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The last time I saw somebody guzzle liquor like this, that brother downed a fifth of Hennessey straight, wandered out of the Paradox nightclub in downtown Baltimore and woke up at a bus stop somewhere near Ravens Stadium. Now obviously, Charles Barkley has more money and common sense than a couple of drunk Morgan State students during homecoming, but the hurting he puts on these bottles is just as legendary.

Courtesy of You Been Blinded.

If you don’t play football, apparently so, according to Mountaineer quarterback Pat White.

Before anyone goes and calls him an angry black man or an individual who’s misguided or misinformed, truly begin to understand the source. We’re not talking about a back-up QB at Chowan College, this is a Heisman Trophy finalist with a high profile in college football.

But more convincing than his academic accolades in the fact that he actually attends West Virginia University. If White believes that blacks are not welcome to be a part of the baseball team, then they probably are not welcome to be a part of the baseball team. He has much more to lose than to gain in this commentary, so whether its true or not, he must be commended for speaking his mind when so many other athletes don’t.

And on the subject of losing, let’s look at the University’s athletic profile, shall we?

Hmm. No black players on the baseball team, and White has been drafted by Major League Baseball teams three times in his tenure at WVU.

There is one black head coach at the university, and he coaches the soccer team. He also happens to be the head of oneWVU, an diversity initiative designed to promote “racial equality and justice.” Usually schools who are truly down for racial equality and justice don’t need a program to implement it. It just happens.

You don’t have to dig far to realize that while Pat White may be way off in his commentary, the impetus for his statement is dead on. And the thing is, he might not be way off in his commentary. As a student-athlete, you think that baseball players don’t talk to football players about how their coaches are? That if the baseball coach was a raving racist, other black athletes wouldn’t know about it?

And even if that wasn’t true, there’s enough smoke around that program to call in a Five Alarm diversity problem. The state that produced Randy Moss can’t be that limited in black athletes who play more than football.

I hope that people don’t take Pat White out of context. More over, I hope they put the motivation for his comments under the proper microscope.

Baseball might be America’s past time, but football is king on this continent. And while most of us are gearing up for college and NFL football in the coming months, this year’s MLB All-Star Game and festivities might have positioned a disgraced sport into a more favorable light.

And back into national sports relevance.

The elements are all there. MLB’s biggest stars playing in it’s most well-known stadium in the world’s most famous city. The all-star game itself was one for the ages, an extra-innings marathon that saw the American League extend its winning streak to 12 straight.

But the biggest story from the all-star break was that of Josh Hamilton, a former drug addict three years removed from professional baseball, who has come back from his demons to ascend as one of the game’s most feared hitters and it’s most marketable feel-good story.

His life, and the last few days of it, are a microcosm for how baseball has postioned itself back into sports fans’ minds and hearts. Like Hamilton, drugs nearly killed the sport. Kids didn’t care, their parents didn’t want them to, and players were oblivious to it all. Some of the most popular names in the sport were implicated as cheaters and liars, not good for a sport that is symbolic with the purity of competition and roots of athletic hero worship.

But a few clean home runs, an intriguing all-star game and a fading fancy with who cheated and how long they did it, baseball is surging towards a fantastic regular season finish, complete with fantastic small-market success, star-crossed drama, and the usual drama of pennant races.

Major League Baseball still has a ways to go before it catches the NBA. Even with the one-and-done rule being challenged, the reservoir of young talent coming out of the NCAA will easily translate to marketable draft picks and high recogniazbility among casual fans. But if fans are continuously treated to solid baseball and captivating back stories, MLB might have something good on its hands.

And that’s a much better feeling than the thorn that been in its side the past few years.

First of all, why was Rick Reilly on the Home Run Derby panel? Is ESPN that desperate for us to think that he’s as funny on TV as in his in print? Anyway, dude blew it big time in his incomprehensible stance on the lack of Blacks and Latinos in the 2008 Home Run Derby.

Poor Karl Ravech. He actually was forced to dignify the garbage by explaining the simple fact that certain minority players were extended the opportunity, but declined for various reasons. Ravech could’ve easily come off like Black and Latino players didn’t deserve the invite, but masterfully navigated Reilly’s foolishness; even getting a dig in at Reilly’s ego towards the end of the video.

Kiwanis meeting? A train ride from Yankee Stadium?

Is he, and ESPN for that matter, for real?

High school basketball prep star Brandon Jennings is going pro. In another league. On another continent.

You could have seen this coming a mile away, several years away. A high school player who had surrounded himself with the wrong people, would be guided into thumbing his nose at the NBA’s age limit and testing the waters in overseas play. A player, who by all accounts would have plenty of face time and scrutiny playing for a powerhouse college hoops team, will now have the same opportunities outside of his native land.

And get paid doing it.

I hope it is a plan well observed by other secondary basketball prodigies. The naysayers lament that these privileged young athletes are throwing themselves to the proverbial wolves of agents and stardom, all outside of the comforts of home. They believe that they won’t be able to handle the culture of a foreign land, and adjust to a high level of play.

That would be true, except no one laments the same roadblocks for military personnel or Peace Corp volunteers who embark upon their professional journeys right off the high school graduation stage. No, they are not privy to the trappings and fame of professional athletes, but they also aren’t afforded translators, guides or other resources to make their lives easier.

Besides, it may be argued that Jennings stands a far greater chance at improving his draft stock against elite professional competition. Proving his game against players a step above collegiate level talent can only position him for high draft stock.

And if shoe companies are slick, they will ride the international money trail right back across the Atlantic Ocean when Jennings elects to enter the NBA Draft. He will bring with him an international following, one that was established with his presence, and not a multi-million dollar marketing campaign.

