First off, it is pretty wild that the Twins have selected a guy with such a grim expression. Second, the Twins have continued to buck demographic trends and drafted an African American outfielder. Not only is Minnesota generally lacking in ethnic diversity, but baseball writers have recently lamented the dwindling numbers of African Americans in the game.
If you look at the outfield in Minnesota for the past 20 years or so, you would be surprised, I suspect, to learn either of those statistics. Through the Twins system since Kirby Puckett and Shane Mack patrolled the outfield, the Twins system has produced Torii Hunter, Matt Lawton, Jacque Jones, Denard Span and Ben Revere, with now Aaron Hicks and Byron Buxton in the minor league system as top prospects. Not only that, but the Twins have, over the course of the last 20 years or so, signed or traded for Otis Nixon, Butch Huskey, Alex Cole, Roberto Kelly, Craig Monroe, Rondell White, Delmon Young and Shannon Stewart.
It’s worked out great for the development of the Twins center fielders over the past several years. The only major hiccup since Puckett’s days in center was Rich Becker. Puckett, Lawton, Hunter Span and eventually Revere have all been great both as baseball players and as ambassadors for the team and the state of Minnesota. There is something to be said about mentorship in a player’s development. I, of course, can’t speak to what it would be like to to be a black man in a profession that is scrutinized by a predominantly white client base, but certainly, having someone who has been through it before in the organization must help.
I wonder, too, if this dedication to drafting and acquiring African Americans has given the Twins a reputation among players as being “black friendly” or something like that. If that’s the case, it probably doesn’t speak well of the rest of baseball (that it isn’t as colorblind as we would hope) or race relations across the country are quite where we want them to be (why would a black person want to go somewhere “black friendly” if there weren’t places that were, well, “black unfriendly” so to speak).
I think, ultimately, it comes down to scouting. Scouts and organizations tend to like the same kind of players, and it influences their scouting reports. I think when looking at those “same kind of players”, they look at skill sets, and body types, which inevitably boil down to things as superficial as skin color. The Twins hit with Kirby Puckett, and have gone after black outfielders ever since. that said, if they wanted someone who produced offensively in the same way Puckett did, the most similar player to him since he played has been… Magglio Ordonez. Not exactly the same body type.
(Since I started writing this post, the Twins have made a few picks, but only one position player, Adam Walker from Jacksonville University. He is an African American left fielder.)
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