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[Deertick]

Originally Posted by cgjackson222

Great point--when baseball was popular with black athletes, they made up a sizeable portion of MLB rosters relative to their population in the country as a whole.

I am still not sure what BobC is trying to get at by saying the % of blacks in the major leagues is not currently high. Is he not aware of the fact that it has a lot to do with baseball becoming less popular among black athletes compared to football, basketball or other professions?

If his point is that black athletes are not capable of playing in the majors, then he needs to do a better job presenting that case.

Jackie Robinson signing did not magically open up the floodgates for black athletes, or latino athletes for that matter. It wasn't until well into the latter part of the 50's that percentages combined reached 12%. I have no doubt that the lack of representation that BobC is alluding to has little to do with the overall quality of play of the Negro League. Besides the fact that the league ended shortly after the barrier was broken, so by the time the opportunities were more forthcoming, any feeder effect would be non-existent.
BTW, the fact that latino athletes are represented in MLB in roughly DOUBLE their demographic percentages is astounding to me. Coupled that with the 1300 roster spaces in the NBA and NFL occupied by black athletes and it is not so surprising the MLB representation is as low as it is.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Deertick

Jackie Robinson signing did not magically open up the floodgates for black athletes, or latino athletes for that matter. It wasn't until well into the latter part of the 50's that percentages combined reached 12%. I have no doubt that the lack of representation that BobC is alluding to has little to do with the overall quality of play of the Negro League. Besides the fact that the league ended shortly after the barrier was broken, so by the time the opportunities were more forthcoming, any feeder effect would be non-existent.
BTW, the fact that latino athletes are represented in MLB in roughly DOUBLE their demographic percentages is astounding to me. Coupled that with the 1300 roster spaces in the NBA and NFL occupied by black athletes and it is not so surprising the MLB representation is as low as it is.

The Negro Leagues likely ended as their star players were being signed to play in the majors and/or to minor league contracts with teams with MLB affiliations. And in the eyes of their fanbase, the Negro League teams saw themselves demoted to low minor league status, at best. Ownership probably saw drops in interest and attendance as a result, and likely made shutting a team down as a straightforward business decision.