Ike Davis is White?
by Ur on Jul 24, 2009 2:53 PM EDT
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So, I'm reading Baseball America's Prospect Hot Sheet today, like I (and I'm sure most of you) do every Friday, and as I'm scrolling down looking at each player's writeup, I see that Mets 1B prospect Ike Davis is #10. Then I look at his picture -- Ike Davis is a white guy?!?
Like really, really white...
Ever since the Mets drafted him, I had just assumed Ike Davis was black. Why did I do that? Was it just because his name was Ike?? Did I just figure that Ike is always a black man's name because of Ike Turner??? Does this make me a racist????
Has anybody else ever found themselves in a similar situation with a player -- thinking he was one race, when he actually turned out to be another?!?
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Well
His father, Ron Davis, pitched for the yankees and he was white, so I assumed so even before I saw him. Isaac Benjamin Davis. I think he is MOT.
I don't think any Jews are named Ike
And google confirmed that, and also brought in this hilarious article
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/31/28/31_28_mm_up_down_jews.html
TheSouthWing.com - A Magazine of essays, prose and poems
by OldProspects on Jul 24, 2009 4:29 PM EDT up reply actions
Isaac
is old testament, not that anyone can’t or doesn’t use them (Isaiah Thomas) but I now think you’re correct. But Ike is just a nick-name. His name is Isaac Benjamin and that coulda been.
Isaiah and Isaac are different names
and different Biblical figures. (Yitzchak and Yishayahu in Hebrew). I get what you’re saying, but them being Biblical names, Christians and Muslims use them too
TheSouthWing.com - A Magazine of essays, prose and poems
by OldProspects on Jul 24, 2009 7:07 PM EDT up reply actions
yes
I know Isaiah and Isaac are different names, and I know anyone can use them. That was the point of my Isaiah reference. I know a lot jewish guys named Isaac, then there’s Isaac Hayes. Although my cousin’s kid is also Isaac and we’re protestants. Isaac Benjamin just sounded kinda old testament to me. And I know some jewish Davis’s as well. Never judge a book by its cover, or its title I guess.
come to think of it
my cousin is Benjamin and his son is Isaac, so strike that line of thought.
John is an old testament name .
… and fairly popular even today. In fact, when I hear of someone named John, I never wonder what his race is, because he could be anything at all … like Ike.
The last black player to play for ASU
was Barry Bonds
Don't believe the lies Bill!!!! look at the sparkly ERA!!! Sparkly, Sparkly!!! - McCovey Chronicles
Samesies
Shocking. I thought Davis was black too. I would’ve bet money on it.
Some others:
I thought James McDonald of the Dodgers was white, because I assume all pitching prospects are.
I thought Jordan Schafer was black.
I still do not know what race Jeremy Hellickson and Jeremy Jeffress are. I am pretty sure both are black though.
Jeffress is black, Hellickson isn't
Don't believe the lies Bill!!!! look at the sparkly ERA!!! Sparkly, Sparkly!!! - McCovey Chronicles
+1 on Schafer
even if he has a Jewish last name
by METSMETSMETS on Jul 24, 2009 10:48 PM EDT up reply actions
Tons of white baby boomers are named Ike
Because of this pretty awesome guy:
Don't believe the lies Bill!!!! look at the sparkly ERA!!! Sparkly, Sparkly!!! - McCovey Chronicles
But
his name is Isaac, not Eisenhower. Ike Davis was born 27 years after he left office and is not a member of the baby boom at all.
But I do like Ike, Eisenhower that is. Vastly underrated president.
I like Ike
"We must win and we must know how to win rather than win because we have statistical people."
+1 on the vastly underrated presidency
"Sometimes Joe (morgan) doesn't like facts to get in the way of his opinions."- billy beane
"That was a great pick...if this was 2002" Me, to guy who selected Barry Zito in a fantasy draft
www.27ClubPeak.blogspot.com
by harendaman365 on Jul 24, 2009 6:09 PM EDT up reply actions
So did I
But, he is Canadian, and we are not exactly loaded with black people up here.
Except on the soccer team, apparently
Linda's in the cold ground, won't see her anymore
Somewhere out on the highway tonight, the drunken engines roar
It's just one of those things, one of those things
-- Al Stewart, "Accident on 3rd St."
In memory of Nick Adenhart and all victims of drunk driving
It's to balance out
Andrew McCutchen, who I swore was white until seeing him in his call-up.
"That is like saying my ‘upside’ is Brad Pitts face, with Einstein’s brain, and Ron Jeremy’s unit. It is nice to dream, but that ceiling isn’t going to happen." (King Billy Royal)
LOL...I'm a Met fan
and I was rally surprised that he was white. Thanks god I am not alone. First time I see a hoto of him
My guess
is that Ike Turner spurred most of the assumptions that Ike Davis was black. I’m guilty as charged as well with him.
I actually thought Reese Havens was black, originally.
"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw
It's not quite the same
but I thought Marco Scutaro was white for a long time watching him play but never listening to him talk, I didn’t realize he was a latino
Don't believe the lies Bill!!!! look at the sparkly ERA!!! Sparkly, Sparkly!!! - McCovey Chronicles
His dad's from Italy
If that counts for anything.
homer bailey
for the longest time thought he was black. No clue why i thought that. Very surprising when i looked at a pic one time.
by kershaw_equals_stud on Jul 24, 2009 3:20 PM EDT reply actions
LOL
I really laughed out loud for this thread… You serious? He was a college player with decent national exposure. You never saw him before for, or heard of his dad?
I think that with HS guys a lot, but rarely college.
I just got on twitter.Follow me at http://twitter.com/JDSussman
I'll be trying to post lines and analysis as much as possible.
Remember: baseball guys... baseball...
yes reggie cleveland all star
my favorite is howie kendrick
reggie willits
could have sworn he was black
"The Mets have shown me more ways to lose than I even knew existed."
-Casey Stengel
by He'sGotPotential on Jul 24, 2009 4:38 PM EDT reply actions
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA
white Reggie’s should be illegal
by METSMETSMETS on Jul 24, 2009 10:45 PM EDT up reply actions
You know...
I was thinking of posting something of this exact nature this past week. One player that had my mental assumption wrong was B.J. Upton. It could’ve been because of seeing B.J. Surhoff for many years, but in reading reports on his progress throughout the minors (and never seeing a picture of him in the process) I just imagined him as a scrappy white guy.
In an unrelated sport, my best friend thought that former NBA player Will Perdue was black in just seeing his name in boxscores for years on end.
I thought Michael Stanton
was Caucasian untill today.
by SteveHoffmanSlowey on Jul 24, 2009 5:03 PM EDT reply actions
Jeff Samrdzija
wouldn’t have made the Trojans?
Would he have made it?
Yes, but how many white WR’s does USC have?
Coming out of college most big teams (Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State, etc) didn’t offer him.
He'd have spent a bit more time on the bench
or been the scrappy possession receiver at best.
by Flynn Blake on Jul 25, 2009 12:02 AM EDT up reply actions
I thought Donna Chang
was Asian.
"We must win and we must know how to win rather than win because we have statistical people."
I dont know
who that is. But even though you’ve made it clear that this person isnt Asian just cuz of the Chang I’m convinced its true.
by METSMETSMETS on Jul 24, 2009 10:44 PM EDT up reply actions
Its a Seinfeld reference
Jerry met a woman on the phone through crossed wires, went out with her under the impression she was Asian, but it turned out her family just shortened their name from Changstein.
"We must win and we must know how to win rather than win because we have statistical people."
she was still cute
for a girl he met over the phone
by son.of.sourman on Jul 25, 2009 9:51 PM EDT up reply actions
i thought that
adrian cardenas was hispanic…he might be, but sure doesn’t look like it.
"If you hit .440 with 20 bombs, you don't have to do s---. You don't have to bring a glove to practice, just hit and leave whenever you want. You can bring a 40 and smoke a cigarette and call me from the parking lot asking me what time the game is, and I'll tell you. You can even say 'F--- you, Steve!' Actually, don't say that, that wouldn't be very nice." -Steve Friend, Head Coach, Chabot College Gladiators Baseball
+1000000
his name is Adrian Cardenas. It’s plain as day that he should be hispanic
by METSMETSMETS on Jul 24, 2009 10:43 PM EDT up reply actions
If he were from spain
I would’ve heard of him playing for Spain in the WBC
by METSMETSMETS on Jul 25, 2009 3:08 PM EDT up reply actions
for years i thought Ian Snell was a white guy
"Sometimes Joe (morgan) doesn't like facts to get in the way of his opinions."- billy beane
"That was a great pick...if this was 2002" Me, to guy who selected Barry Zito in a fantasy draft
www.27ClubPeak.blogspot.com
wow
I just did a google image search. who knew?
Lonnie Chisenhall
Thought he was black for a long time. The name sounds like an NFL DB to me. Maybe I had Lonnie Smith in the back of my mind.
"Ninety percent I'll spend on good times, women and Irish Whiskey. The other ten percent I'll probably waste."
Andrew McCutchen
My friend was sure he was Irish.
Its the best when this happens! Very funny.
Thomas Neal
I thought he was white, until I saw his picture.
Also thought Buster Posey was black.
I didn't say I wasn't flawless, but I damn sho' don't tarnish!
Neal
is a much blacker name than I thought.
by METSMETSMETS on Jul 24, 2009 10:42 PM EDT up reply actions
Ryan Howard
Based on his stats and scouting report, I was imagining a big Jim Thome-looking Nebraska farm boy.
Someone has already mentioned Khalil Greene. My friend’s line: “I assumed he looked like an Arizona point guard.”
Khalil
Oddly enough, he looks exactly like my friend’s ex-girlfriend (she has a great personality).
Troy O'Leary and Trot Nixon
Confused the heck out of me when they were both on the Red Sox. It was like they had traded names.
by Joltin Joe Orsulak on Jul 24, 2009 9:02 PM EDT reply actions
I made the same assumption
with Davis. I was pretty happy when I first heard — the black community needs more role models in baseball. I could go on a rant about the benefits to baseball and the situation the minority community has been through but I’ll spare you all. Needless to say, I was perplexed when I saw his photo. But still, I want him to be successful
On the site sportsjournalists.com
basically an online watercooler for ESPN and sports section reporters and editors — the subject of black role models in baseball came up a few years ago, and it contained the most wry comment I ever read on the site, something like this: “As long as the black community has players like Khalil Greene and Lew Ford to look up to, they won’t lack for role models in baseball.”
by Flynn Blake on Jul 25, 2009 12:07 AM EDT up reply actions
Johnny Cueto
coulda swore by the name he was a white guy.
Also
did anyone know that Nolan Ryan was in fact a hispanic man in disguise?
by METSMETSMETS on Jul 24, 2009 10:48 PM EDT up reply actions
Oh man
I could make a huge list of players I had mistaken. I actually just learned about a lot of them in this thread. Here’s a few off the top of my head:
Jay Jackson (thought he was white)
Jeremy Jeffress (thought he was white)
Junior Lake (doesn’t really sound like a hispanic name)
Michael Stanton (I was sure he was white)
Michael Taylor (thought he was white)
Mat Latos (thought he was at least of hispanic descent)
There are probably tons more, and probably many I don’t know about.
I am like your Dan Aykroyd and biglow would be Jane, the ignorant slut. -Chad
Most people who are actually NAMED Junior,
i.e. not just a nickname but their actual name, are hispanic.
Linda's in the cold ground, won't see her anymore
Somewhere out on the highway tonight, the drunken engines roar
It's just one of those things, one of those things
-- Al Stewart, "Accident on 3rd St."
In memory of Nick Adenhart and all victims of drunk driving
We had a discussion about this over at mccoveychronicles.com
It started off talking about Brandon Crawford. my first guy was Freddie Freeman. But also when I was 7 or 8 I had this Omar Vizquel baseball card that showed him as a black shortstop, so I though he was black. I only figured out he was white when I saw him on the Indians and was clearly not black. I think it was a ’97 Fleer Ultra card. Man do I love baseball cards.
Adoptive parent of Kyle Nicholson
oh, I found the link from mccoveychronicles
http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2009/5/19/880344/brandon-crawford-is-white#15898188
Adoptive parent of Kyle Nicholson
LOL +1 one Freddie Freeman. We went over this back during Freeman’s first season and pretty much all of us at Talking Chop thought he was a black guy.
When the A's first got Chris Carter, and I read his scouting profile (lots of K's, walks, big power, etc)
I thought he was white. His skill set was like Cust’s so I moronically assumed he looked just like Cust.
"We were shit, pathetic," Guillen growled early in spring training. "We hit too many home runs."
wow what a topic
My wife and I adopted an “African-American” baby and his name is Cody Kristen Gaeta think how thrown off your going to be if he ever hits a draft board. But then again it’s not hard to trick the simple minded.
"The key to winning baseball games is pitching, fundamentals, and three run homers."
I have to admit that I was shocked seeing that Corey Brown was a white guy
and I’m pretty sure that had something to do with the “bad makeup” talk swirling around him when he was drafted, too, which is pretty disgusting when you think about it.
Well, hey, at least I’m aware of the problem of implicit racial bias…
Linda's in the cold ground, won't see her anymore
Somewhere out on the highway tonight, the drunken engines roar
It's just one of those things, one of those things
-- Al Stewart, "Accident on 3rd St."
In memory of Nick Adenhart and all victims of drunk driving
50 points
To those of you who know what race Hank Conger is…
I immediately thought he was black
and I refuse to check myself.
by METSMETSMETS on Jul 25, 2009 3:11 PM EDT up reply actions
holy mother of God
Hee Seop Choi is back!
by METSMETSMETS on Jul 25, 2009 3:11 PM EDT up reply actions
when i saw him on the hot sheet a while back
i was really surprised
by son.of.sourman on Jul 25, 2009 9:53 PM EDT up reply actions
you mean Hyun-Koi Conger?
"Sometimes Joe (morgan) doesn't like facts to get in the way of his opinions."- billy beane
"That was a great pick...if this was 2002" Me, to guy who selected Barry Zito in a fantasy draft
www.27ClubPeak.blogspot.com
by harendaman365 on Jul 26, 2009 1:09 AM EDT up reply actions
brett jackson
thought he was black.
i think when the “toolsy, strikes out a lot, still learning to hit” tag gets thrown out, i automatically picture an african-american. apologies if that is bad of me.
baseball rules.
Hunter Pence
I originally thought he was black.
But but but
The Reggie Cleveland All-Stars need them!
"That is like saying my ‘upside’ is Brad Pitts face, with Einstein’s brain, and Ron Jeremy’s unit. It is nice to dream, but that ceiling isn’t going to happen." (King Billy Royal)
Freeman
I’m surprised you all thought he was black. This was the image that came to mind when I first read about him (and which I can never really shake):
this thread is why the mainstream media hates people like us
WE DON’T ACTUALLY WATCH BASEBALL WE JUST LOOK AT NUMBERS ON A COMPUTER IN OUR MOTHER’S BASEMENTS WAHHHHHH
David Eckstein: so gritty they would eat him in the south for breakfast with some butter and sprinkle cheese.
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