Black and Latin baseball players hold up better in US summer?

The BBQ Pit
1

The great Dusty Baker, one of the greatest managers of our time, said:
“Your skin color is more conducive to heat than it is to the lighter-skinned people. I don’t see brothers running around burnt,” Baker said before the Cubs beat St. Louis at Wrigley. “That’s a fact. I’m not making this up. I’m not seeing some brothers walking around with some white stuff on their ears and noses.”

Complete article here:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2003/0707/1577519.html

His comments make a sort of sense on the level that blacks would be more naturally adept at handilng hot summer heat than caucasions, as are the latinos. I think he’s off-base with the sunburn excuse though.

The Blacks and Latinos would most certainly, I’d think, have an advantage, however slight, in the summertime. I am not, never have been, and never will be the baseball man dusty is, and neither are you. But I invite your thoughts on his theories.

Al Campanis, Jimmy The Greek, Ty Cobb, Albert Belle, and related snarky replies are not welcomed.

2

I would think any slight natural advantage that was conferred upon the less-desperate-for-vitamin-D folks would be overcome largely by where said person grew up. If the brother grew up in Boston or Detroit, he won’t be used to searing heat year-round, practicing and living in it constantly, and this might affect him a little. Many of the Latino players (and some of them are only a tiny bit darker than the white players, of course) seem to be more recent immigrants from warm countries, and they indeed might have a bigger advantage in this weather than the American-born cold-state players.

Sunblock on your nose shouldn’t affect your playing unless it gets into your eyes and stings or something. And one of the darkest women I knew was astonished at the sunburn she got on our first trip to Bermuda–her caramel skin turned almost blue-black, and she sprayed on the sunblock after that.

So basically, I guess, I think Dusty is full of it; he may be onto something if he’s thinking of the psychological advantage–if you go in thinking you can beat the heat with proper hydration, you probably do have a better chance than the guy who walks in already whining about how sweaty and miserable he’s going to be. But I don’t see what it has to do with race, really.

3

Another bullshit racist opinion, this time spoken by a talented black baseball manager. Of course, as already mentioned, acclimatization is more important than anything. Being “white” and having grown up in Florida more like “brown” tells me all I need to know about this shit.

Hey Dusty, why don’t we go play some hoops tomorrow about noon? The court in my subdivision has no shade within 20 yards of the court. Should be fun. You get one timeout.

4

Complete bullshit. Baseball players, you might have noticed, wear uniforms and caps. The only exposed skin is the arms, the face, and the back of the neck.

The only way I would believe this is if you could provide objective and verifiable evidence, with a sufficiently large sample size, that black players play better in the summer than white players, relative to career norms. We should also see black players performing better while playing for teams in hot climates, like Arizona or Houston, than with teams in cold climates or under domes, like Toronto or Minnesota. (You’ll recall how much Kirby Puckett sucked in Minnesota, or how lousy Carlos Delgado was in April and May.)

For fun, I selected at random 20 ballplayers, all regular position players, 10 white and 10 black. I have divided them into cold and warm climate teams (5 white and black) and then examined their OPS by month. (I just came up with names off the top of my head, but I took them only if they had stayed relatively injury-free this year, so we have lots of data.) Logically, if Dusty Baker is correct, the black players should show an inrease in production relative to the white players in June, when it is warmer than in April or May. And Asians, too. Japan isn’t a tropical country. So I threw in Ichiro.

White or Asian Players/Cold Climate or Dome:
Corey Koskie, Minnesota - April .821, May .751, June 1.146
Frank Catalanotto, Toronto - April .856, May .879, June .740
Brad Wilkerson, Montreal - April .906, May .905, June .966
Jason Giambi, New York - April .699, May .871, June 1.373 (!!!)
Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle - April .623, May .973, June .935
White/Warm Climate:
Lance Berkman, Houston - April .656, May .941, June 1.147
Junior Spivey, Arizona - April .655, May .800, June .906
Shawn Green, Los Angeles - April .793, May .813, June .573
Ryan Klesko, San Diego - April .895, May .809, June .836
Chipper Jones, Atlanta - April .853, May .948, June .891

Note that “April” includes a few March games. I see no evidence whatsoever than white player do worse in the hotter month of June than in the colder months.

Do black players improve relative to their white brethren?

