Does the Color of Your Sox Matter?

With Lowell going on the DL, the Red Sox are put in an interesting situation. I’m not talking about roster moves or who is going to pick up the offense… I’m talking about the lack of racial diversity in the lineup. Wednesday night, the Red Sox had a 100% white infield. That’s almost unheard of in the diverse landscape of today’s Major League Baseball.

Think about it. The Sox have Ortiz, Lowell, Coco, Lugo, Cora and Ellsbury as the only non-white (fully white… I think there is some mixing in there) position players on the Red Sox roster. The pitching staff isn’t any better with only Delcarmen, Lopez, Oki and Dice-K fitting the diversity criteria.

Race is a touchy subject and as a New Englander, I approach the issue with some trepidation and a whole ton of liberal guilt. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t make an observation right? I mean look at this team and the moves they have made over the last few years: replacing Pedro with Schilling, Hanley Ramirez for Beckett, Lugo gave way to Jed Lowrie and most recently Manny was traded for Bay. You could make the argument that Theo was trying to create the master race on Yawkey Way!

But only if you were an idiot.

This doesn’t mean ANYTHING really. I just thought it was interesting that a town (Boston) that gets a bad rap about racism suddenly has a team that looks like they could have come over on the Mayflower… ok maybe not… but you know what I mean. Boston has some race issues in its past that it is still trying to get over and maybe having a team that looks like the Anti-Celtics racially isn’t the best idea marketing-wise.

I guess my biggest (and only serious) criticism is that the front office has lately taken some big steps in the Asian markets (getting Dice-K for big bucks) while neglecting black and Latin fan bases. Is this a purposeful act? Absolutely not, but I still think some of the Sox management should tap into an ever growing fan base. And isn't baseball the game that brought all peoples together? Can't we bring that back?

Besides, it’s kinda sad to see Papi have nobody to complete is 7 step hand shakes with after a big homerun.