The lack of African-American baseball players: A more complete explanation
on August 25th, 2005 at 2:51 am
For the past few months I have been reading article after article that once again discusses the disparity (there’s that word again) of African-Americans that play baseball on the professional level. All the articles that I read made it seem as though once again “the system” has found another way to keep us out of the game (pardon the pun). This article covers those “missing points”.
(excerpted)
Baseball has thrived on a system that begins with Little League, but black children today overwhelmingly choose basketballs and footballs over bats and gloves. Those connected with baseball cite several reasons for the sport’s decline in popularity with today’s young blacks: They find baseball boring; video games and rap music help them pass the time; and most importantly, fewer adults in their neighborhoods are available to teach them the game.
The result: Blacks made up 9 percent of the players in the major leagues this year, down from a peak of 27 percent in 1975, according to Richard Lapchick, who tracks minorities in sports.
It’s another sign of the break between the post-civil-rights generation and their elders, who experienced legal segregation in the Negro Leagues until Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball in 1947.
…In baseball’s heyday in the 1960s, a majority of black fathers were in the home, Cooney said. “In 2000, it’s the total opposite. Baseball is a father-son game. In the suburbs, fathers organize the leagues. In the city, there are not a lot of fathers to do that.” (more…)
This is way out of the scope of what MLB commissioner “Bud” Selig could ever do. Baseball just ain’t swinging with us like it used to.
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