Baseball struggles with attracting people of color to the game, playing it especially, but also as fans. For baseball’s and America’s sake, that needs to change.
Courtesy: Detroit-CBS Local
When Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones was asked by USA Today why baseball players didn’t kneel for the national anthem, he said: “We already have two strikes against us already, so you might as well not kick yourself out of the game. In football, you can’t kick them out. You need those players. In baseball, they don’t need us. Baseball is a white man’s sport.”
Is that really true? Some of the greatest baseball players in major league history were African-American. Just consider these names: Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Bob Gibson.
But the reality is that the sport hasn’t progressed. In fact, it has regressed in terms of racial diversity.
“Where are all of the black baseball players?” is a very legitimate question. In Jackie Robinson’s last year in the Majors (1956), 6.7% of all Major Leaguers were African Americans. Today’s is about 8% of all players.
With America’s changing demographics, baseball needs to be more diverse, on and off-the-field. That’s critical if baseball wants to be relevant in America. And it’s vital if the sport wants to grow its fanbase which, of course, it does.
In some ways, the MLB has become more diverse. The average Major League Baseball team is now nearly 30% Latino.
But only looking at players’ diversity bypasses another highly relevant matter, that is, just how white and male-dominated baseball ownership and management are. Those people are almost all white men; and the cultural forces behind the MLB (at MLB headquarters) are mostly white men, too (lead positions–about 10% African American).
And look at MLB managers. They’re almost all white men. CEOs, presidents, vice presidents, and general managers are nearly 90% white men, too, as are the owners. What makes those data worse is that baseball is no different from other major pro leagues and major sports-playing universities, too.
Baseball’s fan base is also made up of largely older, white men: over 80% of MLB fans are 3hite and fewer than 10% are Black.
None of this computes if baseball hopes to retain its storied history as “America’s pastime.” It got that title because it’s a generational game–passed down from (mostly) father to (mostly) son. But that tradition isn’t as hallowed when it comes to people of color and women.
Why are so few African Americans playing the game? Why are there so few African American fans?
One narrative is that the answers are sociodemographic–implications of broken families and absent black fathers. But that narrative is fundamentally flawed. It assumes that fathers are natural teachers of the game–an assumption that minimizes the roles played by women and mothers. And it minimizes the impact of decades of policies that criminalized black men, forcing black families into poor neighborhoods and making it nearly impossible for black families to accrue wealth.
So let’s consider a more reasonable interpretation, namely, what it takes to become a baseball player. It means learning the game at a young age and having access to qualified coaches, equipment, camps, summer programs, and traveling teams. Those items cost money, which means that baseball (unlike basketball) isn’t ‘every person’s game.’
The reality is that economic hurdles put baseball out of reach for many children of color.
In recent years MLB has invested significant resources in an attempt to increase diversity on-the-field and -off. But MLB has a very long way to go. With more and more kids of color turning to basketball and football, the pipeline feeding African-American players to the major leagues is anything but plush. Less than 5% of Division I college players are black at a time when African-Americans represent the majority of players in major college basketball and football.
Tony Reagins, MLB Executive Vice President of Baseball and Softball Development, oversees youth programs, including Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI), which is geared toward increasing diversity. Hopefully, his role and influence will grow. The goal is to entice more kids of color into following and playing the game.
What’s it all mean? There are those who say baseball has lost its luster and is fading on America’s sports scene. What needs to fade is a sport dominated by white men.
I hope the League continues to value increasing diversity on- and off-the-field. Its health and growth might depend on it.
