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  • It's time for this week's parting shots.

  • There are players at the University of Texas who no longer wish to stand after games for the school song The Eyes of Texas as its origins point to a minstrel show.

  • This is spurred controversy to the point where enough band members refused to play the song that there wouldn't be enough instrumentation to perform as a unit.

  • Texas football coach Tom Herman says he expects players to remain after games for the song but won't force them to do so.

  • In his newsletter, athletic director Chris del Conte said, In spite of differences about the song quote, rest assured our student athletes 11 respect this university very much.

  • What's striking is the demand that players so appreciation for the school that doesn't pay them and fans who don't care about their legitimate concerns.

  • The eyes is being treated.

  • A sacred appreciation must be shown one way, and that way is an optional This mirrors conversation about the national anthem in sports, which makes it clear it isn't really about either song.

  • What offends fans is any pushback against racism from those who are there to entertain them.

  • Texas could choose a different song and fans would love it because the love is about Texas and not the Sol.

  • Find something the players and fans can get behind.

  • Football players are expected to tolerate as much indignity as white people deem fit.

  • Watching the players appreciate a place like that.

  • On Thursday, Major League Baseball delivered its inaugural Curt Flood Awards, a Hall of Fame outfielder Andre Dawson.

  • The honor highlights player advocacy, Floyd's most impactful contribution.

  • Good for baseball and beyond, deserving for Dawson.

  • But it brings the Lattimore glaring issue well.

  • It was a standout center fielder on to ST Louis Cardinals championship teams in the 19 sixties.

  • Yeah, floods actions 51 years ago this month literally changed the course of history.

  • The seven time Gold Glove, when it refused the honor retreat to Philadelphia in 1969.

  • Simply put, as he told then commissioner Bowie Kuhn, he was not a piece of property who could be moved at the whim of management.

  • Following Mohammed Ali's refused to report to Vietnam in 1967 and John Carlos and Tommie Smith fist at the 1968 Olympics floods.

  • Active defiance was the third transcendent decision by Black athlete in as many years.

  • The move shook baseball to its core and ultimately ended.

  • Floods career.

  • Six years later, pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally successful arbitration helped begin free agency victory that would have never been possible without the seeds flood bravely planted Curt Flood sacrifices direct tied to the meme of contracts and mobility.

  • In today's game, the story of Major league baseball cannot and should not be told without Flood.

  • I'm one of many folks who have long called for its Cooperstown induction as a contributor.

  • Get adventure to say the whole needs flood more than floods.

  • Legacy needs The whole 75 years ago this week, the Brooklyn Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson, the most important event ever in American sports.

  • Two years later, Robinson would win the NL Rookie of the Year award and start first base for the Dodgers in the world.

  • Siri's also playing for the Dodgers in that seven game World Series against the Yankees.

  • Dan Bankhead, the first black picture ever in the majors.

  • Now, 73 years later, there is precisely 11 black player in the world.

  • Siri's.

  • He's arguably the best player on either roster.

  • One of the best players in the game.

  • Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts.

  • How did we get here?

  • It's like what Hemingway said about going broke.

  • It happened gradually.

  • Then suddenly, from a peak of 18.7% in 1981 African American representation in the majors is now at 7.5% or just one out of every 13 players.

  • That's the lowest figure since 1958 when Hank Aaron and Willie Mays were in their twenties.

  • In the last quarter century, baseball has tried to reverse the trend, to no avail.

  • This year, on opening day, three major league teams had no African American players on their rosters.

  • 14 had two or fewer.

  • There were also just to African American managers.

  • Dusty Baker of the Astros and Mookie Betts is manager Dave Roberts.

  • All these years after Jackie Robinson changed baseball and change sports and changed America, if baseball wants to maintain its place in our culture, its status as the national pastime, it needs to find a way to change again.

  • Thank you for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content.

It's time for this week's parting shots.

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