BOSTON (CBS) — On Thursday’s show Fred Toucher welcomed back one of his favorite guests, former pitcher Dirk Hayhurst.
Hayhurst always manages to lay out the larger picture when discussing the dynamics of professional baseball, and on Thursday he was asked about Bud Norris’ comments to USA Today.
Norris told USA Today:
“This is America’s game. This is America’s pastime, and over the last 10-15 years we’ve seen a very big world influence in this game, which we as a union and as players appreciate. We’re opening this game to everyone that can play. However, if you’re going to come into our country and make our American dollars, you need to respect a game that has been here for over a hundred years, and I think sometimes that can be misconstrued. There are some players that have antics, that have done things over the years that we don’t necessarily agree with.
“I understand you want to say it’s a cultural thing or an upbringing thing. But by the time you get to the big leagues, you better have a pretty good understanding of what this league is and how long it’s been around.’’
Based on these comments, Fred asked Hayhurst if racism exists in baseball.
“Absolutely,” Hayhurst said. “There’s zero question that cultural values have an impact on how we do our jobs everywhere, not just in baseball. Everywhere. You cannot take your heritage out of the game and how it affects how you play. Believe it or not, Bud Norris, but what we do as a people with cultural values, baseball is an extension of those values, not the other way around. We don’t use a sport as a way of gentrifying an entire culture and trying to say, ‘Hey, welcome to our country. If you want to be here, you’ve got to do things our way.’ Which, when Bud Norris says it, is essentially saying, ‘The white Americanized way.’
“And I think this is the real problem. The underlying question here is — is there racism in baseball? And the answer to that is an undeniable yes. There absolutely is. I’ll tell you there is racism in baseball, but the big problem is that baseball players don’t realize they’re doing it, and here’s why. If you walk into a locker room in most minor league systems and even in some big league systems, there will be 60 percent white, 30 percent Latino, and then this odd percentage of black and Asian. And you have one radio for that cultural system in your locker room, and if that radio plays reggaeton for too long, a white player will get up and turn it off. And if the Latin players say, ‘Hey, why are you changing our music?’ the white player will say, ‘This is America, listen to American music. Learn the system.’
“The American player, most American white players, don’t understand that just because baseball has opened its doors to all cultures, having that access to play baseball is not the same as having a racist-free environment. Because then a player will say you have the right to be here, but as Bud Norris pointed out, while you’re here you need to throw away all of your cultural values and adopt ours, or we’re gonna stuff a fastball in your earhole. Welcome to baseball in America, let freedom ring.”
Hayhurst also discussed the dugout fight between Jonathan Papelbon and Bryce Harper.
“So Papelbon hits Manny Machado, Papelbon does this because he wants to earn some friends on his team and basically wants to say to his teammates, ‘Look, this guy, he admired his home run too long, that is showing us up, that’s disrespecting us and it’s disrespecting baseball. He’s young, it’s my job as the closer, or a relief pitcher, or someone who can just take the flak, to drill him and put him in his place.’ So he does that, but the thing is, that’s not like a counsel decision. That’s something that Papelbon took upon himself. So he hits Machado, and naturally Bryce Harper realizes that, well, there will be an eye for an eye because baseball’s code is very much like Hammurabi’s code … and Harper realizes, because he’s not stupid, that it’s probably going to be him because he’s their best player.”
At that point, of course, Harper told the media that he was probably going to get hit in retaliation. And the next day after not going 100 percent down the line after flying out, Papelbon got in Harper’s ear.
“For my money, if Papelbon has a gripe, you need to do that someplace else,” Hayhurst said. “I’ve heard people say, The dumb thing here was he strangled this guy in broad daylight. You gon’ strangle somebody, everybody knows you strangle him when no one’s looking, I mean come on. No — you don’t strangle him at all. Especially if the biggest contribution you’ve given to baseball this year is grabbing your crotch and screaming at Phillies fans. I really want to know at what point the Nationals front office is like, ‘Our team is soft. You know what we need around here? We need a good screaming crotch grabber.”
Hayhurst also discussed “fragile narcissist” pitchers who get angry when they get “shown up” by batters, the hierarchy of a clubhouse, managers’ impacts on their teams, and more. Listen below:
