As we get closer to this years MLB baseball All Star game here in New York City many Latino fans wonder how many Latinos will be participating? New York City has one of the largest Latino populations in the country and Citi-Field in Queens sits dead smack near Corona with a huge and diverse Latin American, Central American and Caribbean community.
These days major-league baseball has plenty of Latino players and a strong representation of Latino stars to go around. However, 50 years ago when there were not that many Latino players they managed to put together enough of the few and recruit one, or two honorary "Latinos" to have a Latino All Star Game in the old NYC Polo Grounds in Harlem.
It is incredible that 50 years ago someone was able to get the few Latino players together to play a Latino All-Star game with the leagues top players like Clemente, Cepeda, Marichal and Aparicio.
As the Latino community continues to grow in numbers, perhaps it is time for someone to try and do what was done 50 years ago. Major League Baseball will win top honors if they were to organize such a game. They will definitely help their own cause in increasing their Latino market share, especially among the Latino youth that they are presently losing to the NBA, NFL and Major League Soccer. In addition, they will make a ton of money since every sports and Spanish network would want to cover the game, and the stadium would most definitely be sold out.
However, I don't believe that my good friends at MLB have the ability to think out of the box. The conservative trend in MLB would be to build on their own game and anything else with the word "All-Star" they might see as competitive to their "crown jewel." So for now lets sit back and enjoy next weeks 2013 All Star game and count the number of Latinos that will be playing.
In the meantime read about that Latin American All Star Game played 50 years ago:http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/forgotten-all-star-game-50-years-baseball-latino-legends-played-polo-grounds-game-article-1.1395064