ARTICLE FROM salon.com (Full story click here)

“One Man’s Opinion” by Gordon Curvey

Yesterday I sat and watched our Seattle Mariners game on TV and was very very disappointed in what I saw on my television from Safeco Field. I did not see to many African American faces on the Mariners or the visiting Cleveland Indians or in the stands as fans.

Every time the cameras went to fans in the stands it was a white or Asian face. No African Americans in sight. I think I saw one African American face when the Root TV cameras panned the crowd at beautiful Safeco Field. I was bothered by this readers.

I grew up playing baseball and a fan of the game too. When I grew up their was plenty of African Americans playing in the major leagues. And before I was around on earth there was plenty of African Americans playing too.

Willie Mays, Lou Brock, Willie McCovey, Chilli Davis, Joe Morgan, Ken Griffey Sr., Maury Wills, Frank Robinson, Reggie Jackson, Jackie Robinson, and on and on and on. Where has all the great African American baseball players gone? To me it is a major problem.

I feel it a problem of teams like our home team Mariners and Major League Baseball. They are doing a TERRIBLE TERRIBLE job in reaching out into the inner cities of America to get African American kids interested in playing baseball again. Folks here in Seattle, the Mariners are NOT doing a good job in reaching young African American kids. They are not……period.

Again, when I watch a Mariner game on TV all I see is little white or Asian youngsters at the game and their parents and nothing but white or Asians faces drinking beer etc. It is like watching a crowd at the National Rebublican Convention or a Elks Club Convention in Montana or South Dakata. Sometthing is very wrong.

Little African American kids turn to football and basketball and even soccer after little league baseball. If you watch a high school baseball game or a college baseball game their is very few African Americans in sight on the teams and in the stands as fans. The question is why?

Major League Baseball is not serious about this problem. The Mariners are not taking it serious. As a sports fan I am bothered by this.

As I write this I am watching the Mariners game and they have a lot of kids at the game. I don’t see any African American kids. Mariner broadcaster Dave Sims has a kid come on TV with him during the game and yes……he was not a young African American kid. I think it would have been great to have a African American kid on TV with Sims talking about how he loves the game of baseball and his favorite player etc. The Mariners blew it!! Major League Baseball blew it!!

It is also going to take African American players in the big leagues and past players also to reach back and try to reach young inner city kids to play baseball. Players like Torii Hunter and CeCe Sabathia and Curtis Grandison are reaching back. It is going to take many more players and Major League Baseball to help bring African Americans back to going to games and also playing the game of baseball.

Hall Of Famer Joe Morgan was fired by ESPN from broadcasting games. Why? I think a guy like Morgan is needed to a have a visible face talking baseball on a national scale. ESPN blew it just like Major League Baseball is blowing it when it comes to reaching young African Americans.