Buck's Lazy Sportscasting Example Of Racism

While no real evidence exists that Joe Buck himself is racist, one of his comments during Tuesday's All Star Game stuck out as a prime example of how black players are treated a little differently by the media.

When the Baltimore Orioles' Adam Jones came to bat, Buck informed the audience that Jones is an incredibly "talented" young player. It's an epithet for Jones similar to the clichés that follow other figures. Joe Torre has class. Jamie Moyer has finesse. Adam Jones has talent, Delmon Young has raw skills, Lastings Milledge has potential.  

Black prospect after black prospect, the media seems to declare that these players have "God-given," innate, wondrously physical talent. It's a set of praises that surely must originate in scouting reports in many instances. The media may not deserve full blame for this trend, but it's the writers and announcers that repeat these ideas lazily, relying on pre-approved comments in order to have something to say about everybody. 

Watching enough games and reading enough articles on baseball, this picture develops pretty clearly. Players like Jones and Milledge are inevitably described as so incredibly "gifted" that it appears the media are doubting whether these black players might have a good, competitive brain in their heads. The implication is that these players have not exactly needed to work hard to get to the big leagues, and the work they must do surely involves figuring out some purported mental aspect of the game.  

When similar white players arrive on the scene, the media calls them "natural ballplayers." Hunter Pence? Such a consummate pro. A slump for Pence gets explained away as growing pains, and a slump for Jones means that the league is figuring him out. While a white player like Pence simply has to develop into his own, a similar black player has mental issues he needs to figure out.

Maybe there's no racist conspiracy to focus on black ballplayers as mere physical specimens. But the delicate nature of these descriptions highlights the pervasiveness of such lazy sports journalism. For many years we were all blind to the fact that Joe Torre had a conniving, egotistical side while announcers like Buck must have called him classy thousands of times. We were all told Corey Patterson was so darn talented, and then found out he was just a fairly average Major Leaguer.

The game and its fans need real, honest, informed insight about the players. We don't need to lump all black players together as athletic marvels. Announcers like Buck need to conduct real journalism, get fresh stories and angles, and start presenting the future stars of the game as unique, dynamic individuals.