| The number of African Americans in baseball had | | | | Clearly, the payoff for winning at the major league |
| been shrinking for more than 30 years, from a high of | | | | level is so great, talent is so scarce, and there is so |
| 27 percent of major leaguers in 1975 to an all time low | | | | much money in the game (revenues topped $6.5 billion |
| of 8.2 percent in 2007. That 8.2 percent figure held | | | | in 2008, compared to under $2 billion in 1995), that |
| steady in 2008 before Major League Baseball saw an | | | | franchises cannot afford to let personal bias or |
| uptick for the first time since 1975 this year when | | | | prejudice affect their hunt for playing talent. |
| African Americans in baseball made up 10.2 percent of | | | | The problem of a decreasing presence of African |
| major league rosters. | | | | Americans in baseball may be circular. As African |
| While no one knows for sure why there was such a | | | | American star power decreased on professional |
| steep decline in African Americans in baseball for | | | | diamonds throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Black youth |
| nearly 35 years, several theories have been put | | | | had fewer and fewer role models with whom they |
| forward. | | | | could relate. By the early 21st Century, some big |
| Basketball and football are more embedded in the | | | | league teams had no African American players on |
| African American culture. Baseball is perceived as | | | | their rosters, which means entire pockets of the |
| slow and boring, leading the best athletes to other | | | | African American community could attend a baseball |
| sports The better adolescent baseball players leave | | | | game or watch one on television and not see anyone |
| neighborhood ball at earlier ages to play on teams that | | | | with whom they could easily relate. Compare that to |
| travel hundreds of miles for games on weekends with | | | | the experience of watching professional football or |
| paid coaches, sometimes pricing the sport out of the | | | | basketball on television. Young African Americans with |
| African American market Baseball success | | | | athletic ability are more likely to want to be like Kobe |
| sometimes requires a greater level of individualized skill | | | | or LeBron or Jason Taylor than Cole Hamels or Evan |
| training than basketball or football, often with expensive | | | | Longoria. As the African American community sees |
| private coaches involved, and that expense leads to a | | | | more of its own on the diamond, the interest in playing |
| decline in the numbers of African Americans in | | | | the game itself should grow and there would be more |
| baseball Baseball is far less glamorous a high school | | | | African Americans in the sport. |
| sport than football or basketball, which leads to the | | | | Major League Baseball (MLB) has set up a Reviving |
| better athletes choosing sports which draw bigger | | | | Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program, which is |
| crowds and receive greater local media coverage | | | | administered in cooperation with the Boys and Girls |
| The space it takes for a full-sized baseball field is | | | | Clubs of America. Founded in 1989, MLB's RBI program |
| prohibitive in the urban areas with more dense African | | | | now has a presence in more than 200 cities |
| American populations. One can fit at least six | | | | worldwide, and annually provides more than 100,000 |
| basketball courts in the space required for one full | | | | boys and girls with the opportunity to play baseball and |
| sized baseball field. | | | | softball. RBI alumni currently playing in the Major |
| The equipment expense to play youth baseball is | | | | Leagues include Carl Crawford (Tampa Bay Rays), |
| much greater than the equipment expense to play | | | | Jimmy Rollins (Philadelphia Phillies), Coco Crisp (Kansas |
| youth basketball, which sets a price barrier that may | | | | City Royals), and Dontrelle Willis (Detroit Tigers). |
| be more acutely felt in the African American market. | | | | Clearly, MLB is concerned about the decrease in |
| Major League scouting in Latin America and Asia has | | | | interest of African Americans in baseball and is |
| increased since the 1990s, including the development of | | | | spending money and effort to turn it around. Perhaps |
| baseball academies in Latin America, which means | | | | the small growth in 2009 is the beginning of a general |
| there are fewer openings for African Americans in | | | | ascent. |
| baseball. | | | | |