Will outreach efforts foster diversity?

By Cliff Hocker

Major League Baseball’s first Urban Invitational baseball tournament brought historically black colleges and universities to the plate. Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Bethune-Cookman University played on national TV, and several dynamic HBCU bands battled it out. UCLA and USC also played in the six-game tournament, one of several initiatives in place to help rekindle black enthusiasm for the sport.

African American passion for baseball has waned: In the mid-1970s about 27% of all MLB players were black; in1991, 18% were black; and in 2006, 8.4% were black.

A little more than six decades ago, baseball was ahead of the civil rights curve. Second baseman Jackie Robinson integrated the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, seven years before public school integration was mandated by the Supreme Court decision inBrown v. Board of Education in 1954. This year MLB’s second annual Civil Rights Game pits the Mets against the White Sox on March 29 in Memphis.

Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB executive vice president of operations, says that from Little League to high school to college, black participation in baseball is dramatically lower than what it used to be. "I think there is a direct correlation to the number of African Americans you see on the field, on the diamond to the numbers you see in the stands, you see watching television, and you see buying merchandise," says Solomon. It also chokes the pipeline of up-and-coming young players. "When an African American kid looks up and sees a superstar player on the field or on the diamond or on the court, and that person looks like him or her, they tend to be attracted to that athlete much more readily than to one who does not look like them. They also believe they have an opportunity to emulate that athlete, and they work hard to do that."

Solomon says the marketing of athletic shoe companies has elevated hoop stars such as Michael Jordan to iconic stature and young players may find the game of basketball more accessible and better suited to urban environments. Solomon adds that the abundance of college football scholarships in comparison to baseball scholarships sways talented high school athletes to pursue that sport.

To start filling the player pipeline, MLB has built the Urban Youth Academy in the heart of Compton, California. The venue of this past weekend’s Urban Invitational games, the Academy operates virtually every day, year-round, providing free baseball instruction to aspiring players and free vocational instruction to future umpires, coaches, groundskeepers, play-by-play announcers, journalists, scouts, and coaches. MLB is already looking to replicate the Academy model in Philadelphia, Miami, and Washington, D.C.

Black stars will grow the sport.

Yeah but the scouts will have to dip way down to little league to find any of them playing. And when they do somehow the A-AA-AAA coaches will have to stop being racist and give the guys an honest shot.

I talked to Don Buford on this topic. Two of his sons played. Neither got an honest shot. Consider Billy Ripken who played 12 seasons by maintaining a stellar .247 batting average. Now Don was a big league coach but he was never accorded the same respect that Cal Sr. received for his two boys. Yes Cal Jr. was a good player. But he came in batting in front of switch hitting Eddie Murray. Cal saw a lot of good pitches in the 3-hole because no one wanted to face the HOF'er Murray (504 HRs, 560 DBs, 3255 hits, 1917 RBIs).

Do you think -common sense moment- kids are going to knock themselves out to get slighted in baseball when they can have grown arse men groveling at their feet for a LOI in basketball/football? Cue Clay Davis for me fellas.

SCSU had baseball team until title IX....if they relaxed the rules on that, then mroe HBCU's would have teams

Baseball will have to compete with other sports like Soccer, which my 10 year old son plays on a Travel Developmental Team & I feel Soccer will make a effort to get blacks to play.

I would love to see blacks in Baseball like back in the day!

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SCSU had baseball team until title IX....if they relaxed the rules on that, then mroe HBCU's would have teams

The same for TSU

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Originally posted by whines:
Baseball will have to compete with other sports like Soccer, which my 10 year old son plays on a Travel Developmental Team & I feel Soccer will make a effort to get blacks to play.

I would love to see blacks in Baseball like back in the day!

PapaGriz is touching on some of the points Gary Sheffield made. When you throw in the politics of selective history; Black latinos vs African Americans, then the issue is further complicated. The question begs: Do they really want Blacks back?

btw, I don't think blacks will be steered towards soccer. That's where the middle class runs to avoid the good athletes.

I noticed that once a kid gets in high school, it seems like the idea of playing baseball in college or in the pros changes. It's either the football coach or basketball discovering that the kids can run fast or is strong and tells him come join my team. It happened to me in high school where I was told if I wanted a scholarship I needed to play football. I'm like I love baseball. I also think teens stop playing baseball because the adults have this attitude that the game is no fun, or it's boring or my kid won't play on national TV when he gets in college. And you see it in college too where fans will come to see a sorry football team, but won't see a good baseball team.

