I hope this isn't true, but today someone told me that more than

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Posted By: warshawlaw

That said, I think it is sad that the sport is being abandoned by the black community, but it is understandable. I think part of the explanation for the lack of black players as compared to the past is the lack of viable other sports for black athletes in the past. Basketball and football weren't available in the Jim Crow format, only baseball. Jackie Robinson played football, better than baseball. When it came to jobs, however, the black athlete had nothing else until the postwar period, and even then had little chance to make it in the other sports for about a decade. Now, the kids can choose their sport. And what sport do you think they'd choose? One where the vast majority of players are of another race or one where nearly every visible star looks and sounds like them?

I think part of the issue of the changing composition of American baseball also rests with economics. Inner city and public parks baseball is a far cry from Little League baseball. It doesn't provide the level of training and support that the more expensive leagues do. I coached the parks and rec version this summer. I'd say we had roughly 50% hispanic kids with the balance nearly all white, and some black kids. It was entirely the volunteer dads who worked with the kids and we got no training. If the dad doesn't know much about technique, the kids don't get anything more than play time. "Real" Little League, by contrast, is played on other facilities that cost roughly 4x as much to get into and are "hardcore" training environments, complete with former MLB players as special instructors, coach training clinics, video clinics for the kids, multiple practices a week, backbiting pushy little league fathers, etc. My nephew was on an all-star team from his Little League and they traveled the state all summer playing tournaments against other all-star teams. And he's friggin' 6 yeas old! His league was nearly all white and all well-to-do. You also have public schools in many poorer districts cutting down their athletics programs, with baseball going fast because of the high costs of program maintenance. My point is that kids in lower income areas who go into lower income programs don't have top flight instruction, all-star teams, traveling teams, etc., and are not as likely to continue in a sport that doesn't present the same opportunities to them as basketball and football.

I think you will see a lot more American-Hispanic baseball players over the next decade, because the demographics favor it. Those kids are playing the game and they are starting to hit the majors. I went to the Dodgers game with the Pirates last week. I was sitting with a big group of Burbank High School alums who were there to cheer on their classmate, the starting 2nd baseman for the Pirates, who was American-Hispanic.