Aaron Disturbed by Lack of Respect for Robinson

Henry Aaron, baseball’s all-time home run king, said Friday that he is disturbed by today’s generation of black baseball players, saying they have shown little respect for Jackie Robinson and black history.

“It bothers me when black players today don’t know enough about people who paved the way for them, like Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King,” Aaron said. “These are people who took the brunt of abuse and made them where they are today.

“You just don’t forget who got your here, but players today have their own agenda. That’s what worries me. With all of the patches and celebrations we have this year, I’m afraid next year this will be forgotten about. Out of sight, out of mind.

“When I was growing up as a young boy in Mobile, Ala., I knew what Jackie Robinson was doing, Joe Louis was doing, Sugar Ray [Robinson]. But today it’s not the same. Players ought to look up to Jackie Robinson, particularly black players, because this man gave us a chance. But they don’t seem to care.

“Players are making a lot of money now. Players move out of the black areas. Their kids go to private schools. They are surrounded by white agents. So their kids don’t have a chance or want a chance to learn how and where they got to where they are.”

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Aaron, who is a senior vice president with the Braves, said that he also is troubled by baseball’s lack of progress in minority hiring. He thought there would be a profusion of minorities in front-office positions when Bill Lucas became the first African-American general manager in 1976 for the Braves. Instead, Bob Watson of the New York Yankees remains baseball’s lone black general manager, and no team has hired a black manager in five years.

“I thought when Bill Lucas was named general manager,” Aaron said, “we were beginning to see people judged on their ability rather than the color of skin. I thought baseball would start to do the right thing. But it’s still tied up in a lot of racism.

“There’s an abundance of people that are talented enough to be managers and general managers, but they still are judged by the color of their skin.

“The problems just don’t seem to go away. There still is a lot of racism in baseball.”