M.L.B. Report Highlights Sobering Number of Black Players

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/s...hlights-sobering-number-of-black-players.html



Dave Dombrowski is the head of baseball’s on-field diversity task force, but he is also the president of the Detroit Tigers. In the last year, as he studied ways to give better opportunities to African-Americans, Dombrowski realized the challenge demanded more than a committee of experts with day jobs.

“There’s so much involved in this, you need someone to focus on it daily,” Dombrowski said. “Someone to call the people in Birmingham or Los Angeles, someone to travel to Texas and coordinate those plans, someone to tackle these issues every day.”

For Major League Baseball, that someone is Jerry Manuel, a former manager of the Mets and the Chicago White Sox. Manuel, 60, has turned his attention to a complex issue that Commissioner Bud Selig has made a priority as he prepares to retire after the season.

“We’re going to have a place to play, keep them interested, keep them excited and stay with them until they get through,” Manuel, who is African-American, said, referring to young black players. “Baseball is a beautiful, healthy game, and it’s a game that, historically, we have been a big, big part of. We’re trying to connect back with that.”

In recent years, the numbers have been sobering. According to the league, only 8.3 percent of players on 2014 opening day rosters identified themselves as African-American or black. The highest percentage of African-Americans in the majors, according to research by Mark Armour of the Society of American Baseball Research, was 19 percent in 1986.

For now, the task force is focusing on three initiatives: expanding Major League Baseball’s existing urban leagues and academies; improving and modernizing coaching; and more aggressively marketing players. Dombrowski said 15 to 20 other ideas were still in development.

“You want to give as many quality athletes the opportunity to choose to participate in the sport and eliminate as many barriers as you can,” he said. “The more athletes you can get, the better your product is to watch.”

There may be only so much baseball can do. Division I college baseball programs offer only 11.7 scholarships, divided among many more players. For many young athletes from low-income families, choosing baseball over other sports makes little sense.

“Take me, for example,” said the Yankees’ C. C. Sabathia. “If I had a choice, I would have had to go to college to play football, because my mom couldn’t afford to pay whatever the percent was of my baseball scholarship. So if I hadn’t been a first-round pick, I would have gone to college to play football, because I had a full ride.

“All that factors in. How are you going to tell a kid from the hood that I can give you a 15-percent scholarship to go play baseball, or a full ride to go to Florida State for football? What are you going to pick? It’s not even an option.”

Sabathia grew up in Vallejo, Calif., and wore a bracelet from the Vallejo Little League as he spoke on Wednesday. He and the Mets’ Curtis Granderson plan to sponsor teams in New York through the Boys and Girls Club, and Sabathia is also helping with a program in Vallejo for players ages 13 to 15.

Playing for expensive travel teams has become a near-necessity for that age group, said Sabathia, whose coaches paid for his participation and drove him while his mother worked. One coach had him sign an agreement to pay him back if he was drafted. Sabathia did.

“Little League is not a problem,” he said. “Kids love to play Little League from 5 to 12, and they’ve got a great program. It’s from 12 to 15. It’s getting them from Little League to high school baseball is where we lose them — to football, to the streets, to basketball, to everything.”

Manuel lamented the talent drain of young athletes to other sports, which can be more glamorous than baseball in high school. But two-sport stars like Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston have shown that the talent is out there.

“You might see me at places where you see John Calipari,” Manuel said, referring to the University of Kentucky basketball coach. “That’s what we have to do. We’ve got to keep the pulse of the culture and be able to say to that culture, ‘Hey, baseball is an option.’ ”

Through the work of the committee, Dombrowski and Manuel said, baseball has identified many barriers, philosophical and practical, to increasing participation. But Sabathia brought up a societal issue that may be beyond baseball’s reach.

“Baseball’s a sport where you learn how to play catch with your dad,” Sabathia said. “There’s a lot of single-parent homes in the inner city, so it’s hard to get kids to play. Hopefully, Jerry can do some good things.”

 

The problem is the 'self-identification', because if you add the black players with Spanish surnames, the percentage probably surpasses 50% of total players. Even the guy they cite in the article, Jerry Manuel (surname, anyone?) is proof of that. I hope more people pick the game up, but that being said, I'm not that big of a baseball fan. But it is a great way to drink beer on a summer day/evening.

 

The numbers are sobering but it is all about access, Baseball was once the way out sports for black kids from poor areas. They shifted to basketball and football mainly because they are more exciting to play for most and its faster to earn the big money. The big time player right out of college is very rare, Bryce Harper was that guy but before him who can remember. Most top players in baseball go to college and if you go to college you have to stay 2 or 3 years before you are eligible to be drafted again, then you have to play in the minors before you are called up so you might be looking at a 5 to 6 year process. Its hard convincing a poor kid to wait that long if ever.

Baseball though is not totally innocent. They started to abandon the black youth in this country in favor of those in foreign lands. MLB has also done a poor job of marketing itself to black folks in general. The fact that some of the best players in the MLB are black (americans) but you wouldn't know it. Andrew McCutchen, Jimmy Rollins, & Ryan Howard have all won MVPs fairly recently. Brandon Phillips is a gold glove 2nd baseman, Prince Fielder, the Upton Brother, Jason Heyward, Adam Jones, David Price. All among the top players in baseball but nobody talks about them they all tend to play in smaller markets as well. Its all about Bryce Harper and Mike Trout or Miguel Cabrera or Puig who all play in the bigger markets. When I was little I loved Griffey, Bonds, and Puckett 3 of the greatest to ever play. If you were a fringe baseball fan you knew who these guys were despite the fact they played in small markets.

