FOX Sports - World Baseball Classic- U.S. no longer envy of baseball world
Of course, Xpinionated is going to have a completely different spin on this. And the title was just to get your attention...
A while back when the U.S. basketball team came up with only a bronze in the world championship, every sports fan and media pundit blamed the performance on players not wanting to play, too much thuggery on the team, a lack of patriotism, the crybaby players et al
Now the U.S. baseball team is sucking arse at the inaugural WBC, but you don't hear cries about overpaid athletes, or why aren't the best players showing up for their country. You hear none of the negative talk about the players that followed the U.S. basketball team....why is that?
I'll have to pull that whole race card on this one. The reason sports fans in this country are so quick to criticize the NBA over any other sport is because of the visibility of it's athletes and it's counter-culture of the players when compared to the fan-base. You've got a league that is approximately populated with 90% black players whose fanbase is far from 90% black. Football is probably the closest in terms of volume of black players but they have helmets and shoulder pads so their blackness isn't as evident to the casual suburban fan who enjoys soft rock and a day out on the boat. With baseball, however, the players look mostly like the fans. A majority of baseball players are not tatted up, don't have cornrows, look like your average person even down to their athletic(and I use that so sparingly) build. So to insult and blame a baseball player is almost like blaming the guy in the mirror....not the case with B-ball.
Time for all those American kids to stop playing video games, not to mention football, basketball and soccer.
Of course, Xpinionated is going to have a completely different spin on this. And the title was just to get your attention...
A while back when the U.S. basketball team came up with only a bronze in the world championship, every sports fan and media pundit blamed the performance on players not wanting to play, too much thuggery on the team, a lack of patriotism, the crybaby players et al
Now the U.S. baseball team is sucking arse at the inaugural WBC, but you don't hear cries about overpaid athletes, or why aren't the best players showing up for their country. You hear none of the negative talk about the players that followed the U.S. basketball team....why is that?
I'll have to pull that whole race card on this one. The reason sports fans in this country are so quick to criticize the NBA over any other sport is because of the visibility of it's athletes and it's counter-culture of the players when compared to the fan-base. You've got a league that is approximately populated with 90% black players whose fanbase is far from 90% black. Football is probably the closest in terms of volume of black players but they have helmets and shoulder pads so their blackness isn't as evident to the casual suburban fan who enjoys soft rock and a day out on the boat. With baseball, however, the players look mostly like the fans. A majority of baseball players are not tatted up, don't have cornrows, look like your average person even down to their athletic(and I use that so sparingly) build. So to insult and blame a baseball player is almost like blaming the guy in the mirror....not the case with B-ball.
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