Baseball lacks support from black community (article) | TigerFan.com

Carface · May 5, 2005

Here's more salt and pepper stuff.

Baseball lacks support from black community

LSU's only black baseball player, Quinn Stewart, is an anomaly in the sport

By Ronnie McLellan
Sports Writer

May 05, 2005

Quinn Stewart sprints to his position in left field, pounds his glove and crouches into defensive position.

It has been a tough game so far at the University of Alabama. The crowd got into him at the start singing the “Sanford and Sons” theme song as he took the field for the first time. He shut them up a bit in the second inning as he started dancing to the music.

“I’ve always been pretty much the only black guy on my team,” he said as he glanced at the stands and at the white expanse of fans in the bleachers.

Stewart is an anomaly in baseball. He is a black man playing what has become a nearly all-white game — college baseball. Six percent of all college baseball players are black.

His singular status on LSU’s 43-man roster says a lot about a sport that once boasted heroes like Willie Mays and Jackie Robinson.

It says a lot about what has happened to the structure of the inner city black communities and how those communities have responded to the economic incentives and disincentives that accompany college athletics today.

And it may say a lot about the eventual success — or failure — of a program by Major League Baseball to lure black youngsters into becoming baseball stars and to expand its fan base.
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Rest of article: http://www.lsureveille.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/05/05/4279c1f2d3e5d

lsubatgirl04 · May 5, 2005

Carface said:

It has been a tough game so far at the University of Alabama. The crowd got into him at the start singing the “Sanford and Sons” theme song as he took the field for the first time. He shut them up a bit in the second inning as he started dancing to the music.
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I was there for that. They also insisted on calling him Jackie Robinson. Q just shrugged and played along with it. He's brutal I tell you- BRUTAL.

Quinn is a great guy and deserves to wear the LSU uniform.

locoguano · May 5, 2005

You know what... oh friggin' well... does everything have to be at the same percentage as society as a whole? if so, then who is crying for the white kids who want to play every other sport.

lsubatgirl04 · May 5, 2005

I don't think that is what the article is meant to represent. It just states the obvious- there are very few black baseball players in the college ranks.

batman2 · May 5, 2005

Most of them sign out of high school.

lsubatgirl04 · May 5, 2005

batman2 said:

Most of them sign out of high school.
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Very true. I can name very few in my time at LSU- Duncan, Youman and Stewart...

batman2 · May 5, 2005

Don't forget about Harris, Mouton and Albert (Joey) Belle.

lsubatgirl04 · May 5, 2005

Ohh I remember them well. I was more referring to the four years I was a student there...

G_MAN113 · May 5, 2005

batman2 said:

Don't forget about Harris, Mouton and Albert (Joey) Belle.
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As an LSU fan, (actually one who went to LSU at the same time he did), I really don't like to claim Albert (Joey) Belle. I personally feel that he's a disgrace to the program.

lsubatgirl04 · May 5, 2005

I'll drink to that!