ARTICLE FROM usatoday.com (Full story click here)

Watch the latest edition of ‘SPORTS INNER CITY TV” below. 24-7 on-demand!

I saw this happening folks. I look at our Seattle Mariners and I no why a task force is being started by MLB head Bud Selig concerning the alarming decline of African Americans playing Major League Baseball. Our Mariners have zero African Americans on the team this year. This is sad readers.

Currently 7.7% of players in MLB are African American. Why is this alarming to Mr.Selig and many others? Well look at the NBA and NFL. Enough said. MLB has done a TERRIBLE TERRIBLE job in marketing to the African American community. They have started the RBI League to “try” to reach young inner city kids but that is token and it is not working.

Young African American kids are turning to football and basketball when they turn 11 or 12 years old and can care less about playing baseball. When a African American kid turns on the TV they see LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Shaq, Kevin Durant, Kereem, Magic, Kobe, the Manning Brothers, Drew Brees, Chris Paul, Charles Barkley and more. The only MLB players you see are Ryan Howard for Subway and that’s about it. Locally we see former player Jay Buhner doing commercials for goodness sake!! Yes Jay Buhner folks.

Young inner city kids need to see more African American baseball players doing marketing like CeCe Sabathia, Matt Kemp, Adam Jones, Torii Hunter and the Upton Brothers etc. When they see these players they might say “I want to play baseball like Matt Kemp”

As I type this blog, the Mariners are playing the Houston Astros here in Safeco Field. Readers I am searching to see ONE black face in the crowd. The three games so far at Safeco I turn on the TV and cannot find ONE African American in the crowd. Something is very very wrong on the field and off when it comes to African Americans and Major League Baseball.

So Commissioner Selig is starting this task force to see what in the world is going on when it comes to the huge decline of African Americans playing Major League Baseball.  I am glad to see Hall of Fame member Frank Robinson on the task force. As a sports fan it hurts to see the Seattle Mariners with a all white team along with players from South America etc. This week the Texas Rangers will hit Seattle with another team that has zero African Americans on the team. A African American manager but no African American players. WHAT? Their will be two teams on the field with ZERO African Americans on the field and in the dugout. Something is wrong.

This week a new movie on the late great Jackie Robinson hits the theaters. And on the 15th it is Jackie Robinson Day in MLB. I will be writing another story on my views of MLB and celebrating Jackie Robinson Day right here in the next few days. Comments? gcurvey@yahoo.com    Gordon Curvey

“One Man’s Opinion” by Gordon Curvey

I write this blog with a big smile on my face because of the high respect I have for this cat. This blog is about “The Glove” Gary Payton. It will be announced that GP will enter the Basketball Hall Of Fame later this year. This is a great day for Gary and a great day for Sonic basketball fans.

Gary Payton and Ken Griffey Jr. and my good friend “The Reign Man” Shawn Kemp kept Seattle on the sports map. GP was dynamic on defense. No one wanted GP to watch them on D. Because they know that PLENTY of trash would be coming from Payton’s mouth. But the difference is GP would back the trash talk up. On defense AND offense GP would back his talk up with pull up jumpers and drives to the hoop, alley oops passes to Kemp and skin tight D. That was GP.

But Gary Payton was dynamic on the court and off the court. With his Gary Payton Foundation he did a TREMENDOUS amount of work in Seattle’s inner city for the kids. For instance one Xmas holiday GP asked for the Bon Marche dept store to shut down early so kids can get what ever they wanted for Xmas. He bought thousands of tickets of kids to attend Sonic games at Key Arena. He visited many schools to talk to kids about staying in school and much more.

Gary Payton talked trash. Even to the great and legendary Micheal Jordan! He did not care. That was GP. He is one of the greatest point guards in NBA history. Guys like Seattle natives Jamal Crawford and Jason “The Jet” Terry and Nate Robinson and the young Tony Wroten Jr. and many others looked up to Payton. and he took some of them under his wings and taught them the game of basketball here in Seattle.

Hopefully we can celebrate “Gary Payton Day” here in Seattle next fall before a SONIC BASKETBALL GAME AT KEY ARENA!! I am saying a prayer every night for that day. And then we can follow that day with a “Shawn Kemp Day” and of course for baseball when Grif Jr. is elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame a “Ken Griffey Jr. Day” at Safeco Field. We will be talking more about GP going into the Basketball Hall Of Fame in future editions of SIC.

ARTICLE FROM thegrio.com (Full story click here)

I have noticed that a new movie about the legendary Jackie Robinson will be in the theaters on April 12th. If you know anything about the late Mr. Robinson he dealt with a lot of racism and being called the “n” word and more when he played major league baseball back in the day. The stress turned his hair grey and it killed him at a young age. He was only in his 40’s when he died of a heart attack.

For sure I am going to watch that movie on Robinson. So I can learn more about what he went though as a black man in a white man’s sport in the 40’s and 50’s. It was a white man’s sport (the major league) except for the Negro Leagues I should say.

Every year for the last few years MLB have made April 15th as “Jackie Robinson Day”. Players on every team will wear his number on their uniforms. In my opinion expect for a few teams, it is a flat out joke that MLB has this day. Jackie Robinson would not like what he sees if he was alive today. Teams like our Seattle Mariners and the champs S.F. Giants have little to zero African American players on their teams. This is very sad. The numbers of African American players in MLB has been on a steady decline since the 90’s.

I was happy today when I turned on a pre-season game today between the Phillies and Blue-Jays. The Phillies had five African Americans in the starting lineup. The Atlanta Braves will have a all African American outfield starting out the season. But teams like our Mariners and others will have teams with almost zero African Americans in sight. This is terrible and is not what Jackie Robinson stood for. Young kids in the inner city do not have role models to look up with the Mariners etc.

Mariners radio hosts will talk about April 15th as “Jackie Robinson Day” BUT when they call the game few if any African Americans will be on the Mariners team or even the visiting team. Plenty of players from South American etc but few African Americans. Again this is not what Robinson stood for readers.

Yes the Mariners tried to sign Justin Upton. But Upton said he did not want to play for the Mariners. And I don’t blame him. The Mariners are not a winning team. Fans have been staying away from Safeco Field in droves. They might show up this year to watch the huge scoreboard that is new this year. We will see. The Mariners had a great pre-season and hit a lot of homers but what will during the season? Who knows.

I do know that on April 12th a movie about Jackie Robinson will the screens all over the U.S. And I know that on April 15th it is “Jackie Robinson Day” in MLB. A FAKE day in my opinion readers. A “token” day by MLB. A “joke” by MLB. Major League Baseball SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES!! The marketing of the game to inner city kids or inner city adults is TERRIBLE. FLAT OUT TERRIBLE. This is a fact. The NBA knows how to market. The NFL knows how to market. Baseball is living in the 50’s. This is 2013.

Young African American kids are turning away from baseball at around 12 or 13 and turning to football and basketball. They see their favorite players on TV all the time. Sorry to say they do not see their favorite baseball players on TV. This is very very sad.

Readers how many African Americans besides Ryan Howard do you see doing commericials on TV? The NBA has plenty of ex and current players doing commercials like Charles Barkley, Keerem Abdul-Jabbar, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade, Dr J, Shaq,  Bill Russell, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Micheal Jordan and others. The NFL has the Manning Brothers, Robert Griffin III, Drew Brees and others. Where are the baseball players? NOWHERE IN SIGHT.

I will be doing more stories on the lack of African Americans in MLB. Hopefully writers of the Seattle Times and other publications will join me and others and write about the current state of African Americans playing in Major League Baseball the lackof marketing in the African American community and it’s media.  It is sad to see teams with no African Americans and sad to see stadiums at games that looks like a Elks Club Convention in Vermont. Mr Robinson would NOT be happy.   Comments? gcurvey@yahoo.com or www.facebook.com/gordon.curvey  or www.twitter.com/gcurvey Gordon Curvey

ARTICLE FROM sacbee.com (Full story click here)

I am getting nervous about the return of the Seattle Sonics here in Seattle. Why? But Mayor Kevin Johnson is doing everything possible to try to keep the Sacramento Kings in town. And I mean everything. Keep in mind folks Mayor Johnson played in the NBA for 13 years.

The Sac-Town City Council voted 7-2 for funding on a $448 million downtown arena. The city would put in $258 million. KJ has lined up starting lineup of billionaires to go up against the Seattle group led by billionaires Steve Ballmer and Chris Hansen.

Johnson’s group and the Seattle group will all fly to New York to meet with David Stern and others and throw down their story on April 2nd. This is a BIG day.

Will the Kings move to Seattle and play the next two seasons here in their former home of Key Arena while the new arena is being built? Man I am getting nervous. Real nervous.

A few weeks ago sports radio jocks here in Seattle were making fun of KJ and his fight to keep the Kings in Sacramento. But now they sound way different. They realize that Mayor Kevin Johnson is as serious as a heart attack about keeping his home town team in Sac-town. People are seeing here in Seattle that KJ is doing what David Stern said. And that is the Sac-town said had to do more than the Seattle team because he said the Seattle team seems to be a very strong team.

Some folks are saying we might and that is might know about where things stand after the two sides meet next week in NY. If not we will FOR SURE know on April 19th. That is when Micheal Jordan, Paul Allen, Mark Cuban and the rest of the NBA owners will meet and vote as to where the Kings will play. Will they stay in Sacramento or will the team move to Seattle and the we will have the return of the NBA in our city.

Like many others I am tired of reading articles and hearing this and that about the two sides of this battle. I want to know if the NBA will be back in town in the fall. A city that had the NBA for 41 years. I want to know!! I want to know NOW!!!  Gordon Curvey

ARTICLE FROM probasketballtalk.com (Click here for full story)

If you know about the NBA and you know anything about Seattle, Washington native Jason Terry of the Boston Celtics, you will know that “The Jet” speaks his mind on various topics. He does not care what happens.

He talks a big game. But I think JT needs to zip the lip this time folks. Because he made some crazy and in my opinion stupid comments about the LeBron and the Heat and maybe the Celtics and Heat meeting in the playoffs. I don’t understand why Terry would step out and make these stupid comments. He has a history of running his mouth.

He did so a few weeks ago and made some comments about Lebron. So this is why James made a tremendous slam dunk over the fallin JT in a recent Celtics/Heat game and stood over JT for a few seconds. James was called for taunting.

But damn!! JT has not learned his lesson and continues to run his mouth. This is a surprise because Terry has been playing better but in reality he has been a disappointment for the Celtics. He was suppose to be a great replacement for the departed former Sonic Ray Allen. Of course JT played a long time with the Mavericks and was a dynamic sixth man off the bench for years for them.

So let’s see what happens. Why the Celtics and Heat again in the playoffs? If so let’s see what happens if JT gets caught in another 3 on 1 fast break by Heat that James will finish. Man…..I can wait!!  Gordon Curvey