TGIF

Well Big O Sports Blog has come to the end of its first week on the internet, and it is still alive and kicking. I know it started on a Wednesday, so it isn't really a whole week, but its a big milestone for me, so just don't be a kill joy alright? Thanks. Anyway this is a special edition of the Big O Sports Blog because today we are introducing our very own Omaha Beef football insider; up and coming broadcaster, Matt Santamaria. Matt, who works with the Beef frequently, will be contributing a weekly report on Omaha's favorite indoor football team as well as postgame analysis following each Beef game. Here is this weeks report for their upcoming game tomorrow night against the Billings Outlaws. Don't forget to tune in to Matt as he announces the game at 7:50 central time on 1620 AM The Zone. If you are not in the Omaha area you can tune in via the internet on 1620's website. I proudly present to you, Matt Santamaria with this week's Beef Report (cool name for this section is under construction) . . .

To say Saturday's Omaha Beef/Billings Outlaws affair is a case of two teams heading in opposite directions would be, well, quite the understatement. For Omaha, it was just two long months ago that the 3-0 Beef were heading home from the Metropark Arena flying high into a tilt with rival Sioux Falls. Seven games, and six losses later, the Beef find themselves in full fledged desperation mode. Meanwhile, the Chris Dixon led Outlaws opened their '07 season in disarray, a lowpoint coming in the form of a 51-18 loss @Sioux Falls in Week 4. Since then, however, the Outlaws have rattled off four consecutive wins, one on the 26th of May in Omaha, to even their record at 4-4. With two of the best multi-dimensional QBs in the UIF on display Saturday night, the match-up is certainly intriguing. Billings has the momentum, not to mention homefield advantage for tonight's affair, but the desperate Beef will certainly come out swinging and take the crowd out of the game early. If James McNear can use his legs like he did @Billings in Week 3 (13 carries - 85 yards - 2 TDs), I don't think an undermanned front 3 from Billings has much of an answer. But if the Beef fall behind early and go pass happy with their prized young QB, the Beef may make the busride home firmly on the playoff bubble at 4-7.

Much thanks to Matt SantaMaria for his Beef insider info. Don't forget to check back with the Big O Sports Blog for Matt's postgame analysis which will be posted as soon as he returns from Billings.

And now what's on my mind tonight. . .

MLB's Race War: Blacks vs Latinos?

It seems as though in baseball more than any other sport, race is always an issue. Yes you have the occasional debate about where the white basketball player has gone from the NBA (the answer is most frequently: the Euro leagues). And from time to time you will have some idiot make an issue about the correlation between ethnicity and scrambling tendencies of college or NFL quarterbacks (much thanks to the U of Florida QBs for making those people looks like morons). For the most part though, those things are just water cooler banter that sometimes has the topic of the skin color of a certain athlete mixed in. However with baseball when the subject of race comes up, it usually isn't just a discussion, its an issue.

For example, this past week three different major leaguers spoke out about the difference in how Latino players are treated as opposed to how Black players are. It is important to note that this isn't a conversation about certain skill sets that are supposedly more prevalent in a given race. This is about treating players differently based on their race. Gary Sheffield kicked it all off by saying Latin players got promoted through minor league systems more quickly because they were easier to control than Black Players. In response, Sheff's teammate Carlos Guillen issued a statement in which he more or less agreed with Sheffield's sentiments. And finally Tori Hunter of the Twins came out and gave a less generalizing, more politically correct version of what Sheffield said. Three players, two Black, one Latino, all in agreement that essentially, Latin players have a better shot of moving through the farm system, because teams feel like they can control them. Of course those who want to make this a race war say that this would imply that teams feel as if black players are uncontrollable thugs.

So there is what brought up this subject and I am not going to beat around the bush as to what it means. This really is not about the Black players at all, its just not. What it is about is the fact that the Carribean has become the breeding ground for baseball slaves. Now slave may be too strong of a word here but nothing else I could think of was strong enough. Sure you have countless Major Leaguers who are Latino, and they are rich and famous, and in their home countries they are national heroes. But those players that we see playing on TV and making the Top 10 on Sportscenter represent the tip of the Latin baseball iceberg. Every year each major league club has scouts in the Dominican Republic and other places like it, signing players for a few thousand dollars, or what really amounts to nothing in terms of baseball money. Countless Latino players get signed and have the promise of a better life held above their head in order to see if they can become the next Pedro Martinez or David Ortiz. Young men, usually ages 16-18, are exploited by baseball, hoping one of them will turn into the next big star. . . and the ones that don't? Which by the way is pretty much all of them, they return to their one-room straw houses because they were of no longer of any use to the team that signed them.

OK, so maybe it isn't slavery, but it is a problem. You want to know the reason baseball looks for its stars in the slums of the Dominican Republic instead of the high school fields in America? It's all about the money. A first round draft pick will cost a team a few million dollars, and if that pick doesn't pan out (which happens a lot, let's be honest, the draft is a crap shoot)? Then that team can kiss that money goodbye. But you know how many ball players can be bought with a few million dollars in Latin America? Hundreds. Now just on average a few to several of those hundreds will almost certainly make it in the big leagues. So baseball teams make the wise financial decision; baseball is a business right? To a certain extent yes, but different rules apply when you are buying and selling people. The point is that baseball needs to regulate how clubs acquire Latino ball players. Much like the flow of illegal immigrant workers coming into the United States, there needs to be a way to keep track of these people so that they can be here legally and can earn a fair wage. The way teams go and buy players from the Carribean isn't illegal (most of the time) but it is wrong. A separate draft for players from Latin America would be a good way to go. This would ensure that these players got fair market value for what they bring to a team and it would prevent teams from using the threat of sending a player back to his home country as a means of controlling them.

That's all for today everybody, sorry about the heavy topic, I will try and lighten things up tomorrow. I hope you enjoyed it and let me know what you think.