There’s not much bad that can come out of Brandon Jennings forgoing college for professional opportunity. If he were a college graduate making this same move in another industry, we would laud him as a savvy businessman and one to watch out for.  We can’t look at him as a fool, an opportunist, or misguided.

In basketball and in life, Brandon Jennings is one to watch out for.

He’s in jail, he’ll probably never play football again in the NFL, and he’s in OJ Simpson territory for most hated black athlete.

And now he can add bankruptcy to his list of negative descriptors.

The most Michael Vick stands to get out of this ordeal is a book deal, and its not clear if anybody would be willing to buy that. He’ll probably makes his rounds on the talk show circuits, and spin more sympathy PR then we’ve ever seen, but the truth is that this guy will never get his life back.

Forget fame and fortune. Michael Vick has been reduced to a symbol of privileged athletes behaving badly. If he were to be elevated to a place where people felt sorry for him, and forgave the fact that he abused animals, he could only operate as a convicted criminal trying to warn others of the dangers and trappings of affluence. He could only be the mouthpiece for why America, even the richest of us, should think before they act.

And when you think about it, there’s nothing fair about that. Every unwed couple that’s produced a baby doesn’t have to be spokesperson for abstinence. Every former drug addict doesn’t have to speak out for Just Saying No. Yes, it’s true that these classifications of people didn’t have millions of dollars and the attention of the world upon them, but that doesn’t make them any less fallible, or him more suited to be the spokesperson for human error.

Why does affluence and recognition demand that he do more than the average man? Because the money we gave him made him richer? Because the cameras we placed on him made him more recognizable? Does he owe us more because he had more?

There are so many other things to shame into the ground besides Michael Vick. George W. Bush is a nice start, and a look in the mirror would be a decent follow-up.

For older siblings everywhere, Venus Williams’ Wimbledon championship victory over her sister Serena Williams was a bittersweet triumph. No one wants to one up their younger sibling, but you got the sense in this match that Venus and Serena have reached a competitive point in their careers when they are willing to give each other their best.

In prior championship match-ups, the Williams sisters looked all the part of nervous sisters not trying to make the other look bad. Time, fame and prestige seems to have taken the awkward nature out of their rivalry, as Venus was unwilling to concede early struggles in the match, and Serena was unwilling to be a gracious loser in the post-match presser.

It must be difficult to to be the best tennis player in the world and realize your most worthy rival is your own flesh and blood. But that’s the nature of the Williams’ strangle hold on tennis, and it looks like they are finally allowing their competitive spirit against each other a chance to breathe.

Most of the reasons why black folks won’t watch NASCAR are silly. We don’t take the time to learn the rules and culture, but mostly because it’s not marketed to us.

So when news like this comes out, it makes the mixed messages the sport sends out to minority sports fans even more scrambled.

The lawsuit details a series of alleged incidents:

•
Grant was forced to work outside more often than the white male
officials because her supervisors believed she couldn’t sunburn because
she was black.

• While riding in the backseat of her
carpool at Talladega Superspeedway, co-workers told her to duck as they
passed race fans. “I don’t want to start a riot when these fans see a
black woman in my car,” she claims one official said.

• When
packing up a dark garage at Texas Motor Speedway an official told
Grant: “Keep smiling and pop your eyes out ’cause we can’t see you.”

• When
she ignored advances from co-workers, Grant was accused of being gay.
She also claimed co-workers questioned the sexual orientation of two
other female officials.

It will be interesting to see the response coming from Brad Daugherty, Magic Johnson, Cedric the Entertainer and other prominent black advocates of NASCAR diversity initiatives.

The federal government seems to think so.

Let’s just get one thing clear. The hood respects Tiger Woods, but they don’t want to be him. Call that a negative view if you must, but understand that Tiger Woods himself did not grow up in a ghetto. Those commercials of him swinging a golf club when he was four years
old? They weren’t filmed in Inglewood, CA.

Count on rich, old white men to think that the aura of Tiger Woods can drape itself over urban communities and cure all that is wrong with its people. While they’re at it, let’s see if the Mighty Ducks are down for a reunion HIV/AIDS awareness tour.

Evander Holyfield, like so many other great heavyweight champions before him, is broke.

For most fighters, and professional athletes period, their lives are driven by two singular purposes; to escape poverty and to never return to it. They may seem to be one and the same, but they are vastly different, if you have ever grown up in less-than-favorable conditions.

Once removed from a culture of poverty, whether it is financial, emotional, or cultural destitution, you realize how bad you had it back on your block. How close you were to losing your mind on a daily basis. It was just hard when you were living it, but the danger of the situation becomes crystal clear.

So then comes the part where you say to yourself, "never will I go back to that." But before you put the plan in place to never go back, it’s time to celebrate.

That was the life of Holyfield and countless others who have made hundreds of millions of dollars through their physical talents. A non-stop cookout where everyone is invited. Except at this cookout, people won’t leave the crib with just the chips and the last three orange sodas in the cooler, they leave with your money. Bad investments, personal loans, gifts, that kind of stuff.

Sometimes people prefer to leave things behind. Like children. That sweet stuff that if you just take one hit of, they promise that you will feel as good as they do, even though you were already feeling pretty good to begin with since you had so much money.

Blue skies for this kind of situation is that these athletes become educated, but if learning isn’t the way they got here, why would they deviate from success? Why depart from the people who loved you when you were broke?

Truth is, they never wanted to go back to being poor. They just never learned that it’s never about going back to poverty, but how you bring poverty to your doorstep.