Baseball "Magic City Classic" AAMU vs ASU 4/25/2015 Historical Birmingham Rickwood Field


JSU's Melvin Rodgriques is a Puerto Ricans and one of the top players in the conference. He's also as black as me.
That's one player out of like 25 on the team. No one is saying not to have a diverse team, but hell, don't let other folks come in and take over like some have done. We have a habit of allowing that to happen time and time again.
 
Since our schools are publicly funded we have to understand that our schools belong to the citizens of the state, not just the black folks. As the academic offerings expand so to do the people who are willing to attend. The only place to become a PT, orOT in central alabama is alabama state. So guess what... Mary Jane Watson may never have thought of being a hornet but now she will be. The H in hbcu stands for historically. That means yesterday, and while we will embrace yesterday understand that tomorrow will and must be different.
Notre Dame is a cathoic university. They carry that banner. They are also privately funded. Bob Jones U. doesn't allow its students to date... interracially . They can do that because they are private. Our sucess long term is dependent upon diversity.

To be frank and honest, you guys didn't start waving this "come one come all" banner until Melendez came to Bama State, now all of a sudden it doesn't matter.
One wonders why we're the ones to always have to bite the bullet and allow others to take part when they wouldn't dare do the same with us.
 



It's really disgusting to see the limited amount of black players in the SWAC. I really hope black kids start picking up baseball again. It's amazing to see the lack of fundamentals being taught in many of these predominately African American public schools in this era. I have to credit these SWAC coaches for keeping our baseball programs rolling in spite of the cultural change.
 
To be frank and honest, you guys didn't start waving this "come one come all" banner until Melendez came to Bama State, now all of a sudden it doesn't matter.
One wonders why we're the ones to always have to bite the bullet and allow others to take part when they wouldn't dare do the same with us.

You right. To be fair, majority institutions should have athletic teams that don't reflect the overall student population as well... Oh, wait that's all ready the case. As someone already said, it's not that melendez doesn't want black players. the best black players don't want him... or specifically alabama state or school like them, i.e. hbcu's. At least he's in the position that he can still go get quality players if he's rebuffed by the best black players. Who you've got to feel for is our football and basketball coaches who certainly would take the best black players but can't get the time of day until something goes wrong and they need to transfer. Then even the white guys don't want to come there. So they end up with black players many of which are not good compared to their contemporaries.

So Melendez has a pipeline into puerto rico and florida where he can get fantastic players that can compete with everyone in the country (shoulda beat fsu this year, and played well against top 10 louisville who i'll see face clemson this weekend.) Melendez is recruiting the best players he can get. If they are black, then they are, but if their puerto rican or white, or asian som be it. To tell the truth after losing since they started playing baseball it sorta just feels good to win. Gonna enjoy just having all the other state schools being nervous to play the hornets for a while before starting to make demands about who's on the team.

Now if Jenkins can do for football at state what melendez is doing for baseball...
 
It's amazing to see the lack of fundamentals being taught in many of these predominately African American public schools in this era.

This is the absolute truth. I played at Rickards High School in Tallahassee, the only predominantly black public high school in Tallahassee. We had black kids who actually grew up playing the game and had some genuine talent. We weren't a great team, but we were competitive(they since won two District Championships). However, when we would play black schools from the counties surrounding Tallahassee(East Gadsden, Jefferson County) or FAMU High(private school), we knew we would win by at least 10 or 15 runs because those teams lacked the fundamentals.
 
To be frank and honest, you guys didn't start waving this "come one come all" banner until Melendez came to Bama State, now all of a sudden it doesn't matter.
One wonders why we're the ones to always have to bite the bullet and allow others to take part when they wouldn't dare do the same with us.

I don't think it is fair to assume that the non-minority coaches did not attempt to recruit black players. Since we want our teams to win, they should not be required to recruit a third-line or fourth-line black player just to have black players. it is better to ger second-line white or Hispanic players that have been pushed down by top-line black players at majority schools. that is the way competition forces things.

I said before that the best way to get top and second line black baseball players to return to HBCU schools is to start winning with other type of players. You can see that already at A&M and Bama State. That Harris kid at State is good...You think he would have come if the team was not winning like it does? Probably not. My high school friend has a kid that was all-state in high school last year and was offered a scholarship by Bama State early in the year. The kid signed with Samford. After Bama State beat Miami, Auburn, Samford and UAB, the kid rethought and my friend said he wished he had signed with Bama State.

Also look at the black players that have signed with A&M since we started winning.

http://www.trussvilletribune.com/2014/03/28/clay-chalkville-third-baseman-commits/

http://www.shelbycountyreporter.com/2015/04/21/oak-mountain-has-two-sign-to-play-baseball/

http://www.gtpreps.com/article/2015...n-signs-baseball-scholarship-with-Alabama-A-M

http://www.chattanoogan.com/2015/1/24/292685/Tyner-Academy-Senior-Michael-Haywood.aspx

Note that the kid from Tyner had a friend to sign with Kentucky State last year. "After my teammate from last year, Chae Butler, signed with Kentucky State, we knew that we could play at the next level. Chae and I are like brothers. We play on the Tennessee Express together and we have been playing together since we were 7 years old." "

A&M and Bama State offered that Butler kid a scholarship.

http://www.chattanoogan.com/2014/5/13/276394/Tyner-s-Chae-Butler-Signs-Kentucky.aspx
 
I don't think it is fair to assume that the non-minority coaches did not attempt to recruit black players. Since we want our teams to win, they should not be required to recruit a third-line or fourth-line black player just to have black players. it is better to ger second-line white or Hispanic players that have been pushed down by top-line black players at majority schools. that is the way competition forces things....

I don't have an issue with an HBCU team being diverse at all, but when I see Black schools with 80-85 percent non-Black baseball players, it does raise some questions if the coaches are really trying to recruit quality Black players. You'd think they could get the number up to at least 30-40 percent.
Then again, that's just my opinion.

Perhaps as you say on down the line that Black players will once again turn their attention to HBCU's if some of those schools continue to win.

As far as the AAMU/Bama State games being historical, I'd say it is. Both have never fielded a team with a majority of Hispanic and White players until now.
 
This is the absolute truth. I played at Rickards High School in Tallahassee, the only predominantly black public high school in Tallahassee. We had black kids who actually grew up playing the game and had some genuine talent. We weren't a great team, but we were competitive(they since won two District Championships). However, when we would play black schools from the counties surrounding Tallahassee(East Gadsden, Jefferson County) or FAMU High(private school), we knew we would win by at least 10 or 15 runs because those teams lacked the fundamentals.

Wow. When I played high school baseball in New Orleans, our magnet school, (made up 12 African Americans 3 Mexicans) won 3 consecutive district titles in my 4 years there. At that time, there were at least 5 predominantly African American public schools that produced very good players who grew up playing at local parks and recreational leagues. Southern, Grambling, FAMU, and AAMU used to snatch those kids left and right.


I have played baseball on a pretty high level, but it sickens me what I am currently seeing and the Little League, junior high and high school level when it comes to us. Our kids aren't being taught fundamentals. I have seen so many football coaches who might have played 1 year of baseball when they were in high trying coach high school kids until it's crazy.
 
That's one player out of like 25 on the team. No one is saying not to have a diverse team, but hell, don't let other folks come in and take over like some have done. We have a habit of allowing that to happen time and time again.
He's puerto rican? man... it's amazing that he didn't end up at bama state as well...lol... and you know I'm right
 
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