Baseball or Béisbol? (Part 2)

By Cheech Marin, Huffington Post Latino Voices

PART TWO

Whatever was happening in America was happening on the baseball field. Whether it was more and more Negroes or long hair and long sideburns and mustaches, baseball was there, reflecting the changes in America. I distinctly remember the day I went to see the Dodgers play the Oakland A’s and everybody on the field was black. At first, I didn’t notice it. It was just the Dodgers vs. the A’s, until I heard a guy in back of me say, “Man, it’s the Blacks vs. the Blacks.” I looked out into the field and he was right — everybody from the pitcher to the catcher, from the infield to the outfield… everybody was black. They were no longer even Negroes; they were black or Afro-Americans, I guess, because most of them wore Afros, which stuck out in big clumps on either side of their head, under their caps. I still don’t know which looks funnier; ponytails or Afro clumps.

What a long way we had come. There were no longer “Negro Leagues” where only “Negroes” played to “Negro” crowds. There was parity on the field now. The best players played regardless of color. It reflected America where African Americans had worked their way upward into the middle- and upper-classes by their ability and they were entitled to be as good or bad or crazy or sane as anyone else… and most of them are.

So I guess what I was noticing as I sat in my massage chair, knocking back a cold one, watching the Dodgers and the Giants, was that, yes there were still plenty of blacks playing major league baseball, but now, most of them spoke Spanish. From what I understand, there are fewer and fewer African-American players and more and more Latino players. The African-American athletic pool does not seem to solely depend on baseball as their professional sports conduit to a better life. There is a huge amount of black pro football players and the NBA is dominated by black players, but baseball — America’s national pastime — now seems to be the proving ground for Latino players… and increasingly Asian players. Baseball is, and for a long time, has been global, but the “Big Show” is still in the U.S. Just as the demographics of America are shifting, so is the percentage of Latino ballplayers. There is one interesting question that hangs in the air, though. Are the new players going to be counted as Latino or black? What box did Manny Ramirez check on his census form?

Just about every Latin American country has sent players to the big leagues: from the Dominican Republic to Costa Rica. They are among the biggest stars in the league… if not the biggest. It is triple hard for Cubans because they usually come here through political channels and have to renounce their country and leave their families behind ($50 million contracts…

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You can read the first part of “Baseball or Béisbol?” here.

This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.