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.”

Read more…