It also did not help that the poster boy for steroids was Barry Bonds he was gone after harder than any other play even though things did not start with him, his white contemporaries got off relatively easy.

Baseball has tried though with it RBI program to renew interest in the sport to black youth the problem is they are years away from bringing interest back because this group was neglected for so long. First step like I said would br to better market it's black stars so that kids will have these guys to look up to get them wear Fielder, Price, McCutchen jerseys.

 

Baseball is so damn boring to watch.

 

Just another way to sell beer.

 

If dudes were smart they would take up baseball in droves. Most won't make it to the NFL or NBA and baseball is the one sport where your contract is iron clad guaranteed. Guys get paid big time in MLB if you are a star to deals that even Lebron or Tom Brady won't get.

The average salary in the 4 major pro sports in America and Canada

1) NBA: $5.15 million,

2) MLB: $3.2 million

3) NHL: $2.4 million

4) NFL: $1.9 million


Keep in mind an NBA roster has only 15 players max, 12 active on the bench on game day, very low odds, while an MLB roster has 40 players, 25 active on game day, twice as many.

In MLB talking 220 million dollar deals guaranteed if you are a star. Guys can only dream of that in the NFL while getting their brains bashed in and concussed for non guaranteed contracts. Funniest thing in the NFL, a guy will sign a 5 year 40 million dollar deal and only 15 million is guaranteed.

If I have a young son I'm teaching him to pitch, catch, hit because he will be able to earn the highest guaranteed money dollar for dollar, in a far safer sport that won't leave him with brain issues ala the NFL in later life.

 

It's Australia's cricket

 

LOL, having played cricket as a kid in Guyana, a former British colony where the game is popular and the West Indies cricket team was so good for generations, it's why I became a baseball fan because the sports were so familiar and similar. Even my mom who was a huge cricket fan became a baseball fan because she identified with it and it didn't hurt the New York Yankees were in the midst of a Championship Dynasty and so darn good.

 

Loved the WIndies in the 80's and would watch cricket then. Cricket these days is just so ho hum....it's lost it's spark

 

Exactly! So many kids want to play football and be superstar running backs and receivers but don't realize the kind of hell that football puts your body through. I recall reading an article a while ago where one person compared being a pro football player to being in a car crash every single week because of the amount of abuse your body takes over the course of a season.

 

Yep during those days the West Indies cricket team was as good as it gets, Clive Lloyd, Vivian Richards, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Richie Richardson.

The talent level just dried up and the quality of the side fell off to what it is today.

I even owned one of those knitted cricket vests.

 

Precisely, I've seen the documentaries where dudes brains are so damaged after years of hits that scrambled their brains dating back to pee wee days. Thus all the lawsuits by former players against the league in recent time.

Look at how Junior Seau, a legend, went out. Dude took his own life with a bullet to the head and when examined his brain was damaged.

You would be better served to run your head into a brickwall every day of the week for years while at it.

You want your kid to become an athlete keep them away from football for their health later in life, much safer and more money to be made being a star in basketball and baseball without the health risks.

If you have a kid and he can throw left handed, he already has a good shot of making it to the majors. Baseball is always seeking left handed pitchers who are good. Thus Clayton Kershaw got a 7 year - 215 million dollar deal. Wow.

 

I actually just read an article yesterday about a 12 year old boy who died after getting hit with a baseball at school. The article went on to speak of sports and the risks associated with them. It said that baseball is by far the most dangerous sport for children age 5-14. Maybe it gets less risky as the players get older.

 

I saw what happened to Aroldis (sp?) Chapman a few days ago, too. Getting hit in the head by a baseball traveling 90+ mph. I don't even know how he survived that. That would have been all I needed to retire but that's just me.

 

I saw someone get hit in the head a few years ago (I haven't been into baseball for a while) and it was so incredibly scary. I think there are risks, regardless of the sport. Look at the issues with boxers as well. Contact sports leave you open to injury, it's that simple. I'd rather get sacked by Ray Lewis than get hit in the head with a baseball though, that's all I'm sayin!

 

The odds of getting hit by a line drive in a baseball game are very low, the fact that it happens so rarely is amazing especially when you get to the professional level, when you consider the average number of pitches thrown a game is around 300. What you have to remember is that major league hitters often try to direct where they are hitting the ball, whereas younger kids just let it fly.

The reason it is a more dangerous sport when you are younger is because you are not fully developed athletically at a young age obviously. You are still growing your skeletal system developing softer bones in the chest and head and those neural synapses are not firing as quickly as they will later in life which means your reflexes are not as sharp as they are going to be. Another thing is that little leagues use aluminum bats and the ball comes humming off those. Kids are not as prepared to protect themselves. I have always said that MLB players are the bravest of pro athletes because it take a lot of courage to stand 60ft 6inch away from someone throwing a projectile at upward of 100mph and trust they have enough control to not hurt you badly. They also have some of the best hand/eye coordination is sports.

The health issue is always big as well when you consider MLB, NBA, and NFL careers all average around 6 years, but if you look at a baseball player after he finishes compared to those two other sports they are definitely the healthiest.

 

Ho are

Sure incidents happen in baseball but those are often freak accidents akin to a football player being paralyzed.

The NFL brain trauma issue is a progressive degeneration over time by repeated contact because of the nature of the sport.

As a Giants fan, one of my favorite players was Lawrence Taylor. Since retiring he has done some crazy acts in his life. Would not surprise me if one day we find out he has brain issues. Suffering brain traima will literally change your personality, especially with any frontal lobe damage.

The good thing, albeit too late for the guys from the past is the NFL now comes down hard on hits to the head area and is trying to keep it out of the game after the multi-million dollar lawsuit by ex players who are now suffering brain issues.