I received a similar -- in tone, if not content -- e-mail yesterday regarding the story I wrote about Red Sox racial history; the writer (my apologies, but I don't have the e-mail in front of me and I don't remember his name) said the Sox have again regressed regarding their racial practices since they have only one black player on their roster. This was a hole in the story I actually wish I could have addressed when I wrote it, but I didn't have the space. The Red Sox may have only one black player, but that's at least partially due to the fact that the number of black players throughout baseball is significantly down. Their overall diversity, on the other hand -- the number of non-American whites on the roster -- has never been higher. As of this monent, 44 percent of the roster (11 of 25) is comprised of what are classified as minority players. (Coco Crisp, Alex Cora, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Wily Mo Pena, Julio Lugo, Manny Ramirez, J.C. Romero, David Ortiz, Joel Piniero, Hideki Okajima and Julian Tavarez). If you count Mike Lowell, which I believe MLB does, that percentage is 48 percent. The roster is not lily-white, as it was for too long in franchise history and was not so long ago. (In 1990, for instance, when Ellis Burks was the Sox' only black player, the only other non-American whites on the roster for the entire season were Tony Pena, Carlos Quintana and Luis Rivera.)
But get beyond the mathematics. Two of the three biggest Red Sox stars in the mid to late 1990s were Mo Vaughn and Pedro Martinez, and the organization promoted them as such. (Say what you will about John Harrington and Dan Duquette, but this effort to diversify started with them.) David Ortiz is the current face of the franchise, and Matsuzaka isn't far behind. Read the quotes from Tommy Harper in the story I wrote, about feeling the difference between what it's like now and what it was like then. These are not your father's Red Sox, the Tom Yawkey/Pinky Higgins/Joe Cronin Red Sox -- or even the Haywood Sullivan Red Sox, for that matter -- and I think that's obvious regardless of what the percentages might be.
Dan Tobin makes a good point about the symbolic message of sitting Coco Crisp on Jackie Robinson Day, but a better message might be that we've now reached the point where we no longer pay attention to things like that . . . and it's obvious Terry Francona never gave it a thought when he decided to rest Crisp and get Pena into the lineup.
I'm not saying we've reached racial nirvahna in this country or in this region; far from it. I am saying we've come a long way in the last 15 years or so in Boston as far as the Red Sox are concerned, and I don't think that point is debatable.
CALLING DR. HOWARD, DR. FINE, DR. HOWARD: The daily Yankee medical report. (New York Post)
YOU THINK YOU'VE GOT TROUBLES? The Yankees injury woes, though, pale in comparison to the Blue Jays'. At least that's what they'll tell you north of the border. (Toronto Sun)
TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH, BUT WELCOME TO THE PARTY: The puncturing of the Derek Jeter-is-a-great-fielder myth is officially complete. (New York Daily News)
GENTLEMAN JIM . . . AND RICO: Bruce Markusen's Cooperstown Confidential relates a lesser-known tribute to the 1967 Red Sox, held last weekend at Cooperstown, and has nothing but kind words for Jim Lonborg. (And Rico Petrocelli, too.) (bruce.mlblogs.com)
AND FINALLY . . . The Boston Herald gets to the bottom of one of the strangest -- and funniest -- moments you'll ever see at Fenway Park: One fan throwing a pizza at another fan who was trying to catch a foul ball, which had Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy in absolute stitches yesterday. We all thought the guy was throwing the pizza at Garret Anderson, but it turns out he actually hit his intended target; this was the culmination of some trash-talking that had gone back and forth. Kudos to old friend John Tomase for an entertaining read.
And if you missed it, here's the inevitable YouTube clip:
