Orlando Hudson hints at racism for blacks in free agency

From Jeff Passan @ Yahoo.com:

“You see guys like Jermaine Dye without a job,” Minnesota Twins second baseman Orlando Hudson said Monday. “Guy with [27 home runs and 81 RBIs] and can’t get a job. Pretty much sums it up right there, no? You’ve got some guys who miss a year who can come back and get $5, $6 million, and a guy like Jermaine Dye can’t get a job. A guy like Gary Sheffield, a first-ballot Hall of Famer, can’t get a job. …

“We both know what it is. You’ll get it right. You’ll figure it out. I’m not gonna say it because then I’ll be in [trouble].”

What Hudson wants to say: He believes there is a racist element to the free-agent market in baseball, and that it’s paralyzing the 36-year-old Dye’s ability to earn what non-blacks with commensurate numbers received in the offseason.

“Call it what you want to,” Hudson said. “I ain’t fit to say it. After I retire I’ll say it. I’ve got a whole bunch of stuff to say after I retire.”

Read the article…I don’t know enough about all of the individual players on other teams to pass judgment, but I’m fairly certain that the market for older players has dropped off. I don’t know if Hudson has a point or not.

But then it says this…

While some will accuse Hudson of race baiting and paranoia, the reality is quite the opposite: He is taking public a concern that promotes discussion and forces MLB to be honest with itself about the precipitous drop in African-American players over the last two decades.

Has the overall number of non-white players in MLB dropped or just the # of African-American (possibly being more than made up by the number of players from Latin America)?

This kind of stuff sends me right over the edge, I don’t root for white players, black players, brown players, or green players (if there were any)…I root for guys I like regardless. Why does it have to be about race?