During Wednesday morning’s Boston-Oakland tilt in Tokyo, ESPN thoughtfully took the time to promote another of its televised events: Saturday’s Civil Rights Game against the White Sox and Mets. Steve Phillips made a compelling argument after the Civil Rights Game promo for the progress of minorities in baseball in the last half-century or so:
Phillips noted the Detroit Tigers could reasonably field a starting nine that did not have a single white person. As he rattled off the starters for such a squad (including Ivan Rodriguez, Magglio Ordoñez, Curtis Granderson, and Jacque Jones), he built a strong case for the widening influence of baseball internationally and shrinking domestic (i.e., African-American) influence.
Gary Thorne’s wizened response? “Pretty good international team.”
Le Anne Schreiber, ESPN’s Ombudsman, this week covers a recent, rather shocking on-air admission by ESPN baseball analyst and former New York Mets General Manager Steve Phillips.
During an Outside The Lines report, Phillips talked about a player he had signed when he was general manager of the Mets. The player’s performance dipped once he joined the team, and Phillips was told “the cause was the player’s going off amphetamines.
