READ A ARTICLE ON THIS TOPIC FROM sportsjournal.com (Full story click here)
P.S I was watching Comcast Sports Net the other day and they was showing a college baseball game between Oregon and Portland.
All the players except for one was white. Now if this was a basketball game between Oregon and Portland you would see more of a diversity of players.
The question is this. Where are the African American players in college baseball? The article above breaks it down as to what is really happening.
In my opinion the problems start after little league. African American young kids turn to basketball or football. The are in the gym shooting hoops or outside tossing a football. Why is this happening?
There are fields in African American neighborhoods to play baseball. But African American kids are not using them. The question is why? Why are young African American kids turning away from baseball after little league?
I think Major League Baseball is at fault for not doing nearly enough marketing of baseball towards African Americans. When you turn on TV, you see very few African Americans doing commercials for companies.
Lately I have seen only Jimmy Rollins and Derek Jeter doing commercials. But when it comes to the NBA, you see ex players Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing and Walt “Clyde” Frazier, Dwayne Wade, Kevin Garnett, Kobe, Dwight Howard, Al Harrington, LaBron James and more.
The other night Nate Robinson was on David Letterman. Where are the African American baseball players in the marketing of baseball?
When you turn on the NFL Network you see “Prime Time” Dion Sanders and many other African Americans out front hosting shows etc.
Young kids in the inner city are not seeing African American players on commercials when it comes to baseball.
On the new MLB Network, all I see is former Seattle Mariner Harold Reynolds out front on shows. That is it. The question is why readers?
MLB has the little RBI league in the inner cities. THAT IS NOT ENOUGH!! There needs to be more going on to reach inner city youth to keep them interested in baseball after little league.
Back in the day, you saw plenty of African Americans playing baseball in college and of course in the majors. This is not happening for some reason now. That is one of the reasons why the number of African Americans in the majors are way down.
It bothers me big time as a sports fan to see all white or mostly all white baseball teams. When you see much more diversity in basketball and football in college and of course in the pros.
I think it falls at the feet of MLB and also I think Ryan Howard and other MLB players should do more to get young inner city kids to keep playing baseball after the little league.
This problem needs to be discussed more on sports radio and in the newspapers and online.
In South America, young inner city kids are playing baseball. It used to be that way in the inner cities of America. What Happened? Gordon Curvey
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