Sean Doolittle speaks out on baseball’s racism problem
In the past month Josh Hader, Sean Newcomb and Trea Turner have all had past racist tweets come to light. Sean Doolittle sees this as emblematic of a larger problem in baseball
Major League Baseball seems to have a major league racism problem.
In the past 24 hours Atlanta Braves pitcher Sean Newcomb and Washington Nationals shortstop Trea Turner have become just the latest to have offensive statements made in the past revealed.
At the All-Star Game on July 17, no one seemed to pay attention to the fact Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Josh Hader gave up three runs. Rather, talk was all about racist and homophobic remarks he posted on Twitter while a high school student.
Sean Doolittle, a teammate of Turner on the Nationals, sees these tweets as representative of a larger problem in the league. Doolittle posted on his Twitter page Monday that baseball should be a place where people of all backgrounds are welcomed.
“It’s a privilege to play in the major leagues and we have an obligation to leave the game better than we found it,” Doolittle wrote. “There’s no place for racism, insensitive language or even casual homophobia. I hope we can learn from this and make the MLB a place where all our fans feel welcome.
Doolittle believes the situation involving Hader, Newcomb and Turner is a moment for players and fans to realize their words matter. Twitter, he says, can be a place for positive growth and to positively connect with fans.
It’s been a tough couple of weeks for baseball on twitter. It sucks to see racist and homophobic language coming from inside our league - a league I’m so proud to be a part of that I’ve worked really hard to make a more accepting and inclusive place for all our fans to enjoy.
— Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) July 30, 2018
One reason why baseball is suffering through this controversy: the league is mostly made up of white players. In 1985, the number of black players in MLB was 18.4 percent. Now it is 7.8 percent. Last season saw the lowest percentage of black players in the league since 1958. Compare that with the NFL, where 68 percent of players are black.
From 1975-95, black players won 13 of 21 National League MVP awards. But since 2008 the only black MVP is Andrew McCutchen (Giancarlo Stanton is part African-American). The American League hasn’t had an African-American MVP since Ken Griffey Jr. in 1997.
Baltimore Orioles center fielder Adam Jones gave voice to the concerns black players have about their place in the league in. Speaking in 2016 about why MLB had not seen national anthem protests like in the NFL, Jones believed he knew the answer: black players are expendable in baseball.
“We already have two strikes against us already, so you might as well not kick yourself out of the game,” he told USA Today. “In football, you can’t kick them out. You need those players. In baseball, they don’t need us. Baseball is a white man’s sport.”
Doolittle is right. Twitter is a great way for players to reach out to fans. But until baseball addresses its diversity problem, fans might not always like what they see there.