This is a very old, tired arguement. No-one ever asks why there are not more white players in the NBA or why there are not any white Cornerbacks and running backs in the NFL. That's why I was glad to see Tori Hunter leave. As good as he was, and he strikes out way too much, that guy constantly made comments about blacks in america. Get your chip off your shoulder, leave your inferiority complex at home and succeeed, either playing sports or studying in school.

There are no racial quotas in baseball. . . are there??? Someone who enjoys and understands the GAME should be able to get his head around the idea that maybe a team drafted the best guys it could find (and afford) for the positions it needed to fill, not that a team purposely chose only one skin color. I'm pretty sure the Astros have been wanting to win the last couple of seasons, so I doubt they would have avoided any great player who was available to them just because of race. And to think that white guys shouldn't honor Jackie Robinson....that's what really misses the point about Jackie Robinson Day! I'm white, and I greatly honor Robinson for what he did. (I'm old enough to have experienced desegregation in the South.) Somehow I can't see Robinson feeling honored if a team put some token guy on the bench because of what he went through.

So what I am reading here is that according to Mr Hunter, no white players are allowed to honor Jackie Robinson by wearing his number. Seems that by white players wearing his number they are making progress. Am I wrong??

The fact that Hunter would moan about this is just flatout amazing. White or black, brown or yellow, what does it matter what color you are? Robinson was not only a great talent but even a better man that changed so many things in baseball. I would think that if only a "handful of players" wore number 42 then MLB would then really be killing the meaning. A mass group of ball players honored Robinson. How in the world does Hunter think this is a bad thing. In doesn't make since, and makes Hunter look like a moron when he says things like this. So a team that has no black players are not allowed to show their support and appreciation to Jackie? Please, Hunter needs to wake up. This country is far from where it needs to be when it comes to racial issues, but when people bond together, white and black, to honor someone in this capacity the strides that have been met is huge. With Hunters comments it diminishes this to his detriment. I can only hope that he stops these comments because it only makes the steps that have been taken in the right direction look mute.

I'm black and I feel that if a team with all black or white players it should not matter because talent is what should matter in a player. In other words the best player I can get for my money BLACK OR WHITE.

If the astros didn't wear no.42 it would be, "where's the respect? There racist." Get over yourself Hunter.

when bill Russell was on espn sunday baseball he talked about baseball being the #1 sport when he was grwoing up. the fact that blacj american are playing basketball and football more now is not baseball fault. the fact that there is so many nore football and basketball teams taking the talent, is not baseballs faault. in this day and age with so much money and marketing I am sure every team would like to have a star from every ethneticity. How many Dominican and Japenese are in the NHL?

If Tori Hunter is so concerned with the Astros having no black players he should do something about it. First of all he should perform an investigation of the Astros farm system to see if there are any blacks in it. He then should find out why the inner cities are not producing baseball players like they produce basketball and football players. The basketball and football coaches in the inner cities realize the amount of athletes available and nuture them. Has Tori Hunter donated any of his millions to the inner city programs? Has Tori Hunter donated his time to the inner city schools to help develop talent? Has Tori Hunter gone to MLB with his concerns about the diminishing black baseball players in the USA? It is my belief that Tori Hunter has no problem sitting in the dugout making millions and chatting with fellow players who can't speak english. Now that we know that Tori Hunter is concerned we can wait for his help in the matter. First he can admonish MLB for spending a fortune on foreign players especially South America and forgetting the inner city players. Second, he can donate money and time to the inner city players to train the players. Third he could get some of the rich players he plays with to donate money and time to train the inner city kids. This is a great opportunity for a superstar like Tori Hunter to lead the charge and help the poor kids play baseball. I have coached some inner city kids in baseball and it is sad to see these kids get no support. Thank God for concerned players like Tori Hunter.

what a racist jerk, you're not black, you cant wear 42. grow up man, youre a year too late anyway

Okay...Houston didn't have any African American players on their team but didn't they have a number of Black Latino players on their team. Jackie didn't only represent African Americans in breaking into MLB, he represented all minority players....Black, Latino, Far Eastern, etc. What drives me nuts is the fact that this is still a Black and White issue when Jackie Robinson Day, MLK Day, etc. should represent the ability to look past skin color and look at players as equals with their abilities being the determining factor of who is better than who on the field. Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't MLK's speach something along the lines that he had a dream that he could see Black, Whites, Yellows, Greens, Purples and any other colors of the rainbow holding hands and be able to look past the colors of one's skin?

Fernando -12 I don't want to bust your bubble but Jackie Robinson did not represent anyone. He just want a chance to play ball. Thats it pure and simple. He had no agenda. He just wanted to play.

Maybe Hunter should have asked to sign with the Astros for whatever they were willing to pay.

besides, the astros have plenty of hispanic players. so we know that they aren't racially segregating themselves. Hunter is just trying to stir up trouble, and is apparently getting away with his moronic comments. America has come along way since the civil rights movements and many who benefitted from that era are seemingly ungrateful.

To say that the Astros are a racist organization is ridiculous and defies all evidence. The Astros have a black assistant GM (Ricky Bennett), a black manager (Cecil Cooper), and had numerous Latino players last season (Wandy Rodriguez, Carlos Lee, etc.). Over the off-season they acquired African-American (Michael Bourn), Japanese (Kazuo Matsui), and yet more Latino players (Miguel Tejada, Jose Valverde, etc.). Before reporters publish this garbage, they should do their homework. The Astros aren't a racist club for not having black players, there just aren't as many black players in all of baseball as there once were.

how dare white players honor Jackie, the outrage!

It may be that people are tiring of all this race business. If everyone would just shut up about it, we could all move on, but a certain segment of people, want to keep fanning the flames.... people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who are getting rich from it!! You also have a lot of white people (Liberals) that just can't break the habit of pandering.

heck we dont complain when there is no day for maybe bob cousey ,do we

you know what they should always have number 42 on their left sleeve becuz everyday is Jackie Robinson day everytime you see torii Hunter it's becuz of JR

I think his real contention was the completely ridiculous number of people wearing 42 to "honor" Jackie Robinson and he digressed from there. That said, there's no reason why entire teams should have been doing it (One per team would have at least made some sense), and there's not really any reason why a white player should want to do it, especially the whole team in the absence of any black players.

His comment is reasonable. Anyone who knows statistics knows that the chances that a team will have zero blacks on it (as the Astros did in April last year) when blacks make up ten percent of the league is pretty slim, particularly when this seems to be the trend with some teams. You can argue that he's mistaken, or that blacks just don't want to play for Houston, or whatever, but at least realize that the comment is legitimate as a starting point.
And the idea that "there just aren't any qualified blacks playing MLB" is just silly, the same way the idea that "The reason there are almost no women heading fortune 500 companies is because no qualified women are out there" is silly.
Consider the facts, don't just knee-jerk react and scream at the messenger.

#23 "little white BOYS"?? Who's the racist?? #3 You are 100% correct. And Hunter is wrong on another point as well. Michael Bourn is black.

#23, like I said in my earlier post, ditch your inferiority complex and get off 'race'. Quit letting the supposed 'voices of black america' do your thinking for you. Save your money, put it into a mutual fund, buy a house, and get on with the American Dream!!!!

the era of instilling white guilt is over. it's the 21st Century, time to move on. give it a rest big mouth

#6-Heath C- You pretty well nailed it. You said almost exactly what I was going to say.-Well put. When people like Hunter say what they do, it only takes away from what Jackie Robinson stood for. He would probably be embarassed by what Hunter said. It's BECAUSE of JR that Hunter is in the position to say what he did. Wonder what he'd be doing otherwise.