It’s no coincidence that the Braves were never more popular and financially competitive than between 1991 and 1997, when they had strong African American talent and personalities like Fred McGriff, David Justice, Marquis Grissom, Ron Gant, Terry Pendleton, Deion Sanders, Otis Nixon, Jermaine Dye and Kenny Lofton.

Playing in the NLCS every season, and the World Series 4 of 6 seasons helped.

The Braves were owned by Time Warner for most of the time period that Doyle claims they were less 'financially competitive'. Time Warner's resources dwarf even that of the Steinbrenners, so it is bizarre to suggest they could not compete financially.

I root against the Braves, and feel Time Warner has been very destructive to America - but I just don't see the racist decisions in that decade, based on this article.
Great players: Andruw Jones; Edgar Renteria; Brian Jordan (1st term); Rafael Furcal; Gary Sheffield;
Some good players: Ray King, Julio Franco, Betemit; Gerald Williams; Odalis Perez; Michael Tucker
Great Players signed as older players :Reggie Sanders, Bobby Bonilla
Also some not so good players and a few others I missed.

Are we allowed to talk about this subject?

The Utah Jazz should have signed Steve Nash because he's white.
Same goes for every team in Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Canada...

Same goes for every team in Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Canada...

Something tells me that you've never been to Toronto...

The Michael Vick experience with the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons showed the importance of having a black superstar in Atlanta. The Georgia Dome was sold out for five years when Vick was a starter after years of television blackouts due to a lack of home attendance.

I wonder what his thoughts on trading white Brett Favre were?

Time Warner's resources dwarf even that of the Steinbrenners, so it is bizarre to suggest they could not compete financially.

Time Warner had the capital to invest in the team, but that's only part of the equation. The other part is how much you get in return for your investment. The Yankees' advantage isn't that they have capital, it's that they can make that money back in revenues.

Particularly when you're discussing corporate ownership, the return on investment is crucial. If you're a guy who owns a team, you're possibly willing to take a loss (or a smaller profit) to have a winning ballclub. But if you're a corporation, your shareholders care more about the profit than winning. That's why they bought shares in the first place.

Yeah if we went by ethnic make-up of a city, Toronto would have awesome table tennis and cricket teams...and a pretty good soccer team.

Those glorious Jermaine Dye years in Atlanta...

I totally thought that Sabathia was Latin American.

Thanks, Repoz, for the Syl Johnson link. I'll see you Johnson, though and raise you Waller who is both black and blue. Alas, I can't find a youtube link. David Purcey of the size 17 shoes might be interested in the available "Your Feet's too big" soundie though.

It’s no coincidence that the Braves were never more popular and financially competitive than between 1991 and 1997, when they had strong African American talent and personalities like Fred McGriff, David Justice, Marquis Grissom, Ron Gant, Terry Pendleton, Deion Sanders, Otis Nixon, Jermaine Dye and Kenny Lofton.

Methinks some "white guys" like Glavine, Smoltz and Maddux may have had a little something to say about that...

Methinks some "white guys" like Glavine, Smoltz and Maddux may have had a little something to say about that

Me thinks you don't realize attendance fell by 33% after 1997 even with Smoltz, Maddux and Glavine

Something tells me that you've never been to Toronto...

Seriously, Pearson airport might as well be the Mos Eisley Cantina.

Me thinks you don't realize attendance fell by 33% after 1997 even with Smoltz, Maddux and Glavine

And you think that's because blacks stopped attending Braves games because the likes David Justice and Fred McGriff went away?

I've been a Braves fan since the mid-70's and, sad to say, there has never been a large contingent of blacks in the stands. Not in the bad old days (70's-1990), not in the early part of "The Run" (1991-1997), nor in the latter part of "The Run" to the present (1998-2008).

If the Braves were to sign Sabathia, there might be an initial bump in African-American attendance at Braves games, but my guess is that the racial mix at the ballpark would soon revert to its traditional levels

But regardless of all that, the Braves front office needs to make decisions based on what is best for the team, not what would make a certain faction (any faction: black, white, Hispanic...) happy.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have Sabathia on my team. And maybe the Braves could afford to pay Sabathia as you say, but perhaps in putting all their eggs in the Sabathia basket, maybe they can't afford to plug any of the clubs' other holes.

That is a legitimate cost/benefit analysis the Braves have to make and if they do decide to pursue starting pitching options other than Sabathia, it does not mean they have turned their noses up to African-American fans in Atlanta.

Yeah if we went by ethnic make-up of a city, Toronto would have awesome table tennis and cricket teams...and a pretty good soccer team.

And a decent hockey team too, but I guess that's too utopic.

