I heard a piece of it on 92.9 tonight, and honestly, I thought what Chris Rock said was kind of bullshit. The part I heard basically said that baseball was too white (i.e. stuffy) and was based in a racist past, so black people aren't watching it anymore. All American sports have a history of racism, and baseball was super popular with black and white Americans until the last twenty years, so I reject that assessment. It also led integration in sports. I don't know why, but black people just aren't as interested in baseball as they used to be. More white people listen to hip hop, and nobody listens to swing music anymore. Baseball teams are still making money , and sports trends are always changing (Look at the meteoric rise of college football's popularity outside the south, or the NBA internationally). I did not hear the full piece, so.if I'm missing the full picture, let me know, and blame Mark Zinno (sp?) for taking the clip out of context.

Now, about this alleged stuffiness or tradition or whatever, I think it's cool that when you pimp a homerun someone might deck your ass. McCann got to where he was taking it too far and being the fun police, but I like the tradition. I loved the dirty bird and neon deion too, but I also think that when you play 162 instead of 16 games a year, showboating like that would just get tiresome. I mean, a hall of fame corner pulls in a pick six three times in a season and he's having a career year, so yeah, get hype. Hell, I like the Lambeau Leap, and I thought fining TO and Ocho Cinco was ridiculous, but that doesn't mean that baseball has to be exactly like football. A decent batter racks up an rbi 2-4 times a week. Act like you've been there. They can still have fun without making a production out of every home run or extra base hit! Remember all the bro hugs and fist bumps last year and the year before? What about when the whole team goes wild for a walk off? These guys were having a blast, and they were fun to watch and support. What about the bench clearing fights? Are those boring? Baseball gets a bad rap, and I don't get it.