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[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by msavakinas

my point was that do you see alot of african americans working higher level games? do you see them working alot of D1 series in your area? Its an example that was meant to show that alot of the african american umpires in my area aren't trying to move up etc etc, so how could the website expect there to be alot of african americans in MLB? Most of the african americans I see working baseball do kids baseball for the money. I dont see alot of them trying to work higher level varsity and college baseball. I can only think of 1 I know off of the top of my head that works D1 Baseball and I just met him about a month ago. That was my point, I will admit it was not very clearly written before.

I attended the NCAA Baseball Meeting in Indianapolis last year. Many of the umpires were D1 and I was one of the only African-Americans in the room if I remember correctly. Now when I attend the NCAA Basketball Meeting on Saturday, I know the composition in the room will be very different.

And in many cases as someone that has worked college and HS games, I am by far just about the only African-American working. I can count on both hands the number of times I have worked games with other African-Americans in my career. So the issue in my opinion is not just discrimination, it is also participation. I am not so sure there are many African-Americans that even try to go into pro ball if they are not in the other areas of amateur ball.

I did not read all the material in the web site and it sounds more like a bunch of opinions, but that does not mean some of the information is not correct. I just think there is more to the lack of Black umpires in MLB than simply discrimination. And comments like you made earlier does not make me think things have completely changed. You do not have to be a racist to practice stereotypes that can affect opportunity.

Peace