DETROIT -- Lou Whitaker has advice for kids looking to get into baseball: If you want to make it, you have to work at it.
"If African-American kids want it, step up," Whitaker said.
Thanks to the work of himself and others well before him, it's a game of universal opportunity. But it's also a game of worldwide competition.
"The only thing I can say for all the kids here is put in more time. We all had to," Whitaker said after being honored with the Tigers' African-American Legacy Award on Friday at Comerica Park. "To play at this level, this is not a once-a-week job.