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Originally posted by dougaiton
It is interesting though - who was the last black pitcher to go in the first round of the ammy draft? I've no idea. The only one that springs to mind is Dwight Gooden in '82. There must be more since, but it still seems like its a shockingly low proportion.
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Sabathia was a first rounder for Cleveland in 98. I mention him just because I am aware of it, I don't know about any others.
The black pitcher thing has come up in discussion many times since the 60's and 70's. Earl Wilson, a black pitcher in the 60's used to talk about how hard it was for him to be taken seriously by management as a good pitcher and that Bob Gibson was the only guy out there who they could point to. I think it has gotten somewhat better for black pitchers, but I never stopped to consider the black catcher issue.
If there is a problem to point to, I'd say it starts down in high school, legion ball, and maybe down into little league. Colleges and big league teams are so desperate for quality pitching I don't think they would be dumb enough to make race a factor. I think the problem occurs by the time the kids get out of high school.
I think what happens is high school and maybe legion ball or little league coaches aren't the best of talent scouts and use stereotypes. I experienced myself in football. I wound up a state finalist track athlete, yet in football I was put on the offensive line, even though I always beat our black RBs and WRs in sprint drills in practice. Lower level coaches place a kid at a certain position because they think the kid just belongs there on how he looks. So I suspect black kids are being made outfielders and middle infielders because of the perceived speed and quickness factor while white kids may be thought to have a better arm or placed at catcher because that's traditionally where the slow guy goes (remember Bad News Bears and the fat kid?).
I don't think this is institutional, but a stereotype issue being played out by coaches at lower levels that don't have a clue.