Brock Beauchamp

For all of those accusing Nick of virtue signaling, unfairly "attacking" Max (which he didn't do at all), or any other myriad of strawmen, Nick Nelson did not develop the idea of complicity and how it enables racial injustice to exist. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a few things to say about this topic and they don't shine a very pretty light on white America. I don't know the dates of any of the quotes, except the last because it was written while he sat in an Alabama jail 57 (I think) years ago. What has really changed here? In my eyes, based on this thread, very little. Even the slightest pushback about race and how we need to actively, not passively, approach the problem and people lose their minds. As a parent of black children, I fear for their future and I'm mad as hell at a lot of you from preventing change from happening because change can't happen until we acknowledge the problem exists and actively work against it. "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." “Why is equality so assiduously avoided? Why does white America delude itself, and how does it rationalize the evil it retains? The majority of white Americans consider themselves sincerely committed to justice for the Negro. They believe that American society is essentially hospitable to fair play and to steady growth toward a middle-class Utopia embodying racial harmony. But unfortunately this is a fantasy of self-deception and comfortable vanity.” “But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear?… It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.” “First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”

For sure. I was speaking locally in specific regards to police violence, which is almost entirely under state and local jurisdiction.

More important than Washington is to vote for governors, mayors, and district attorneys who prioritize it. Those are the people who can enact the most change.

One of the most important civil rights moments in the history of this country was when a black man stepped onto a baseball diamond wearing Dodger blue. Racial equality and baseball have a storied history, both good and bad.

You... mentioned... a party...

The Democratic Party has a pretty lousy track record on this issue, too. Say it again, class: This doesn’t have to be partisan unless I make it partisan!

To say I’m disappointed by these comments is a massive understatement. Many of you are showing why Nick needed to write this article.

Our city is literally burning. Some things are more important than readership and this article, while Nick’s idea and execution, was ultimately a group decision.

The fact that so many make equality a partisan issue says some pretty terrible things about us as a society.

The comments in this thread so perfectly illustrate why this article was necessary. The fact that so many of you think it’s acceptable to escape world issues whenever convenient is exactly the point of Nick’s article. We need to be better than this.

Twins Daily “lets” Nick post this article because he’s an owner and all the owners stand united on this issue, which is a humanitarian issue that America has failed at for four centuries. It doesn’t have to be political unless you make it political. I don’t see why facing the problem that we’ve failed black Americans can or should be a left/right issue unless you make it one.

Right? This is ridiculous. But it should be a very clear message that the market has only a loose correlation to the actual economy.

Joe Nathan is the best reliever in Twins history and there's no question about it. He was literally the best reliever in baseball not named Rivera for 6-7 years and at times, he was better.

This list only counts WAR accumulated in a Twins uniform. Winfield only had .3 WAR over two seasons with the Twins at the end of his career.

Let's take a moment to revel in Julio Franco. Unless my math is wrong, he played his final MLB game as a 49 year old. He's Jamie Moyer who hits. He literally played at the highest level until he was almost FIFTY YEARS OLD.

This is really a great article and thanks for writing it. I was a big Mack fan in the early 90s but left baseball during the strike. I didn't come back until 98 and assumed Mack had left the game, but not under the circumstances laid out here.

And I see Sconnie already took care of this conversation.

If no company can store your crude, it's pretty hard to sell. Oil producers are still producing, but if they have no place to send it... well. What do you do with crude oil if no one wants to take it?

Weird how Parker bolded a couple of adverbs to highlight the uncertainty of his viewpoint while you bolded entire portions of a sentence to... say what, exactly? Oh, to point out what you inferred from Parker's post, not what he actually said. And before you get super upset and reply, I have no interest in responding and will not do so. Read Parker's posts again and try not to infer your own political stance upon them. Just read the damned posts, they're informative and useful. If you wish to debate the merit of them afterward, feel free to do so.

This seems like a pretty good place to bring up Calvin Griffith and his racist ideals in a baseball context.

It's a different game. Killebrew didn't spend the final four innings of almost every game facing a specialized reliever to get him out. Strikeouts were frowned upon, while now they're just a thing you suffer through for the greater good of offense. And in that situation, walking more definitely hurts a player's ability to drive in runs as balls in play is RBI if you're a slugger. Never mind all the good points brought up in the article itself; it's a lot harder to drive in runs if the entire lineup isn't built for 2-3 guys to drive in runs and instead favors 6-7 guys driving in runs.

If you're mixing cocktails on a regular basis, creme de menthe is a staple of the cabinet. Mind you, our bottle is like ten years old because we don't use it often but when you want it, it's there.

Though Mauer was at a huge disadvantage because he was a catcher and DH. While he mashed as both, mashing as a DH doesn't give much in the way of WAR, though he was still a huge plus for the team because he spent so much time behind the plate. Despite being a beast that season, I suspect his DH WAR is a fraction of his total WAR. And let's not ignore that Mauer missed all of April that season due to injury. He came back that season and posted that WAR over five months, not six. Though I won't really argue with anyone who slots Carew or Mauer above one another. There are arguments to be made for both.

Sano can't do it because he doesn't put the ball in play often enough and he draws a ton of walks. That cripples his ability to be a massive run-producer, though I should point out that's not a negative statement. Joey Votto (I know, the Reds aren't a great example here for run-producing but bear with me) is a beastly hitter all around, posting a .300+ BA for his career but he has never driven in more than 110 RBI in his career because he puts the bat on his shoulder and spits on pitches if they're not the in zone. Sano, while not *quite* at that level, does the same a lot of the time. Any player who walks 10% of the time is at a serious disadvantage for RBI, while also being a huge boon to the team.

Glad to have you around Twins Daily and I've enjoyed your BBTN podcast segments over the past several months!