MLB To Study Decline of Blacks In Game

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-03-16/news/fl-moneyball-jr-20130317_1_travel-baseball-travel-ball-head-coach

 

Besides fees throw in $300 or so for bat/ glove and assorted other equipment.

In reality MLB has lost the black kids by the time they are 10 years old. They have already moved on to other sports.

Back when I was growing up The Yankees had a thing called "The Con Ed Kids". It was sponsored by Con Ed and they would provide tickets in the bleachers for youth groups.

Former Twins catcher Earl Batty ran the program and would sit in bleachers with the kids. Most of group were minority city kids but occasionally there would be a smattering of white suburban groups. I went with our local rec dept when I was about 9 or 10.

With the value of those seats now the Yankees have gotten away from that program which I believe was a good way of getting kids into baseball. I remember Willie Randolph saying that he went to Yankee games as a Con Ed kid.

 

Baseball needs space to be played. That's why most of its players came from first rural and now suburban backgrounds. Anybody seen an urban sandlot lately? That's one reason. Reason number two is that football and basketball have a school-based teenage player development system and baseball does not to the same extent.

 

42 opens tomorrow so Bud was certainly being pro active in taking steps to answer the inevitable critics that will surface.

 

They're not Americans, which would seem to preclude their being African-Americans.

 

Today just happens to be the release day for the annual report from Richard Lapchick’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports.

 

But aren't they Latin Americans of predominantly African descent (for the most part)? I'm not clueless on what's being pointed out, and I'm leery of even drawing nigh the troubled waters of racial relations in the U.S. But the accounting gets a bit heavy-handed here IMHO.

 

True. Craig Calcaterra points out some of the problems with Lapchick's study...

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/10/today-that-annual-diversity-in-baseball-study-comes-out-take-it-with-a-serious-grain-of-salt/

Mark Armour, who is mentioned in Craig's story, is the person who seems to be doing the best research on the topic.

 

Very interested to see what happens in Atlanta during the next 5-10 years, when three of the best black athletes in town play outfield for the Braves. Those guys have the ability, street cred and opportunity to make it cool, and I hope they seize it.

 

The Nationals are building a baseball academy in Southeast D.C. I think ground has broken for it, finally. Curious to see how that unfolds.

 

Is baseball a worse sport right now than it was? In quality of play or in the financial picture?

The percentage of African-American and white players roughly reflects the percentages of U.S. society as a whole. If there is any over-representation, it is among Latin players.

 

We did a series of stories a couple of summers ago about that. Cost is the No. 1 reason coaches - from travel teams to Boys Club to church leagues - cited as why blacks have left the game. At least around here.