Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is using the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier to "call out MLB for cutting back on opportunities for Black players," according to Bill Shaikin of the L.A. TIMES. Roberts and the Astros' Dusty Baker are the only Black managers in MLB. The percentages of Black players in MLB "has fallen from 19% in 1986 ... to 7% on this season's opening day rosters." Roberts said, "When you're talking about African American ballplayers, we need to do better. I think about it all the time. It's really getting uncomfortable." MLB owners cut the draft from 50 rounds to 40 rounds in '12, then to 20 rounds in '21. They also "eliminated 43 minor league teams, and with them about 1,000 players." MLB also has established youth leagues across the U.S. in baseball and softball and has partnered with "Black churches and Boys and Girls Clubs on community programs." Those ventures are an "acknowledgement that Black athletes often have to be persuaded to play baseball and, when they do, they commonly start years behind competitors with the advantages of splendid facilities, first-rate coaching, and travel ball." Roberts said, "For me, you're shortening the draft, you're eliminated farm teams, you're looking for more turnkey guys. The way the game has been for the last 20 years, those are people not of color" (L.A. TIMES, 4/15).
Only 6.8% of MLB players are Black, and the only Black GM or head of baseball operations today is White Sox Exec VP Ken WilliamsGetty Images
FOLLOWING THROUGH: USA TODAY's Bob Nightengale writes Jackie Robinson Day "should be a day that is remembered every day, but the fear is that after all of the festivities, speeches and marketing campaigns are over," it "could all be forgotten." This is a sport in which only 6.8% of its players are Black, one of the "smallest percentages of Black players in the sport since baseball was fully integrated in 1959." There are 11 teams who "have one or zero Black players, and 18 of the 30 teams have two or fewer Black players." In contrast, 28.5% of MLB is "comprised of Latino players." The "only Black GM or head of baseball operations" today is White Sox Exec VP Ken Williams. There is "one Black in charge of baseball operations, two Blacks who are managing teams and 66 African-Americans among the 975 players on opening-day rosters and injured lists." There were 275 "foreign-born players on opening day rosters this year, with 38% players of color." Yet, the small percentage of Black players "has remained constant this past decade, despite 56 Black players being drafted in the first round since 2012." Reds special assistant Eric Davis said, "Every time you talk about the lack of Blacks in the game, they drop the percentage of people of color on us. They keep changing the narrative on who we are." Baseball HOFer Ken Griffey Jr., who was recently appointed by MLB to positions in the Commissioner's office to assist in several programs including diversity, equity and inclusion, said, "It's got a long way to go, we know that" (USA TODAY, 4/15).
PINPOINTING THE PROBLEM: USA TODAY's Nancy Armour wonders, "Why do the number of Black players and managers remain so stubbornly low? Where are the Black fans? Why are Black players still subjected to racism at certain ballparks? What are the odds of a Black majority owner anytime soon? Can baseball really say it's more inclusive than it was 20 years ago? Or even 50?" The "dwindling number of Black fans, and the continued hostility of white fans to Black players at some ballparks, has been an "issue since the 1970s." Yet baseball "has done little to address it." Like any sport, the pursuit of equality in baseball "will only go as far as those in charge demand," and it is "clear MLB owners, like their counterparts in the NFL and, to a lesser degree, the NBA, have little interest in the work required to keep pushing their sport and country toward a better place" (USA TODAY, 4/15).
