Lack of blacks in MLB

In Major League Baseball (MLB) today, there are 93 African Americans on rosters this season, compared to last year when baseball had its lowest percentage of black players since 1958 with a total of 59 black players. With 30 teams and 40 player rosters, there are a total of 1200 players in the entire league, and looking back at history, the percentage of black players has been up and down like a roller coaster. In the 50’s, African-American players made up only 1.7% of the league, followed by two decades (the 60’s and 70’s), when the percentages of blacks were 8.9% and 14.6%, respectively. By the 80’s and 90’s, the average percentages were 17.4 and 16.6 for each decade. There was a steady increase from the 50’s through the 80’s, but the decline began in the 90’s. By the decade 2000, the black population of MLB players decreased to 12.6%, then 7.6% in 2010, before bumping up a little to the current percentage of 7.8%.

There are a lot of reasons why there are fewer black players in MLB, and the reason that most people cite is that athletes want to take the easy road to fame and play basketball or football instead. An estimated 3 million kids participate in baseball or softball around the country every year and reports say very few are black kids. Conventional wisdom suggests they prefer to play basketball and want to be like Michael Jordan and Lebron James.  Many say baseball players do not have the same nationwide appeal, like players such as Lebron James, Tom Brady, Tiger Woods, or Cristiano Ronaldo, which is in large part due to the poor job MLB has done with its marketing strategies. While baseball has some of the most lucrative contracts in professional sports, they leave the promotion of their superstars to the companies representing them. The NBA has done an amazing job of marketing over recent years starting with it’s “NBA BIG” initiative, followed by the recent “This Is Why We Play” campaign. Baseball advertising and marketing is lacking and is an area that is highly effective towards recruiting young athletes. The parents of this generation are people who grew up inspired by ads on television. With the ad campaigns of the NFL and NBA overtaking those of MLB, it would make sense that interest in the sport has plummeted among American youths.

Another reason might have to do with the lack of black executives and staff in front office positions. Managers, who are the head coaches of each MLB team, are usually white men. There have only been a handful of black and Latino managers historically. The majority of hitting and pitching coaches in the league, are white as well. The team CEOs and Presidents, people who are at the top of the administrative food chain, are generally all white as well, which is another damaging statistic that may account for fewer black players in MLB. This lack of diversity at the top is a problem throughout professional sports, not just MLB. These top positions have been heavily dominated by white men for the past 60 years. Eighty-seven percent of General Managers and Vice Presidents, who usually make all the baseball-related decisions for the team, are white.

Lastly, while MLB teams are focused on acquiring the best talent from anywhere around the world, MLB appears to pay the most attention towards talent in Latin-American countries. The reason for that is because it is cheaper to sign Latin-American talent and train them at the various baseball academies built by MLB teams across Latin America. While MLB has paid for and built baseball facilities and academies in Latin-American countries, very little have been built in African-American communities, which contributes to the problem. As a result, almost 32% of players on Opening Day 2017-2018 rosters were Latino, an all-time high.

But maybe change is coming. According to sources, Major League Baseball, for the first time, is making every club accountable for their actions, sending out extensive surveys asking how many blacks and other minorities are in their front offices, among their scouting ranks, their coaching staffs, and players in the minor league system. It is called the Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report, providing information and performance metrics of MLB initiatives during the past year. The hope is that each ball club sees the poor numbers and renews its efforts to attract and invest in more African-American ball players. For me, personally, I hope MLB as a league and front office decide to initiate action to attract more black players by sending scouts to local high schools, building facilities in black communities, and do a better job advertising the sport on television and on social media platforms. This is a good first step, and an encouraging one. Let’s see what happens.

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