The Problem With Josh Hamilton Is......?

But not without a little reality check as a chaser! J.A. Andande, one of the few actual sports writers left on ESPN, stated more than once that if Josh Hamilton were black would Major League Baseball be so keen to promote him as this year's feel good story. I'd say no! But I'm getting ahead of myself!

Think about this, Josh Hamilton was drafted #1. He was the MLB Rookie of The Year. This year he's leading the majors in RBIs with 95. Did I mention he hit a record 28 homeruns in just one round of the Home Run Derby last week? Did I mention one of them went 518 feet? In the history of the derby only Frank Thomas (519 feet) and Sammy Sosa (524 feet) have hit longer homeruns? And that's in the 19 years the derby has been a part of All Star Weekend! As of this week, he's batting .301 and has an slugging percentage of .553!! So I think we can safely say this guys legitimate but I'm getting to the point!

Will the NFL make Adam "Don't Call me Pacman" Jones a poster boy if he has an all star caliber season this year? I'm thinking not but I could be wrong, just not about this! If not Adam Jones, how about Mike Vick coming out of prison to put up crazy numbers as a wide receiver and he has an all star caliber season? Hey, he's coming out of prison and getting a second chance with a playoff caliber team and .......no?

Ok then, so is the problem there's no story to tell or no happy ending to one? I'm beginning to wonder! Or if there was one, who would actually be inclined to watch?

Besides, why are all the good stories about black athletes ones that involve being a drug addict, dealer, wife beater, and/or bad citizen turned good guy? What about people like Ken Griffey? Isn't he a good story too? No steroid accusations, loves his family, actually had a historic game where he played on the same team as his dad and they both hit homeruns in the same game!! He just hit his 600th home run in June and a couple of days later, he's no longer news? Hmmm, makes you wonder huh?

We often accuse ESPN of running only negative stories about black athletes. Ok, that part is true, especially when said black athlete wasn't really in trouble to begin with or was falsely accused! That part of the story always seems to get lost on next day's follow up!

We followed the story of Cedric Benson supposedly intoxicated on a fishing boat on Sportscenter every night for more than a week and even got follow up when he got cited again for drunk driving. Now let's face facts, Cedric Benson is about as newsworthy as the mayor of Bugtussle, TN getting a jay walking ticket! Sure, he was a first round draft pick, but his seasons with the Chicago Bears has been about as noteworthy as what seat number I had during the Bears fifth home game of the 2005 season. I don't remember and really don't care!

So why did ESPN spend day after day leading off some days with a story about a underachieving first round pick who won his starting job because the Bears didn't want to pay the better running back to stay? I'm just guessing here and a few writers will agree, ESPN's audience (you know who you are) enjoy seeing the ungrateful, irresponsible, but physically gifted black athlete prove he's just as common as the next guy getting arrested for common things most working people wouldn't have the time or thought to involve themselves with. All the while a white athlete who commits the same or worse offense never get spoken of or at the most get a bleep on the radar at the T minus 10 minute mark before Sportscenter's sign off!

Eddie Griffin in a stand up show made a joke about Michael Vick and a couple of other black athletes. In short, and definitely not in comedic form, he said that OJ Simpson killed a white woman, walked! Kobe Bryant supposedly raped a white woman, walked! Michael Vick killed dogs and he's locked up!! So the moral of the story was to keep raping and killing white women and leave dogs alone! Ok, not funny but.........

The point of that? There's no P.E.T.A. for women? No really, the point as i understand it? There isn't one! There's no reason Nicole Simpson's life isn't worth a national movement! Now there was a movement that called for Kobe's head but they ducked for cover no sooner than it was discovered the "lady of virtue" had just had sex with someone else right before or after Kobe so that kinda ruined the whole rape thing.

She gets an A for effort though! That was a hot story as well! Innocent white girl taken advantage of by spoiled BLACK athlete! But didn't that story disappear as soon as she was discovered to maybe NOT have been as innocent as ESPN made her out to be? There wasn't a psychologist or attorney who specialized in rape PROSECUTIONS to be found once that part of the story came out! Hmmm..........

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and deduce that Josh Hamilton is #1, newsworthy and #2, not at fault here for the coverage he's gotten. What athlete shuns a mic in his face? Ok Barry Bonds, but that's a whole other article.

So if Hamilton ,Adam Jones and Cedric Benson are newsworthy, why isn't Ken Griffey Jr.? Milton Bradley too, no?

No I don't have an answer obviously, but I do think it's a lot closer to something else besides prejudice and racism.

Read a blog from any ESPN face and you'll notice more than a few responses to stories from black people who feel the same way about the "bad" black athlete as ESPN does. Now I know you're as amazed as I am that black people embrace articles vilifying black athletes but why?

Why would a black man be more inclined to watch Sportscenter for Bad Athlete A versus seeing a great story about Good Athlete B? Is it possible we're as much to blame for their crappy coverage? No that can't be! Black people DO NOT want to see other black people lose everything they've worked for! No! I won't believe that! Envy, jealousy, those things do not exist in our community! Especially as fuel for the white media to cast black athletes in a bad light! That can't be, can it?

Again, no answers here! Just more questions.

So are you more likely to watch Sportscenter when you here a black athlete's in trouble? Or are you just there for the box scores?

Me? XXL, King, Source have great articles!