MLB creating committee to study decline in African-American players

[Deberg_1990]

Why has it been on the decline with African Americans? Too much competition with other sports?

MLB might be the most diversified of all major american sporting leagues. Its an International league now.




http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/ey...erican-players



Major League Baseball is creating a committee to study why fewer African-Americans are playing baseball, reports Tyler Kepner of The New York Times. The first meeting will be held on Wednesday in Milwaukee.

“I don't want to miss any opportunity here,” [commissioner Bud Selig] said in a telephone interview from his office in Milwaukee. “We want to find out if we're not doing well, why not, and what we need to do better. We'll meet as many times as we need to to come to meaningful decisions.”

(snip)

“I really think our history is so brilliant when it comes to African-Americans,” Selig said. “You think about the late 1940s, the 1950s — wow. And you look at that and you say to yourself, ‘Why did it not continue, and what could we do to make sure it does continue?' ”

According to Kepner, only 8.5 percent of players on this year's opening-day 25-man rosters were African-American. The reigning world champion Giants are one of several clubs with zero black players. Recent research by Mark Armour from the Society of American Baseball Research says the highest percentage of African-American players in baseball was 19 percent in 1986.

Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski will be chairman of the committee. Former Mets manager Jerry Manuel, Stanford athletic director Bernard Muir and senior director of the MLB scouting bureau Frank Marcos will also serve on the committee, in addition to several other front office employees from around the league.

I think at least part of the reason the number of African-Americans in baseball has declined has to do with the lack of baseball scholarships colleges can offer. NCAA Division I schools are allowed only 11.7 baseball scholarships, and many fund fewer. Other sports like football (85 scholarships in the FBS) and basketball (13 in Division I) can offer more, which may be luring young athletes -- of all races, not just African-Americans -- away from the diamond.

There is no shortage of star African-American players in MLB today. Andrew McCutchen won a fan vote to be on the cover of the MLB 13: The Show video game while others like Matt Kemp, CC Sabathia, Prince Fielder, Michael Bourn and Jimmy Rollins are household names. Perhaps better marketing of these guys (and others) will help influence young African-Americans to play baseball.

[blaise]

Originally Posted by Thig Lyfe

HAVE YOU EVER CONSIDERED DOING SATIRE PROFESSIONALLY BECAUSE YOU ARE A NATURAL

ALSO PLZ POST TITTY PHOTOZ FOR ME TO YANK MY DOODLE TO, THX

You're right. That is kind of a tired bit.

Then again, so is the all caps, "OH NOEZ" stuff.

[mikey23545]

Originally Posted by Thig Lyfe

Also if you're satisfied with just making a living playing sports and don't need all the fame and glamour, there are way more job opportunities in baseball. There's gotta be like 1,000,000 active minor league players, AT LEAST.

No way you can afford child support for 25 illegitimate babies playing minor league ball.

[Thig Lyfe]

Originally Posted by blaise

You're right. That is kind of a tired bit.

Then again, so is the all caps, "OH NOEZ" stuff.

ALL CAPS WILL NEVER GO OUT OF STYLE BRUH

[Thig Lyfe]

Originally Posted by mikey23545

No way you can afford child support for 25 illegitimate babies playing minor league ball.

Cool post!

[WV]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Good luck finding a place to ply your craft if you're a baseball player in an inner city.

This isn't a new thing. There was a program a few years ago called RBI-Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities.

This....Hoops are everywhere and are easily mimicked. A baseball diamond on the other hand.

[ptlyon]

Why do they call it a diamond when all it really is is a square tipped on it's axis???

[|Zach|]

Originally Posted by houstonwhodat

Yes.

We must have a committee for this.

And also we cannot:

say the word Christmas
no Easter Bunnies
no Washington Redskins

etc, etc, etc.

What the hell are you babbling about.

MLB is getting people together to understand more about something that has a huge impact on their sport.

[ThatRaceCardGuy]

Middle aged white guys discussing why black kids don't play baseball in online forums and commities. ...hmmmmmm...(rubs hands together grabs popcorn)

[Setsuna]

Yes please create the same group for hockey, golf, and tennis while you're at it. What a stupid topic. Can't believe local sports radio is actually talking about it as well.

[Cornstock]

Wouldn't doubt if many urban people are being priced out of it. I read an interesting article in the Economist not too long ago about the same thing happening to cricket in England. Fewer and fewer working class people are playing because of schools and towns selling their cricket pitches during tough financial times, so that now only the privileged can play.

[Cornstock]

Originally Posted by ptlyon

Why do they call it a diamond when all it really is is a square tipped on it's axis???

Diamonds can be square I guess. Geometrically speaking, it would be more accurate to call it a rhombus if the lines weren't even.

[lewdog]

I am white and would rather have a team made up of mostly black guys. Does that make me racist???

[houstonwhodat]

Originally Posted by mikey23545

No way you can afford child support for 25 illegitimate babies playing minor league ball.

[lcarus]

Are there any black posters here who like Hall & Oates? Are there any black posters here who even know who Hall & Oates are? That's the question we should really be asking.

[houstonwhodat]

Originally Posted by |Zach|

What the hell are you babbling about.

MLB is getting people together to understand more about something that has a huge impact on their sport.

I'm sorry I was doing crack on that post.