Black/Cold Climate or Dome
Vernon Wells, Toronto - April. 756, May .922, June 1.083
Mike Cameron, Seattle - April .740, May 1.016, June .843
Torii Hunter, Minnesota - April .697, May .802, June .788
Barry Bonds, San Francisco - April 1.165, May 1.083, June 1.158
Frank Thomas, Chicago - April .927, May .863, June 1.146
Black/Warm Climate or Dome
Carl Everett, Texas - April 1.161, May .893, June .662 (Traded to Chicago in July)
Gary Sheffield, Atlanta - April 1.064, May 1.061, June .964
Edgar Renteria, St. Louis - April .946, May .811, June .892
Garrett Anderson, Anaheim - April .941, May .749, June 1.135
Tony Womack, Arizona - April .513, May .591, June .720

I see no evidence whatsoever that black players have an advantage in warmer weather. I tlooks to me as if there is an oversall boost in HITTING for both white and black players, which is consistent with common sense and accepted wisdom, but that may just be random chance. IT seems to me that the June performances of white guys like Lance Berkman and Jason Giambi are as good as any hot streak a black player’s come up with.

It is also interesting to note that the world’s greatest black ballplayer, Barry Bonds, plays in arguably the coldest ballpark in the majors, Pacific Bell Park. The stadium is notoriously, uncomfortably cold; night games in July and August will dip below 60 degrees. Doesn’t hurt the black guys. The world’s greatest white ballplayer, Alex Rodriguez - unless he’s Latin, but he looks to me like his skin is pretty white, and Baker was talking skin color - plays in the league’s HOTTEST ballpark, the Ballpark at Arlington. And interestingly enough, he has always performed better in his hot home park than in cooler road parks.

Baker is a good manager but he is totally full of shit on this one.

5

For the record, Alex Rodriguez’s parents are from the Dominican Republic.

6

Well, where are all the African-American hockey players?

:smiley:

7

There are a number of African-CANADIAN hockey players. Anson Carter jumps to mind, or Georges Laraque. Donald Brashear. Grant Fuhr was just elected to the Hall of Fame.

8

There were some darned fine football players in the frozen tundras of Minnesota and Green Bay that were a bit on the dark-skinned sided

9

I can’t say that I agree with Dusty on his observation. That being said I am at a loss as to how this is racist. He was clearly only half serious when having this discussion. The people around him were laughing throughout the interview.

Professional athletes have become, as a class, some of the most boring people on earth for exactly this reason. Their words are parsed and dissected every night. Calling a (black) man a racist for an off the cuff discussion diminishes real racism and will encourage even more athletes to speak in meaningless cliches.

10

Rick, while I agree with your reasoning your analysis is flawed somewhat. Toronto and Houston both have retractable roofs and that’s going to skew your sample.

I’d say you’d have to repeat the data using only outdoor parks that show extremes. Say Wrigley, Miller, Montreal (one time retractable but now busted), Pac Bell, Arlington, and whatever the name today of the place the Marlin’s play.

Wrigley would be a great choice. I’ve attended games there near freezing (April) and above 100 (July).

11

Wow! A thread that combines turgid racial debate with baseball statistics. I can’t think of anything more fascinating.

12

Jon, Montreal’s roof is now closed permanently. No extremes there.

I have to admit that I have neither the time nor the inclination to do the test properly. It would be easy to figure out, but time consuming; take an accepted general benchmark like OPS, calculate month-by-month adjusted OPS against yearly norms for 5-6 years (to eliminate any potential bias towards higher performance in hot months) then take a large sample of white and black players and start comparing by month. Then compare by climate of home ballpark and road/home splits.

13

$10 says The Baseball Prospectus takes a shot at it in the next week. Baker’s quotes are too juicy not to take a shot at.

Now if he’d just think about pitch counts once in a while.

14

fruitbat

It’s racist because it’s an unscientific generalization equating athletic performance with race. It’s not anything I’d get worked up about. OTOH, I’m sick of people making silly racial generalizations based on temperature or “innate” basketball ability, one of my favorites.* Anyway, I agree with your main point. I’m not suggesting that Baker be fired or even reprimanded. Yes, it is even entertaining. I’m not easily offended by anything. OTOH, the next time some drunk white goofball spouts off (Fuzzy Zoeller), I don’t want to hear about it.

*And, finally, put to rest for all but the morons by the influx of high-jumping European players with mad skilz. Sorry.