Just wondering.
Harry,
Please read the original post again and quote where I said "shut up" or even implied that people should shut up. That isn't what I said/implied at all. Again, I just made the point that there is a double standard when it comes to Minaya and a guy like Towers. I thought I made that clear in my response but obviously not. I write enough words on this blog I don't need any additional words put in my mouth.
jdon, since Zeile never played for the Braves I had to substitute Sid Bream on a deer to represent them.
Metstradamus,
You make good points and I like the blog.
Keep up the good work. Just wanted to 'stir things up' a bit.
So is Sid Bream riding the deer or has he just killed it, or has he tranquilized it, and is......., uhm......, never mind.
But all that aside Harry, welcome to the site...and welcome to all that discovered this site in the past 48 hours.
And now that I see your latest comment Harry I say thank you. You may now continue stirring.
And jdon, I think Felix Unger and Oscar Madison are wearing the deer suit trying to get on "Let's Make A Deal".
Did that make you feel better? Did that give meaning to your meaningless anonymous life?
The current over-use of Freedom in righty rhetoric reminds me of the shrill calls for "Freebird" by drunken morons during bad, local-rock concerts.
put a lid on it; you sound like a Freetard.
p.s.
Freebird isn't free
p.s.s. multicultural mets will rule in 2006. if only we had a chinese woman to take VZ's place in the rainbow rotation.
I blame Darth Marc.
Michelle Kwan might be able to get a waiver to come to spring training.
Dear anonymous at 2:04 PM:
Thank you...Thank you so much for showing me the light. Your baseless name-calling without any reference to fact was a real epiphany for me. What have I been doing my entire life.
I'm buying a camper moving out of NY, heading to a nice red-state like Colorado, or Georgia. I am giving up my life-long allegiance to the Mutt$$, the team I have stood by through thick and thin for the last 30+ years, now I can embrace the Rockies or Braves or another Republican Freedom loving team. Perhaps even the Rangers, the torturer in chief's old club.
I am burning my membership card in the Dumbocratic (communist) party. I am writing a letter to Tom DeLay right now to join the Republican (Freedom) party. This way I can fight for freedom like a true patriot, freedom to torture captives, freedom to hold american citizens captive forever without ever holding a trial, freedom to spy on calls made in the US without obtaining a search warrant.
Thank you for showing me the light.
Sincerely,
Bruce from Greenwich Village
now Jethro from Georgia
You're never going to get Michelle Kwan's autograph with that attitude.
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