Baseball has done everything it can to embrace more showmanship and loosen previously strict rules on celebrations. However, Yankees star third baseman Jazz Chisholm doesn’t believe his celebrations are embraced, and he thinks it’s because of the color of his skin.
“I don’t want to say this. Baseball is a White sport. I feel like White people criticize everything that a Black man does. Black men are outspoken. They say what’s on their minds,” he told The Athletic.
“The unwritten rules of baseball are White. And I always broke the unwritten rules of baseball.”
Chisholm made his presence known immediately after coming up with the Marlins in 2020. In addition to his many attention-grabbing celebrations and personality traits, Chisholm also sported multiple pairs of customized cleats. However, MLB veteran Miguel Rojas destroyed one pair of cleats by cutting them up with scissors and ruined another by pouring milk on them.
Chisholm believes he received this treatment because he’s black.
“Nobody would ever cut up my cleats or throw my things away if I were White,” Chisholm said. “I’ll tell you right now, if this was a White boy’s stuff, you weren’t gonna cut that sh*t up because if a White boy goes and complains, now everybody’s f*cked. I go and complain, and it’s not that big of a deal. It’s, ‘Let’s try and find a solution for this.’ But if a White boy goes and complains, nah, f*ck that.”
While the number of American-born black players continues to hover around six percent, certainly the lowest among the “Big 3” American sports (NFL, NBA, and MLB), the number of foreign-born players was 28 percent at the start of the 2024 season.
In addition, MLB has taken great pains to encourage players to show more showmanship on the field, launching the “Let the Kids Play” initiative, among other things.
