Why is it that any time a list of "overachievers" is put together it always contains two things:
1. David Eckstein
2. White people
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=3470431
I hate talking about race but I have always noticed no one is an overachiever unless they are white. No white people who play baseball have talent, they are all overachievers. Jerry Crasnick even thinks of reasons to not include the one person, Carlos Quentin, many would accuse of overachieving this year.
Lots of people might find it surprising to look at the major league leaders and see White Sox outfielder Carlos Quentin near the top in homers and RBIs. But we're talking about a former first-round draft pick who was rated as Arizona's top prospect as recently as 2005.
In the column he includes former first round picks: Joey Devine, J.P. Howell, and the Royals Minor League player of the year Mike Aviles as overachieving and "surprising people." Apparently they have something in common that Carlos Quentin does not have. They are white.
The article contains 12 pictures and 9 of them are of white people. For some reason this just irritates me. It is just so easy for columnists to put everyone in a little box and say, "David Eckstein is small and white but is a starting shortstop, so he must be scrappy and an overachiever." It also pisses me off when they say an athlete like Derrick Coleman "wasted his talent." Maybe he was just good in college and did not have that much talent. Again, let's just put a person in a box. This is wrong and it pisses me off. If I were an athlete and Jerry Crasnick approached me for a story like this I would probably punch him. I feel like Jason Whitlock.
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