Over at Walkoff Walk, they had a simple hypothesis: “When we read about players who display a ‘lack of hustle’, chances are that player is a minority.” Then, they investigated:
Do White Baseball Players Ever Suffer From A ‘Lack Of Hustle’?
↵↵Here is an incomplete list of black or Latino players whose names show up in game stories, op-ed columns, and assorted player quotes when one searches Google for the phrase “lack of hustle” and the word “baseball” (takes deep breath):
↵Elijah Dukes, Julio Lugo, B.J. Upton, Jose Reyes, Alfonso Soriano, Robinson Cano, Jimmy Rollins, Benito Santiago, Willy Taveras, Matt Kemp, Milton Bradley, Derek Bell, Albert Belle, Fernando Martinez, Alex Rios, David Ortiz, Miguel Tejada, Edwin Encarnacion, Eddie Murray, Manny Ramirez, and Andruw Jones.
↵↵And what about white players?
↵↵One. That’s it, just one. David Wright, and the item was on a silly fantasy news website, hardly a bastion of hard-hitting journalism.
↵↵Without passing judgment too much one way or the other, it’s certainly an interesting comparison, and you can check out the full piece over at Walkoff Walk, as Rob Iracane has some interesting thoughts on the origins of the disparity. Maybe white baseball players are just that much “scrappier” than their minority counterparts, ya know? Nahhh...
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