500 And 300 - Which Is More?

Another phone call from the brain trust of the Monroe Doctrine (and by that I mean, the DoorMatts). Whenever Matt has time to think and gives me a call, we end up with an article that causes you to think – like the greatest player of each decade. Whenever he’s too busy to call, we end up with silly fluff – like a tribute to the number 4.

The latest call generated this: Twelve of the twenty-one members of the 500 Homerun club are black or Hispanic. And when A-Rod hits his next homerun it will be thirteen of twenty-two.

Zero of the twenty-two members of the 300 win club are black or Hispanic. When Glavine wins his next it will be zero of twenty-three.

Why?

There have been great non-white pitchers. Gibson, Marichal, Newcombe, Jenkins, Pedro, Vida Blue, Dennis Martinez. But none of them have 300 wins (Jenkins is closest with 284).

It could be the black quarterback syndrome wherein a team puts their most talented player at a position where they can display all their “skills” on a daily basis.

It could be that there was/is a sense of racism (in baseball? No way!) such that management didn’t feel comfortable putting the fate of their team in the hands of a person of color.

It could be that teams wouldn’t give pitchers of color as much leeway to pitch out of jams and thus earn wins. Or didn’t allow them to begin their major league career as early so they had a chance at getting 300 wins. Or wore out their arms (Gooden, Gibson, Martinez) so that their careers were cut short.

Certainly the fact that players of color were not allowed to participate in the Major Leagues until 1947, and then at an embarrassingly slow pace, plays into the fact that a lot of careers didn’t blossom to full potential (Newcombe, Paige, Radcliffe). But in our lifetime we have seen Clemens, Maddux, Carlton, Ryan, Sutton, Niekro, Perry and Seaver (and soon Glavine) eclipse the 300 mark. Why no pitchers of color?

Offensively in our lifetime (and by that I mean when we were old enough to pay attention to baseball) we have seen Schmidt and McGwire pass 500. But also there have been Bonds, Palmiero, Sosa, Griffey, Jackson, McCovey, Thomas and soon A-Rod who have joined the 500 club.

Nine new members of the 500 club and seven are of color. Eight new members of the 300 win club and none are of color. What gives? Perhaps it comes from the adage of why there were so many aggressive hitters coming from the Dominican. “You can’t walk off the island.” Unless you throw a ball 105 mph, it may be hard to impress scouts and truly standout. But if you can hit a ball 500 feet and run like the wind, you have more opportunity to catch a scout’s eye. So maybe players of color are themselves deciding to line up on the offensive side of the ball.

At first I thought it could be economics; that a ballclub didn’t want to pay a player of color more than a white guy. But starting pitchers don’t make as much as the offensive stars, so that theory doesn’t fly.

I honestly don’t have an answer with which to end this column. Since Matt pointed this out a couple of weeks ago, I have wracked my brain to come up with a logical answer. The “black quarterback syndrome” is what Matt and his entourage have settled on. Could be. I have no clear cut answer in my mind.