The past couple weeks has been a trying time in my work. I had accounted for all the teams but was still uncertain of the ethnic heritage of many of the players. In each player’s biographical information, their birthplace is provided, but in most cases, nothing can be found as to how the players categorize themselves. Because nothing can be found on the lineage of their parents, or how they identify themselves, my statistics can only be based on pictures, names, articles that I can find and asking the player themselves.

For the most part, my work has not been difficult, only tedious. As you may remember, I decided to use the 40 man roster of each team, because even though 25 can dress for a game, with injuries the larger roster is necessary. This provided quite a challenge for me, because some of the players are held in the minor leagues, or are on their way up, but do not have any major league experience yet. I can find articles and articles on Derek Jeter or Johnny Damon, players that have been in the spotlight, and for racial purposes, are upheld as examples of the diversity that MLB has. But for players you’ve never heard of, it’s a little more difficult to find out if they come from mixed marriages, immigrant families or if they might have hispanic heritage passed on their mother’s side (without a Spanish surname).

So I took it as far as I could. Of course it has been difficult keeping up with the changing rosters through the trade deadline, but I’m planning to use that date as the point of reference. I began asking teams for their help in identifying players, not for the individual person, but so that I could have more accurate numbers. Most have been cooperative with me. And I’ve now contacted each team.

But for privacy and other reasons, I’ve hit another wall, and some of the teams refuse to provide me with any support or contact the players for me. Frustrating also is when they do not return my calls or respond to my emails. I hope to continue pressure on them and continue to research the background of certain players until I have my complete results.

In the meantime, I have been calculating some results and getting things ready to begin posting statistics, graphs and such. Cataloguing articles and other resources, as well as writing some of my procedures and opinions up is the next step. Still I feel like I’m about a week behind.

I’m sorry it has been so long since I’ve written. I got caught in a routine, but because there weren’t any significant changes, I didn’t have anything all that new to write about. More of my books have come in and I’ve done a pretty good job getting through them, and I’ve learned a lot and been pushed in a lot of positive directions concerning what is really important and what has been all but forgotten on the road to integration in MLB.

Take care as some of us begin the final strokes of our internships. Wishing you all luck and focus.

matt