Minority Report

By: Joel Brennan

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first black major league baseball player. Today, black athletes only comprise 8.5% of Major League Baseball (MLB), according to a study conducted at the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports. This number has been on a steady decline since the highpoint of 25% in 1975.

With the 60th anniversary of Robinson’s debut occurring a few months, sports journalists/communist took the opportunity to tell of a memorable moment they had of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodger. Some took the time to look at the impact Robinson had on the game. Even fewer column inches were used to look at the staggering numbers presented in the Racial and Gender Report Card (UCF’s study).

Current players feel that the league itself is at fault for not properly marketing their black stars like Ryan Howard or Dontrelle Willis. Veteran outfielder Kenny Lofton, currently playing for the Texas Rangers, said, "I think Major League Baseball doesn't hype the sport like they do in the NBA or NFL and African-Americans love the hype. You see how the NBA and NFL does it. That's all kids talk about in the neighborhood because of how they're being hyped." Minnesota Twins outfielder Torii Hunter agrees with Lofton saying, “"They don't market the game the same as the NFL or NBA."

Few journalists could offer an opinion or thought as to why the black population is down in America’s pastime. However, Chris Isidore of CNNMoney.com offered the possibility of it being an economical decision made by teams to not invest the time and money in scouting and developing young black baseball players. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’s Garrett Anderson also feels that economics plays a part in the problem. “"Baseball can't compete with basketball or football when you're talking about inner-city kids," said Anderson. Hunter compares it an elitist sport saying, “Baseball is almost like a country club - it costs money to get in."

MLB has taken steps to recruit inner-city athletes, but economics remains an issue. Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) was started 18 years ago in South Central Los Angeles. Currently, RBI is an international program that has as many as 120,000 people participating in it. However, RBI board member Darrell Miller has expressed similar thoughts as Hunter and Anderson saying that black athletes are "kind of economically priced out of the game." This being due to their parents not being able to afford all of the necessary equipment needed to play.

Miller also points out those inner-city players are unable to afford the instruction they need to completely understand the game. By the time they reach high school they are unable to compete with those who have had the proper instruction. "They either choose another sport or drop baseball because they're competing against kids who have been playing their whole lives,” Miller said.

At the college level economics also has become an influencing factor in decreased participation. In 2003-04, only 6 percent of Division-I baseball players were black, compared with an overall representation of nearly 25 percent in all sports. At the College World Series, that same season, only 11 of the 200 participating players (5.5%) were black.

Starting in 1992, the NCAA limited scholarships to 11.7 per baseball team at the Division-I level. In doing so, they made full scholarships a rarity, thus forcing many players to pay their own way. Also, the limitations have forced universities to eliminate freshman and JV teams.

"You add all that together and you have a perfect little recipe for the inner-city athlete choosing another sport over baseball," Miller said.

In an article written by Elliott James of The Hilltop, a student newspaper at Howard University, several students expressed similar sentiments about the decline in participation.

“I think one of the major factors leading to the decrease when it comes to baseball is the lack of support for inner-city programs,” said Myron Aldridge, a junior mechanical engineering major who formerly played the sport in high school. “A lot of the inner-city leagues have been cut because there isn’t enough money.”

Current Detroit Tigers designated hitter Gary Sheffield, notoriously outspoken on many topics, spoke on the topic to GQ magazine. In the interview, he offers another theory to the decline, claiming that African-Americans are harder to control than
Latin players.

"I called it years ago. What I called is that you're going to see more black faces, but there ain't no English going to be coming out. … [It's about] being able to tell [Latin players] what to do -- being able to control them," he told the magazine.
"Major League Baseball is very much aware of the numbers and takes the issue very seriously," MLB spokesman Rich Levin said. "We've been making great efforts to re-introduce the game to the inner city. It's going to take a lot of work. We've begun to see some results, but we realize it's going to take continued efforts.”
"It's a big subject for the 8 percent of us that are here (in the majors). Oh yeah, it's a big subject," Hunter said. "That's why I finally said, 'Let's stop talking about it. Let's do something. Let's get our faces out there so kids know who we are and where we are.'"

Levin also said, “We are the sport of Jackie Robinson and for a period after that the best African-American athletes were playing baseball. Obviously, that is no longer the case and we need to change that."

In addition to the lack of black players in the sport, there is also a lack of black coaches, executives, and owners. Currently, there is no team with a black majority owner, only one General Manager (Ken Williams of the Chicago White Sox), and only two black managers (Willie Randolph of the New York Mets and Ron Washington of the Texas Rangers). Despite all of this, MLB received a B+ in the category of diversity from the Report Card. This is primarily due to the 28.7% and 2.5% of Hispanic and Asian players, respectively, in the league. The percentage of Hispanic players has nearly doubled since 1990.