Quote:
Originally Posted by WoodyWorshiper
This is a great day for baseball. I hope a ton of young black kids out there take a moment to really appreciate the way that Jackie paved for them, and hope that it encourages them to pursue baseball as a career. The numbers of blacks in MLB just keeps going down every year, I think the most recent number was at about 8-9%.
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I agree. However, I'm pretty tired of the articles that imply that the MLB has somehow become anti-black because of that statistic. (Like this one
Has Baseball Betrayed Jackie Robinson? ) Baseball is the most ethnically diverse of the major sports. The numbers of Asian and Hispanic players far exceed that of any other major pro sport. For various reasons, baseball has lost it's place as "America's Pasttime" while football and basketball have gained in popularity. And it's not all about having the money to play, because there are a whole lot of Dominican players that got started playing in dirt lots with cardboard boxes for gloves. It's one thing to look at this as a problem and to figure out what MLB can do to reverse the trend. BTW, what is the percentage of white players compared to 10 years ago? Jackie did more than just open the doors for African-Americans, all those Latino and Asian players owe him a tip of the cap too.
at this:
at this. Definitely looks like a good read
