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Moreno Remains Only
Owner Of Color In MLB |
Univ. of Central Florida (UCF) Institute for Diversity & Ethics in Sport Dir Richard Lapchick in his "2008 Racial and Gender Report Card: Major League Baseball'' granted the league its first "A-" for race in the history of the report and its best-ever combined grade of "B". Though just 8.2% of MLBers for the '07 season were African-American, the lowest mark in at least two decades, baseball received an "A" or better in race for the MLB Central Office, player opportunities, managers and coaches. Baseball did not fare as well for gender, but did get a "C+." MLB in last year's report earned a “B+” for race and a “C+” for gender. In '08 eight MLB teams have managers of color, the highest since the '02 season, and the three MLB GMs of color represent an all-time high. Angels Owner Arte Moreno remains the only person of color to own an MLB team, and Dodgers President & Vice Chair Jamie McCourt and Astros President of Business Operations Pam Gardner are the only two women serving in CEO/President roles. For team VPs last season, just 10% were of color and 16% were women, both a decrease from the previous year. In MLB's Central Office, 28% of the staff were persons of color, including 22% at the director and managerial levels, while 42% of staffers were women, including 26% at the director and managerial levels. Among players, 40.1% were of color, down slightly from 40.5% in '06 (
UCF).
A HISTORY LESSON: Lapchick previously reported 19% of MLBers in '95 were African-American. Those numbers fell to 9% in '04 and '05, and in '06 "the number dipped to 8.4%.'' Things "aren't any better in the college game.'' Last season, less than 7% of all NCAA Division I baseball players were African-American (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 4/15).
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Hunter (r) Feels African-American Participation
In Baseball Is Going To Continue To Decline |
STRIKING OUT: The Braves and Astros last season had no African-American players on their rosters. Rays CF B.J. Upton, an African-American, said, "That's kind of hard to believe. There's still a lack of African-Americans in major league baseball and I think something needs to be done about that" (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 4/16). Tuesday night's edition of HBO's "Real Sports" profiled Angels CF Torii Hunter, and discussed Hunter's efforts to increase the interest in baseball among African-Americans. Hunter: "I think 20 years from now or 10 years from now you’re going to see the decrease (of African-Americans in baseball) big-time. It’s 8% now. It might be 4%, which is very low.” Hunter added there is “nothing hip-hop about baseball, nothing cool about baseball. But it is. I play it." Hunter said social factors are working against MLB, as "60% of African-American families are single-parent homes. Not a lot of dads out there that can help them” learn how to play baseball. Hunter said his Torii Hunter Project, which tries to interest kids in baseball, has a “jamboree every year in June and we get all these kids from 14 cities to leave their environment ... and these kids don’t want to leave and go back.” HBO's James Brown noted MLB Commissioner Bud Selig last November called more than 40 "of the most prominent African-American" MLBers to N.Y. "for a closed-door meeting to solicit their input." Hunter said of the meeting: "We just asked questions like, ‘What do you guys have planned for getting the black players to play the game, and also getting black fans into the game?’" (“Real Sports,” HBO, 4/15).
CHANGES NEEDED: Lapchick released the report Tuesday, which was MLB's Jackie Robinson Day. Lapchick also penned a column for ESPN under the header, "MLB's Diversity Would Have Jackie Shaking His Head" (ESPN.com, 4/15). In St. Louis, Bryan Burwell wrote while MLB has "invested heavily in its Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities Program and urban youth academies, the results of those programs are not translating into progress at the major-league level just yet." Lapchick indicated that it "will take many years for those efforts to pay off." Burwell: "He might be right, but what if he isn't?" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 4/16). In Toronto, Robert MacLeod wrote in order to make baseball "more appealing, not only to black youth but to youngsters of all ethnic backgrounds, how about taking serious steps to speed up the length of games" (GLOBESPORTS.com, 4/15). In Denver, Bill Johnson wrote, "Some have blamed the declining numbers on everything from the increase in single-parent families in the black community to the rise of computer games. It is probably all of that. What, sadly, is true is that black kids simply do not play baseball anymore, certainly not the way we did, virtually from sunup to sundown" (ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, 4/16).