I understand the purpose of Title IX but IMHO it has failed to achieve the goals. Most smaller schools struggle to field enough players with the talent to compete in these makeup sports. IMHO Title IX was aimed at the big boys like Michigan, Ohio State, UCLA and the Alabama's who doled out millions of money in support of men's basketball and football while selectively tossing coins at its women's sports programs.

I think Title IX should have been rolled out like FAF whereby whatever is spent on men's sports by the school and all affiliated programs (boosters, varsity clubs --avoids a loophole) should be spent proportionately on the women's programs. As it stands there has to be a equal number of scholarships which is not necessarily fair for smaller schools. What's spent on say a Morgan's scholarships might be the largest portion of the football budget. If MSU spends 650K of its 2M budget on scholarships then its fair to assign a portion to women's sports that can be maintained. Unfortunately what is happening is schools are having to spend 650K twice by creating sports that may not be viable (no coaches, few students interested, extended costs to play teams fielding such programs, etc.).

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Originally posted by PapaGrizzly:
I understand the purpose of Title IX but IMHO it has failed to achieve the goals. Most smaller schools struggle to field enough players with the talent to compete in these makeup sports. IMHO Title IX was aimed at the big boys like Michigan, Ohio State, UCLA and the Alabama's who doled out millions of money in support of men's basketball and football while selectively tossing coins at its women's sports programs.

I think Title IX should have been rolled out like FAF whereby whatever is spent on men's sports by the school and all affiliated programs (boosters, varsity clubs --avoids a loophole) should be spent proportionately on the women's programs. As it stands there has to be a equal number of scholarships which is not necessarily fair for smaller schools. What's spent on say a Morgan's scholarships might be the largest portion of the football budget. If MSU spends 650K of its 2M budget on scholarships then its fair to assign a portion to women's sports that can be maintained. Unfortunately what is happening is schools are having to spend 650K twice by creating sports that may not be viable (no coaches, few students interested, extended costs to play teams fielding such programs, etc.).

Even before Title IX baseball had not been able to attract blacks because the sport has never offered full scholarships. It's so sad that women softball players can get full scholarships, but baseball players can't.

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Originally posted by MARSHALL:
Even before Title IX baseball had not been able to attract blacks because the sport has never offered full scholarships. It's so sad that women softball players can get full scholarships, but baseball players can't.

True! so very sad but true. During my years at UVA the AD decided to discontinue the baseball program. It was done until some alums put up the money to fund it.

The other elephant in the room is the best baseball players tend not to go to college. Remember unlike basketball and football, baseball and hockey have always had the capacity to draft kids from HS. Which means the product on most college fields is probably equivalent to Single A ball. Yeah Arizona State, USC, LSU and UT have had some stars come through their programs, but by and large the cream will never step foot on a college campus.

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Originally posted by ksmith:

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Originally posted by whines:
Baseball will have to compete with other sports like Soccer, which my 10 year old son plays on a Travel Developmental Team & I feel Soccer will make a effort to get blacks to play.

I would love to see blacks in Baseball like back in the day!

PapaGriz is touching on some of the points Gary Sheffield made. When you throw in the politics of selective history; Black latinos vs African Americans, then the issue is further complicated. The question begs: Do they really want Blacks back?

btw, I don't think blacks will be steered towards soccer. That's where the middle class runs to avoid the good athletes.

I don't know if running to Soccer for the middle class kids will work much longer. I watch my son play and there are some good athletes playing Soccer. I am not saying that all will play, just saying Soccer is another option & it is one of the fastest growing sports in America for kids, just like Lacross. So now the kids have other options that I would like to see our kids have also without pulling them away from Baseball.

Baseball is a sport where sons and fathers get together go to games, throw the ball around, and listen to the game on the radio.

I remember when I collected baseball cards as a kid and now I can't find any kids associated with it.

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Originally posted by Jeff Aggie Fan:
Baseball is a sport where sons and fathers get together go to games, throw the ball around, and listen to the game on the radio.

I remember when I collected baseball cards as a kid and now I can't find any kids associated with it.

I hear ya. wow, things has really change.

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Originally posted by goody26:

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Originally posted by Jeff Aggie Fan:
Baseball is a sport where sons and fathers get together go to games, throw the ball around, and listen to the game on the radio.

I remember when I collected baseball cards as a kid and now I can't find any kids associated with it.

I hear ya. wow, things has really change.

I think another major reason why black kids aren't interested in the game is because MLB has not done a good job of marketing the game and players to the kids. You don't see baseball players in commericals like football and basketball commericals. Heck, you rarely see baseball players on TV at all off the field unless in a court room now. I think if MLB puts their players out there, things might change.

