So Much For A Colorblind Society

The Baltimore Orioles were set to have a Brian Roberts bobblehead giveaway today, but there was a bit of a snafu. 20,000 bobbleheads showed up on their doorstep, and they opened them to find that the Brian Roberts doll had much darker skin than the actul Brian Roberts.

"It didn't look like Brian Roberts. The coloring was bad," Orioles spokesman Bill Stetka said. "I didn't actually see it. I've heard various versions that it was very dark and bluish."

So they made the decision to send back all 20,000 bobbleheads, and give fans vouchers good for Brian Roberts bobbleheads at some later date. That seems wasteful to me. Would it have killed Brian Roberts to just play today's game in blackface? Come on, man, take one for the team. Look at all the eyeblack; he's already halfway there. Bobbleheads aren't cheap, you know. I'm sure that no advocacy groups would've had any problem with that whatsoever.

O's return 20,000 dark-skinned Roberts replicas [SI.com]