Tanner, you say alot of things that make sense. I'm not arguing that he will just bring out 20,000 African Americans all of a sudden. If they only add an extra 2000 fans a game, that might be enough to justify a $23 million salary for him. It’s not that crazy to believe Sabathia can make a difference at the gate by rejuvenating the casual black baseball fan within Atlanta’s city limits. After a steep attendance decline from 1999 through 2004, the Braves experienced a 5000 fans a game increase over the last few seasons due in large part to how much Atlanta’s favorite suburban sons, Jeff Francoeur and Brian McCann, have reinvigorated the interest of the casual baseball fan in Atlanta’s suburbs.

If Sabathia can create at least a 2000 or so fans a game increase and the Braves have a budget at about $40 per fan in attendance, they could gain about $7 million annually at the gate by having him. This would cause a $23 million dollar annual salary to effectively cost them $16 million annually. A 6 year, $138 million deal effectively becomes more like a 6 year, $96 million deal, thereby making his contract no more costly on an annual basis than the 5 year, $81 million Jake Peavy contract the Braves seem hellbent on trading for.

Sabathia is preferable to Peavy because Sabathia is less of an injury risk, eats more innings, creates more run differential, won’t cost the Braves Yunel Escobar and other farmhands, and could recapture the lost African American casual baseball fan in Atlanta. If the Braves trade Escobar to obtain Peavy, the Braves will have to either waste money buying a free agent shortstop or waste farmhands by trading for a shortstop. There is no adequate replacement for Escobar within the franchise. The Braves really can’t afford squandering more farmhands after trading away half the farm last season for Mark Teixeira. Over the next five seasons, Peavy ($16 mil annually) and Rafael Furcal ($13 mil) will cost just as much in money, even more in injury and age risk, and even more in traded farmhands than signing Sabathia ($23 mil) and holding on to the league minimum/arbitration eligible making Escobar ($400 K to $6 mil).

If Peavy and undetermined SS combined don't cost as much over the next five seasons as Sabathia and Escobar combined, it is likely because the Braves have made made two mistakes: (1) Traded even more farmhands than already traded for Jake and Tex for a league min/arb eligible SS as good as Escobar; or (2) Signed a free agent SS for less than $13, $14 million a season. A FA SS making less than that on the free agency market is not as good on the field as Escobar.

"Yeah if we went by ethnic make-up of a city, Toronto would have awesome table tennis and cricket teams...and a pretty good soccer team.

And a decent hockey team too, but I guess that's too utopic."

Yeah, and Boston would have an all-World drinking team. Wait...

I think this types of issues tend to lead to polarized discussions.

We are not post-racial and it doesn't help anything to pretend we are. So can't we just agree that it's probably not all one thing or another?

Having more minority stars could certainly help a term attract a more diverse fanbase. But it's unclear exactly the magnitude of the effect...

If Sabathia can create at least a 2000 or so fans a game increase...

But why would 2000 extra fans come to every game because Sabathia's a Brave? If it was someone like Prince Fielder or Carl Crawford, you could try to claim this, but a starting pitcher probably wouldn't bump attendance like this.

They've got it wrong. They should sign Sabathia because he's fat. Therefore, they'll have more fat fans who will come to the games and buy more overpriced food. You get an attendance boost and a concessions boost, whereas you only get an attendance boost from signing a skinny guy.

Did anyone doubt this would become personal after the headline?

I know the Brewers have worked diligently in reaching out to the Latino and African-American populations in and around Milwaukee, Racine, Madison and Green Bay.

Folks may scoff at the listing of that last city but the school superintendent has requested language based funding since 30 percent of the kids coming to the school system have a primary language that is not English.

WI is predominantly white. But to suggest that it is Utah is ridiculous.

Having more minority stars could certainly help a term attract a more diverse fanbase. But it's unclear exactly the magnitude of the effect...

I have noticed quite a bit more support for the Red Sox in some of New England's Latino communities. Hard to say to what extent this was due to the prominence of the Latino stars on the team (esp. the Dominicans) because people do tend to like a winner regardless, but I noticed this happening even before they actually won a ring. Boston sports teams historically have been notorious for their non-white fans, even in the context of the whiter-than-average Boston media market. And a lot of the Dominicans have moved on, so it will interesting to see what happens now.

Seriously, Pearson airport might as well be the Mos Eisley Cantina.

Great line.

You get an attendance boost and a concessions boost, whereas you only get an attendance boost from signing a skinny guy.

I feel a lot better that my team passed on drafting Tim Lincecum now.

Finally, an article that encourages pandering.

Me thinks you don't realize attendance fell by 33% after 1997 even with Smoltz, Maddux and Glavine

Methinks this is stupid and misleading. You want us to believe that attendance was sky-high in 1997 and dropped like a stone as soon as the Braves had less blacks on their team. Braves' attendance dropped only 6.5% from 1997 through 2000, which can be explained by one factor: Turner Field. Of course the Braves had huge attendance numbers in 1997 - they were the league champions opening a brand new ballpark. The attendance through the rest of the decade tracks how well the previous year's team did in the playoffs and what the expectations were for the current team.