This is just sad all around... Reading this just pains me so much. I am so thankful that my son's HS baseball team/culture/experience is the opposite. I hope this is very much an outlier and is not happening a lot elsewhere.
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This is a story of racism. Coaches can’t use the N word with black players. Then the white parents sided with the racist coach. From there it just spiraled downhill and out of control.
Awful.
So glad ESPN printed the names and photos of all the racists. Glad they all got fired. Let's hope this story finds them all and their baseball careers are over.
Agreed this is horrible and is an extreme example of how a team dynamic went horribly wrong. What distresses me the most is the parents creating another generation of racists instead breaking the cycle. I didn't see anything in the article about any teammates that stood up for the 2 young men.
Maybe I missed it, but why did they decide to quit that specific game? Because the black player was allowed to hit leadoff? It sounds like a scene out of Remember the Titans. Why did the coach put him in leadoff, then walk off the field? Did the AD tell him to hit him leadoff? Why wasn't he leadoff to begin with? He was by far their best hitter.
Ft. Myers has been a historically average to bad program. They had a couple good years in 2021 and 2022, then back to average or below. Most of the time any good players in that area are picked up by the prep schools
@TerribleBPthrower posted:Maybe I missed it, but why did they decide to quit that specific game? Because the black player was allowed to hit leadoff? It sounds like a scene out of Remember the Titans. Why did the coach put him in leadoff, then walk off the field? Did the AD tell him to hit him leadoff? Why wasn't he leadoff to begin with? He was by far their best hitter.
Ft. Myers has been a historically average to bad program. They had a couple good years in 2021 and 2022, then back to average or below. Most of the time any good players in that area are picked up by the prep schools
They put the two black players on the field, one in the batter's box and one in the on-deck circle, so they could leave them out there while the rest of the team and coaches walked off.
They did it to isolate and humiliate the young men.
Terrible. The coaches, athletic director and administrative staff of that HS should all be blackballed from sports forever.
There has to be more to this story. I cannot imagine an entire team of kids and parents supporting this. Terrible regardless to isolate anyone like that but 100% the motivation was race? I’ve just never met people like that.
@baseballhs posted:There has to be more to this story. I cannot imagine an entire team of kids and parents supporting this. Terrible regardless to isolate anyone like that but 100% the motivation was race? I’ve just never met people like that.
College students all over the US are chanting in support if Hamas. Who would have believed it in 2024. If antisemitism can return to 1938 so can racism. Anything is believable.
Everything happening in the US right now is like something from the twilight zone, so I see your point.
At what point could adult professional educators think that it’s okay to isolate and humiliate a couple of minors while in the process taking away nonreplaceable experiences from players of both teams?
I can’t think of anything two minors could do (and not be in jail) that would allow any quality person to support this kind of activity. The fact it’s racially inspired is beyond comprehension.
Sick. And we have seen it in baseball first hand (although not in such an egregious way).