Cheap Seats
Green must be their favorite color
The Atlanta Braves acknowledged that of the 10 million fans who have attended games at Turner Field the last three years, less than 5 percent were black, despite Atlanta’s population being 68 percent black.
Home run king Henry Aaron, a Braves vice president and one of the highest-ranking black officials in the major leagues, says the club isn’t interested in attracting black fans.
“They don’t need the dollar from the black community,” Aaron told Bill Zack of Morris Communications. “Blacks aren’t wanted on the field or in the stands, and that’s the gospel truth.”
The Braves’ ticket prices are among the highest in the majors, but neighboring DeKalb County has one of the most affluent black communities in the United States.
Point and counterpoint
Atlanta outfielder Brian Jordan, a black man, notes the area’s African American sports ticket-buyer “doesn’t have a problem going to basketball or football games - they go in droves. Baseball is not really a sport that causes excitement. You have to have a mind-set for baseball.
“Most (black) people who come up to me say, `Baseball is boring. There’s no way I’m sitting through nine innings.’ But if you go to a white family, they say, `Hey, we enjoy it.’ It bothers me as an African American baseball player not to see more African Americans out in the stands watching, but that’s just the way it is.”
Please follow this model
From Mark Kreidler in The Sacramento Bee: “Already-rich former star player Larry Bird’s decision to direct the Indiana Pacers for three - and only three - seasons has such a ring of sense about it that you wonder if it won’t be the blueprint for future coaches in the NBA. Assuming, of course, they are not named Don Nelson.”
No more belts for him
Boxing writer Ron Borges is urging former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield to retire.
“Holyfield has already been champion three times, a feat performed by Muhammad Ali and no one else,” Borges wrote. “No one has done it four times. There’s a reason for that, which Holyfield is choosing to ignore at 38. The reason is the calendar.”
The last word …
“I jump rope 300 times without stopping. If I stop, I just keep going.”
- Veteran Detroit Tigers play-by-play announcer Ernie Harwell, 82, describing his daily 6:30 a.m. workout ritual.