Torii Hunter's candid comments in the third installment of USA TODAY's roundtable discussion on improving baseball stirred a mini-debate Tuesday, with Hunter prompted to explain his comments to reporters and White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen joining the fray.
Torii Hunter makes a point to agent Scott Boras during USA TODAY's roundtable discussion on improving baseball.
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Hunter's comments that received considerable play in our online community and elsewhere in the blogosphere came during a four-hour session with seven other baseball figures in a round-table session at an Arizona restaurant. Here's the meat of what's been dissected today:
Said Guillen to the Associated Press:
Torii Hunter makes a point to agent Scott Boras during USA TODAY's roundtable discussion on improving baseball.CAPTION
By Jason M. Millstein, for USA TODAY
Hunter's comments that received considerable play in our online community and elsewhere in the blogosphere came during a four-hour session with seven other baseball figures in a round-table session at an Arizona restaurant. Here's the meat of what's been dissected today:
"People see dark faces out there, and the perception is that they're African American. They're not us. They're impostors.
"Even people I know come up and say, 'Hey, what color is Vladimir Guerrero? Is he a black player?' I say, 'Come on, he's Dominican. He's not black.' "
Hunter was approached by news reporters from the Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times at Tempe Diablo Stadium on Wednesday and expressed his disappointment that his comments were interpreted in an inflammatory fashion. He also vowed not to apologize "Even people I know come up and say, 'Hey, what color is Vladimir Guerrero? Is he a black player?' I say, 'Come on, he's Dominican. He's not black.' "
"How do you take a negative out of a positive story? Something so positive that I've done my research on (the declining numbers of African-Americans in baseball), something I've helped so many kids — not just African-American kids, kids in need, just kids period — and somebody can take one negative out of a positive story and make a big mess out of it.
"I'm not going to sit here and plead my case and say, 'Oh, I'm not a racist' and beg. I'm not begging to anybody and explaining why I'm not a racist. Forget you. You can think what you want. I do great things. I'm not going to sit here like somebody who's guilty and apologize because I'm not guilty of nothing. It's not really the writers fault. It's all the bloggers that take that one little word and run with it and then it blows up."
Venezuelan native, White Sox manager and noted opinion-maker Ozzie Guillen weighed in later, making light of some of Hunter's comments but also noting that he realizes what Hunter was trying to say."I'm not going to sit here and plead my case and say, 'Oh, I'm not a racist' and beg. I'm not begging to anybody and explaining why I'm not a racist. Forget you. You can think what you want. I do great things. I'm not going to sit here like somebody who's guilty and apologize because I'm not guilty of nothing. It's not really the writers fault. It's all the bloggers that take that one little word and run with it and then it blows up."
Said Guillen to the Associated Press:
"To me it was a funny context. I know what he wanted to say, what he meant to say. But like I say, we look for talent and the talent's out there. You look around and when you go to any place in Latin America there's a lot out there."
Guillen also noted that the White Sox's first-round pick in 2009 (Jared Mitchell) is African American, and that athletes from Latin America don't have the options African American athletes enjoy."I was laughing because when he said 'they go there and sign for potato chips,' I said 'Well, we've got (Aroldis) Chapman (Cincinnati Reds) , they gave him ($30 million). We've got Viciedo (Dayan, White Sox prospect). They gave him $10 million. I remember in my time, one scouts goes, 30 players show up (in Venezuela). Now 30 scouts go there and one player shows up. In our country, we play baseball. That's no choice. Here you can play basketball, you can be another athlete, you can do so many things when you have the opportunity. And that's why there's not many (African American) players out there. That's the reason I think Major League Baseball opened the RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) thing, to show more underprivileged kids how to play the game."
Conveniently enough, the Angels played the Reds on Wednesday in Tempe. Cincinnati manager Dusty Baker also served on USA TODAY's eight-person panel, and while he does not recall the context in which Hunter's comments came, he says Hunter by no means is racist. "I was there that night but I left before that subject came up – or if it came up, I don't remember it," Baker said. "Torii's probably one of the most respected guys in the game, by all races. I hope he's making light of this situation. It either came out wrong or was interpreted wrong. I know Torii well. I know he has a lot of Latin American friends too. You hate to see any division of races in baseball or in this world we live in – especially when Torii is one of the guys who brings people together. ... Like everything else, this too shall pass."