MLB baseball player development is a black hole, whereas in football and basketball, the transition from high, college to the pros is more transparent. There is a lot more power in baseball for the powers that be to hide/surpress talent or to promote whom they choose. It is kinda like corporate America in that regard where other sports have the air of a meritocracy.

As a kid growing up in St. Louis (top baseball town) and knowing next to nothing about HBCUs and nothing about FAMU, Vince Coleman was a whirlwind in the game. Second only to Ricky Hendersen in this generation when it comes to stealing bases. This cat was consistently reaching base on hits that never left the infield. Are you telling me MLB does not care to have find that kind of talent anymore?

I would recommend that relationships be developed between all HBCU baseball programs and the high schools and boys clubs in their state and with at least one of each program up North.

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Originally posted by Jeff Aggie Fan:
Baseball is a sport where sons and fathers get together go to games, throw the ball around, and listen to the game on the radio.

I remember when I collected baseball cards as a kid and now I can't find any kids associated with it.

And Jeff ... You basically hit the nail on the head ...

You don't see hardly any AA FATHERS associated at all with any of their kids!

The lack of male support was so bad around here that a few years ago the WOMEN in the projects had to essentially form, coach, and run the little league ... because there weren't enough males willing - or interested - to stand up and doing it ("Probably because most of the kids would have been some of theirs!").

You also have to factor in "Gang Wars & Gameboys" in the mixx as well. Drivebys all but wiped out kids even playing in the streets - much less being a potential target out in full view at a ball park - and the advent of Gameboys and Xboxes has helped to keep kids antisocial, introverted ... and obese.

Baseball also takes both time and patience ... something that our ADHD/Ritalyn, "timeclock focused" society doesn't quite have the "time or patience" for anymore.

FWIW ... We tried to bring to the DevilRays attention that they had an entire OUTFIELD of starting AA's last year, and they should be doing more to promote that to the local as well as the baseball community - especially considering they're located across the street from the primary active baseball little league park in St. Pete. hood, AND that they indeed helped pay to renovate it - but nothing was expanded upon.

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Originally posted by FAMUVenom:

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Originally posted by Jeff Aggie Fan:
Baseball is a sport where sons and fathers get together go to games, throw the ball around, and listen to the game on the radio.

I remember when I collected baseball cards as a kid and now I can't find any kids associated with it.

And Jeff ... You basically hit the nail on the head ...

You don't see hardly any AA FATHERS associated at all with any of their kids!

The lack of male support was so bad around here that a few years ago the WOMEN in the projects had to essentially form, coach, and run the little league ... because there weren't enough males willing - or interested - to stand up and doing it ("Probably because most of the kids would have been some of theirs!").

You also have to factor in "Gang Wars & Gameboys" in the mixx as well. Drivebys all but wiped out kids even playing in the streets - much less being a potential target out in full view at a ball park - and the advent of Gameboys and Xboxes has helped to keep kids antisocial, introverted ... and obese.

Baseball also takes both time and patience ... something that our ADHD/Ritalyn, "timeclock focused" society doesn't quite have the "time or patience" for anymore.

FWIW ... We tried to bring to the DevilRays attention that they had an entire OUTFIELD of starting AA's last year, and they should be doing more to promote that to the local as well as the baseball community - especially considering they're located across the street from the primary active baseball little league park in St. Pete. hood, AND that they indeed helped pay to renovate it - but nothing was expanded upon.

Also, being successful in baseball is more expensive and labor intensive for the parent. When guys play summer league games, they are sometimes playing 3-6 games a week all over town. And they foot the bill for more of their stuff than high school teams. Can you imagine a single parent with limited economic and time resources trying to keep up with those schedules? So on the back end of that, you have young Black guys with more talent and potential, but they look so much more raw than their competition due to lack of exposure.

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Are you telling me MLB does not care to have find that kind of talent anymore?

1. I used to hate Vince Coleman when he was with the Cardinals playing against the Cubs. Coleman and Willie McGee used to give the Cubs fits with their speed and ability to steal bases.


2. I think the reason why you don't see players like Vince Coleman or Ozzie Smith is because the game has changed to a more power game. Yeah, you got guys like Jose Reyes and Brian Roberts and Hanley Ramirez, but those guys have speed and power. Plus, I've talked to scouts and they are looking for guys who are speedy and can hit with gap power. Just look at the size of the infielders and outfielders now. That's the protype ballplayer. Not little guys like Vince Coleman.