MLB Dir of PR Rich Levin said that MLB "refused to send
a high-ranking official" to Tuesday night's ESPN Town
Meeting because the network "didn't invite officials from
other sports," according to USA TODAY's Hal Bodley. Levin:
"We didn't want baseball to be singled out or be the target
of the program. ESPN would not do that, so they eventually
went directly to San Diego Padres owner John Moores."
Bodley suggests that MLB President Paul Beeston "would have
been excellent" on ESPN's panel on racism (USA TODAY, 4/17).
SHOW SPARKS DISCUSSION: Reaction continues to ESPN's
"Race & Sports" production: In Orlando, George Diaz: "We can
hope that most viewers embraced the dialogue and listened,
the first step toward breaking down the walls of inequity"
(ORLANDO SENTINEL, 4/17). But in N.Y., Phil Mushnick writes
the meeting was "filled with shrill messages and insulting
messengers. For crying out loud, there sat Keyshawn
Johnson, Dennis Green and John Thompson, three men renown
for selfishness, telling us what's wrong with the world.
White America, naturally, was portrayed as the bad guys"
(N.Y. POST, 4/17). In Boston, Bob Ryan writes on ESPN's
special and adds that the NBA "has lapped the field in terms
of placing both front office and head coaching decision-
making power in the hands of blacks." In a sidebar, Gordon
Edes writes on the Red Sox' growing diversity: Of the team's
139 full-time employees in '97, 28% were minorities. The
team also ranked No. 1 in MLB's study of minority employees
who are nonplaying personnel (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/17).
ANOTHER SESSION? Richard Lapchick, Dir of the Center
for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern Univ.,
said his original plans for a race discussion called for a
"lower-profile session" with President Clinton plus the
commissioners and decision-makers from each major pro sport
and the NCAA. But the White House "opted for TV," which
"drove the higher-profile types underground and changed the
nature" of the discussion. Lapchick: "There were trade-
offs. ... I think it will be difficult to get a second
meeting together, but I hope it can be done, and we're going
to work toward getting it" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 4/17).
