I am really confused now.  Normally I get confused when something does not make sense and happens anyway, i.e. the re-election of George W. Bush as president.  Now I’m confused because an athlete said something that appears to be very obvious and everyone is acting shocked about it.  It is getting to the point where confusion becomes the norm and that is itself frightening.

The other day, during the Big East media day, West Virginia quarterback Pat White commented on why he did not play baseball while at West Virginia.  Despite being drafted in the fourth round by the Angels while still in high school, White commented that he thought playing baseball this season, but since there is a lack of African-Americans on the team coached by Greg Van Zant, he decided against it.  White also said, “In my knowledge of West Virginia baseball, there’s not been many players of my race on his team.  (Van Zant’s) not too high on that.”

This sent shockwaves throughout intercollegiate sports to such an extent that West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong made the following statement:
    “The university is committed to diversity as evidenced by the development of the OneWVU program. Our coaches and staff also are committed to an atmosphere of community for our student-athletes. I look forward to speaking with Pat more about his thoughts.”

What is the problem?  People just not watching baseball anymore or can they just not tell that African-Americans are not playing baseball the way they have in the past?  There are less African-Americans playing professional baseball, intercollegiate baseball, and little league baseball than ever before.  Even when African-Americans could only play in the Negro Leagues, there were scores of African-American baseball players who not only played in the U.S., but played in Latin America as well.  Today, neither the inner city nor the rural areas are producing African-American baseball players and like a lot of issues, it has been swept under the rug.  It seems as though people are more interested in talking about what White said instead of focusing on why.

There is no doubt that the interest for African-American players has gone down in baseball and thus the interest that African-Americans have in playing baseball has followed suit.  At one time, baseball was the dominant sport in the inner city, not basketball or football.  Now it is as though baseball is being systematically removed from the conscience of young African-Americans, thus removing potential baseball players, managers or people who spend their lives involved with the sport in one way or another.  Less and less baseball fields are found in the inner city and since physical education programs are cut more and more from elementary education, where are kids going to learn to play the sport?

Hopefully, White’s comments are looked at in the proper context, especially when he did not say anything untrue.  West Virginia’s baseball team did not have a single African-American player on the 2008 roster.  Now the blame could be placed on Van Zant, but the deeper issue is the lack of participation of African-Americans in the sport as a whole.  Or are there a lot more people who just are “not too high on that?”