Torii Hunter made some comments this week in a USA today article. If you read the whole piece you have to understand what he was saying- though if you read just one quote- where he refers to latin players as “imposters.”  He didn’t mean that Latin players were trying to pass as African American.  He meant that many of the white audience may not know the difference between the real thing and the look-alike.

Is that reverse racism?  I mean he wasn’t giving us whites the benefit of the doubt, right?  But I have to say up until a few years ago, in my personal case, he might have been right.  Not that I didn’t know there was a difference between a Dominican and an African American player.  I did.  But I remember thinking that to a minority kid aspiring to be a major leaguer- did it matter where Ruben Sierra was born?  Didn’t he still offer hope to African American kids looking for people show an example of what kinds of opportunities are out there?

But I was wrong.  I may not know the difference, but the African American kid in the stands or watching on TV knows the difference.  And Hunter is right as he proceeds through the rest of the piece.  MLB wants to put faces of all colors on the field- they don’t care where they come from.  And its much cheaper to sign a foreign-born player than it is to sign a black kid from the South Side of Chicago or from deep in Alabama.  Not only do they require less money - because in most cases they have no agent- but the scouting process is easier.  No white scout has to make his way into an all-black neighborhood, to an all -black school to see a kid that may or not be worth seeing.  Those kids that might be fine in the late round in the drafts that come from these schools may never get seen, because there isn’t enough buzz to force a scout to make the trip.  In the Domican, there are private academies which feel very different than an inner-city high school, at least I imagine they might to me, and to the average middle aged white scout.  And at the academy a scout can feel pretty certain that he is going to see at least one high ceiling player, which makes it certainly worth the trip.

I am not saying any scout in particular or that all together are racist.  I know many, and rarely would I ever use that word to describe any one of them.  I would suggest that when left to find talent, we all might choose to look where we are most comfortable looking.  When I was growing up in the mid-west, I realized very quickly how afraid of being different from one another everyone was.  My time in New York, with all of its diversity, made those differences something to celebrate.  Still, it took me a very long time to see Ruben Sierra- who I use as an example because he does have such dark skin- as only a Latin player.

Last year, 28% of the major leagues were filled with Latin players, while only a little over 8% were African-American.  One only needs to look at the NFL and wonder how that could possibly be.  Its economics.  Its always economics.  But if MLB is going to become the National Pastime again- it has to make inroads not only with the audience but with the American demographics represented.  Kids of all colors need to dream of becoming MLB players- and they need to see that its a real possibility.

When David Beckham signed with the Los Angeles team in Major League Soccer, I argued that this was a sign to the best athletes that there was a financial future in becoming a professional soccer player.  If you were very good, you could make money at it and live in the United States.  Right now, for the best African Americans that pathway only exists in the NFL and the NBA.

While Hunter calling the Latin players imposters was not accurate in any way- his point that we don’t always see the differences is important.  I don’t always see the differences.  But, a young African American kid sure can.

What do you think?