The old journalism adage of “If it bleeds, it leads,” is a well-known one. A modern innovation of that saying, to suit the race-obsessed liberal sports media hell-bent on stoking the flames of racial hatred, might be: “If it’s not bleeding, poke it, and see what happens.”
Such a mentality was clearly in use when USA Today writer Jorge Ortiz penned an article titled “Baseball’s culture clash: Vast majority of brawls involve players of different ethnicities.”
“Baseball teams regularly bring together people from diverse backgrounds striving for a common cause, which in the best of circumstances results in the quintessential melting pot. But when the dynamic changes and the bonding element is replaced by the fire of competition, a different kind of brew arises and sometimes boils over.
A USA TODAY Sports study of 67 bench-clearing incidents in Major League Baseball over the past five seasons found the main antagonists hailed from different ethnic backgrounds in 87% of the cases.”
Okay, fine. But the ethnicity of the players has nothing to do with it. The overwhelming majority of baseball fights occur when a hitter is either hit by a pitch or feels that the pitcher is coming in too close. The other way it most often happens is when the pitcher feel that the runner is “showing him up.”
By virtue of nearly 70% of MLB pitchers being white, by definition, most of the brawls are going to be between whites and members of other races. That’s not racism, that’s math.
So, why is this a story? Other than the general stoking of racial fires, much of this outcry seems to be based on Padres pitcher Bud Norris’ statement that players from other countries need to learn how the game is played when they play it in America:
“This is America’s game. This is America’s pastime, and over the last 10-15 years we’ve seen a very big world influence in this game, which we as a union and as players appreciate. We’re opening this game to everyone that can play. However, if you’re going to come into our country and make our American dollars, you need to respect a game that has been here for over a hundred years, and I think sometimes that can be misconstrued. There are some players that have antics, that have done things over the years that we don’t necessarily agree with.
“I understand you want to say it’s a cultural thing or an upbringing thing. But by the time you get to the big leagues, you better have a pretty good understanding of what this league is and how long it’s been around.’’
A perfectly reasonable statement that nonetheless sent the Huffington Post’s Erick Fernandez into snarky hysterics:
“San Diego Padres pitcher Bud Norris wants to let foreign players know that if they're going to come play his country's game in his country and take his country's money, then they better damn well act how his country wants them to act.”
Of course, what’s hilarious about this is that if Bud Norris were a Japanese pitcher complaining about the antics of an American who was making Japanese Yen, and had no respect for the way the Japanese play the game, he and his liberal buds would demand that the player quit being an “ugly American” and show some respect.
But again, the fights happen because of baseball’s unwritten rules and codes, not because of ethnicity. For example, Johnny Cueto of the Kansas City Royals is arguably the most sensitive pitcher in baseball. He once notoriously kicked Jason LaRue in the head, giving him a concussion and causing him to retire, and also threw a ball at David DeJesus, apparently just because he was upset that DeJesus had stepped out of the batter’s box a few innings earlier. Another interesting factoid about Johnny Cueto? He is neither white, nor American.
He is black, Dominican, and every bit as sensitive as Bud Norris. Or, any other white pitcher.
Baseball is a game of unwritten rules. It enforces these rules by the understanding that if they’re not followed, there will be consequences. Regardless of race. Hence, the rules don’t need to be written. Much the same way articles talking about ethnicity in baseball fights don’t need to be written.
