Reparations and the Aspiring Black Athlete

When I meet young brothers pursuing a career in sports, they're always thinking about football and/or basketball. I always try to sway them to baseball...not only because I think it the greatest game, but also that is makes the most business sense. I mean, yes you are an athlete, but you should see yourself as a business owner...the business: yourself. How many 44 year olds do you know in basketball or football? How many 48 year olds? Yet, in baseball you have Julio Franco - 48 and Roger Clemens - 44. Then, of the 44+ year olds that might be in basketball and football that I don't know about, can any of them match Clemens' one-year contract for $28,000,022.00? (on top of that sum, he won't even be playing a complete season!) Yet, we let "them" convince us that basketball and football are better choices, and we perpetrate that thinking to the youth so intent on being professional athletes. A Reparations ideology tells us that we must put ourselves in the best position to uplift ourselves. Now frankly, with the obscene contracts in professional sports even a pro-ping pong player might make a decent living! (LOL) But, if you have the ability to play baseball, then that makes the best business sense. Michael Jordan is now 44 years old, and he's one of the greatest to ever step on a court, yet I don't know if some team would pay him $28 million to step on the court for one season. As Tupac (or should I say Makaveli) said in his song (ironically) "White Man's World," "Use your brains! It ain't 'them'...it's 'us.'" Peace...