There were only 68 African-American players among the 882 total players on Opening Day rostersGETTY IMAGES
MLB has "more young stars than ever before, but something is missing," as there is a "serious dearth of African-American baseball players," according to Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY. MLB has an African-American population of "only 7.7% this season," with 68 African-American players among the 882 total players on Opening-Day rosters, injured lists and restricted lists. There were "twice as many African-American players in baseball" when Baseball HOFer Ken Griffey Jr. "broke into the major leagues" in '89. There also are a "staggering 11 teams that don't have more than a single African-American player on their 25-man roster." Griffey said, "The NFL and NBA [have] done a better job than we have in showing the fun side of the sport, having people talk about it whether it's on social media, commercials or the news." Nightengale writes MLB's image is the "problem the league is desperately trying to change, convincing the American public that baseball isn't boring." The "pipeline of African-American players to the major leagues hardly is overflowing," but MLB is "encouraged that 28 of the 69 players are 26 years old or younger." MLB Exec VP/Baseball & Softball Development Tony Reagins said, "There's a lot of work to be done, but we're seeing a lot of changes at the grass-roots level. We're getting there" (USA TODAY, 4/15).
