This year is the 70th anniversary of Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians desegregating Major League Baseball. Baseball is known as the American pastime, but in 2017, it has the smallest percentage of African American players in the three major professional sports. Between 1946 and 1950, all three major professional sports had desegregated, and the total percentage of black players was less than 3 percent. In 2017, 75 percent of the NBA and 64 percent of the NFL players are black, but only 7.7 percent of MLB players are black.
This week is the 88th Annual Major League Baseball All-Star Game, and it will be played at Marlins Park in Miami. The American League and National League rosters have 32 players, but there are only three African-American all-stars, or 4.6 percent. All of the dark-skinned "black" all-stars are Latino.
1981 had the highest percentage of black players, at 18.7 percent. The 1981 All-Star Game had a total of 63 players, and there were 14 African-American all-stars, or 22 percent. So during the last 36 years, the percentage of black all-star baseball players has decreased from 22 percent to 4.6 percent.
Some of the greatest baseball players in major league history were African-American: Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson. But today, sports journalists, players and others have asked, "Where are all of the black baseball players?"
There are a number of reasons why there is a smaller percentage of black baseball players. According the Baltimore Orioles All-Star center fielder Adam Jones, baseball is a "white man's sport" because the MLB had discouraged players from supporting former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kapernick's protest. Others say that it's simply because baseball is boring, or that the games are too long, or they point to the increase of Latino players. Black athletes play football and basketball, they say, and it takes too long to get into the majors.
While these statements are correct, many overlook the soci-economic transformations that occurred in America during the last 70 years: deindustrialization, suburbanization and mass incarceration. These had a disproportionate impact on black men and their community and are the major reason why the percentage of black baseball players has declined since 1981.
From 1979 to 2017, the United States lost 7.2 million factory jobs. These jobs paid livable wages with benefits that provided black men the money and time to play baseball with their sons and volunteer for Little League. When factories left northern cities, they were replaced with lower-wage service jobs, and working-class black men are working more hours and making less money. Little League fees increased, and black men had less time to volunteer. Since black men were the last to get hired in higher-paying factory jobs, they felt the disproportionate burden of deindustrialization. As cities tax based decreased, there were fewer funds for recreational activities.
During the mid-40s, when the NFL and MLB allowed black players to desegregate the league, the federal government had created programs such as The Federal Housing Authority and Home Owners Loan Corporation that subsidized white flight and suburbanization. Many whites left the city and purchased homes with government-backed loans. The federal government established redlining that prohibited blacks from obtaining home loans. Today, only 44 percent of blacks are homeowners, compared to 75 percent of whites. During the last 70 years, black and white Americans with higher incomes and wealth have moved to the suburbs. As a result, suburban communities have the space, time and resources to develop and maintain Little Leagues and money for travel baseball. Most black major league baseball players were from middle-class families and grew up in the suburbs.
Mass incarceration is another reason for the decline of the percentage of black baseball players. In 1979, there were about 350,000 prisoners in the United States. In 2017, there are 2.3 million prisoners. In 1981, I was 13 years old when 18.7 percent of major league baseball players were African American, and I am a part of the Hip-Hop Generation born between 1964 and 1984. However, during the 80s, and 90s, the United States began a war on drugs that imprisoned many black men for nonviolent offenses and viewed black male drug addicts as criminals and did not provide treatment. An entire generation of black men, many who grew up playing baseball, was incarcerated and unable to find employment when released. Many of their children grew up without a father or male figure in the home or community to introduce them to baseball.
In order to address the decrease of black baseball players, in 1989 former baseball player John Young started a baseball development program at a local Boys and Girls Clubs in Los Angeles. In 1991, MLB took over Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program, widely known as RBI, and currently there are 300 programs in 200 cities that serve over 200,000 players, boys and girls. A number of current MLB players, such as New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia and former Philadelphia Phillies MVP shortstop Jimmy Rollins, participated in these programs.
However, for every success story, there are thousands who are not getting to the league and many who may spend years in minor league baseball. MLB has spent more than $30 million on the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program, but the percentage of black baseball players remains under 10 percent. MLB is spending millions of dollars trying to increase the percentage of black baseball players, while the NFL and NBA do not have to spend any money on developing black players because the NCAA does it for them.
As the American economy continues to favor higher-income families, one can see the same impact in sports. Most black Division I athletes are second-generation college attendees, and we see the same in Major League Baseball. For example, former New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter's father is a doctor. St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Dexter Fowler, who grew up in North Atlanta, had baseball scholarship offers from Harvard and the University of Miami. In order to increase the percentage of black baseball players, the MLB will have to spend a larger portion of their revenue to address a long history of inequality. Let's hope the MLB is in business to make money and address structural racial inequality.