Colorado Rockies Should Be Getting Uncomfortable

Blogger's Update: 

The Rockies signed Matt Kemp four days after this post.

Does that make the situation better...or exactly as suspected?

Ian's Gone, Now What?

It's hard to "think again" on this; it's happening as I type.  Ian Desmond isn't returning, and he left with an Instagram post that merits everyone's attention.  You can see one panel of it below.  This has led me to write something I've been avoiding.  It's difficult to pinpoint.  Baseball doesn't provide some natural means of sifting by race.  Frankly, I don't want to do that.  Still, this whole situation brings up a topic I've been nervous to state in writing:

The Colorado Rockies don't seem to like black players.

I'm going to try to be factual here.  If I'm off, see the comments section.  Smarter people than me know this better.  Obviously, a simple count should be the first order of business.

The first point of evidence is the 40-man roster today.  About 8% of baseball players are black.  Mathematically, you would assume a working hypothesis of 3 (or maybe 4) black players on the roster.  The Rockies have zero as of today.  Ian was half black.

Well, how about the non-roster folks?  Nope.  Nothing.

Coaches?  Wait!  Stu Cole is here!  How is this not "I'm not a racist because I have a black friend?"

Isotopes: Michael Choice.  One.

Yard Goats?  Mylz Jones and, umm, no one.

JetHawks?  Twins:  No one and Nobody.

Tourists?  Derrik Watson

I'm not sure how far down I should go here.  Rosters change by the minute, and some teams have more listed players than allowable roster spots.  I'm just eyeballing roster pictures.  My Microsoft-Excel-Chi-Square-Analysis-Because-I'm-Classy based upon these pictures looks like this:

Group	Multiplier	Roster Size	Expected	Observed	Chi Square
Rockies	0.08	40	3.2	0.5	7.290
Isotopes	0.08	25	2	1	1.000
Yard Goats	0.08	25	2	1	1.000
JetHawks	0.08	25	2	0	4.000
Tourists	0.08	25	2	1	1.000
Coaches	0.08	10	0.8	1	0.040
Non-Roster	0.08	23	1.84	0	3.386
TOTALS		173	13.84	4.5	87.236
CRITICAL VALUE	24.322	p<.001

Short version: There is a less than 1/1000 chance that these numbers are randomly assigned to these groups.  A dispassionate look at the figures indicates a potential issue with the number of black players in the organization (& black coaches).

Second point (for Rockies fans): 

Think back to the last black player the Rockies had.  Keep in mind, Dominicans aren't the same (working question: do they speak Spanish?).  Ian Desmond is half black.  Ignore the melanin count.  And Bud Black doesn't count any more than Charlie Blackmon.  Seriously, who was the last black player that you remember playing for this team?  Do you have any Rockies heroes that are black?

Basing things on a brain-damaged memory, looking back at the last few years, my memory list is pretty short.

LaTroy Hawkins spent almost two years at Mile High.
Chris Nelson was kind of a Rockie during that period.
Dexter Fowler was there.  How did that end?

In the Colorado Rockies All-Time 25 last year, Fowler joined Ellis Burks in the outfield.  Eric Young (Sr.) was listed at second.  Three.  That exceeds the 8% figure.  Sooo...does this mean there is a commitment here--or does it signal the increased level of play needed for a black player to join this team.

Every year, MLB celebrates "Jackie Robinson Day," and to me it sounds like everyone is chanting something like, "See? I'm not racist!"  Wearing BLM jerseys--or anti-racism kneeling before English soccer games--would be nicer if it were met with real, tangible changes in our societies.  Maybe just believable plans would help.  I kept hearing how Ian Desmond was a key reason the Rockies were underperforming.  Well, does this fix anything?  Is there a believable plan for the team?  All of that stuff takes time, I know.  But during this interim, all the t-shirts in the world mean nothing if my favorite team is a racially-biased one.

The Rockies have a deep commitment to leagues in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.  There are reasons and explanations.  I'm missing things, I imagine.  Maybe I'm seeing things that aren't there.  Nevertheless, I didn't find the issue from data--I observed the dearth for years.  Somebody must have said something at some point, yet I've never heard anyone mention this--and I listened pretty closely on Jackie Robinson Day.  Ian has had to handle that interview for a while now. 

I wonder if we'll have another player to answer those same interview questions next year...

...and I wonder if the interview is the only reason that player will be there.

Damn.