Baseball now number 2 youth sport for black Americans

[mikecubs]

MLB says percentage of black players highest since 2012

The percentage of black players from the United States and Canada on opening-day active rosters rose to 8.4 percent, its highest level since at least 2012.

Major League Baseball attributed the increase at least partly to its efforts to increase baseball youth participation with programs that include Urban Youth Academies and Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI).

"It's been a huge investment for us," Renee Tirado, MLB's chief diversity and inclusion officer, said Monday. "Obviously growing the game amongst our players is a priority, so that uptick has definitely been from a concerted effort."

As the 71st anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the major league color barrier approaches Sunday, MLB said the percentage was up from 7.7 last year and 8.27 the previous two seasons.

MLB based its figures on the 750 players who were active on March 29 and did not include the 127 who were disabled, suspended or on paternity leave. The percentage peaked at 19 in 1986, the league said, citing Mark Armour of the Society of American Baseball Research. The league said previous accounts attributing a high of 27 percent in the 1970s included dark-skinned players from Latin America, according to Armour.

MLB launched the RBI program in 1989, and the commissioner's office said it served about 130,000 boys and girls last year from ages 5-18, including 16,648 in softball.

The first Urban Youth Academy was started in Compton, California, in 2006, and others have since opened in Cincinnati; Dallas; Houston; Kansas City, Missouri; New Orleans; Philadelphia and Washington. Each complex typically has two full fields, a softball field and a youth field, and last year drew 39,728 participants. The goal is to have every team eventually support an academy.

About 150 players who attended the Compton Academy have been drafted and a dozen have reached the major leagues, including Aaron Hicks and Khris Davis. Pitcher Hunter Greene, selected by Cincinnati with the second overall pick in last year's amateur draft, started at Compton when he was about 7.

"We have all these players that have made it to the major leagues on our outfield wall at the Compton Academy," said former Los Angeles Angels general manager Tony Reagins, now MLB's executive vice president of baseball and softball development.

Twenty percent of first-round draft picks from 2012-17 were African-American. In another effort to increase participation in more than a dozen youth programs, MLB launched a Play Ball initiative for young players three years ago, shortly after Rob Manfred succeeded Bud Selig as commissioner.

"It's translating," Tirado said, "but it's a marathon, not a race."

www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23097640/mlb-says-percentage-black-players-highest-2012

[mikecubs]

Besides RBI program another reason for this is football CTE and NFL owners treating players like a piece of disposable trash/not taking care of them once they are used up.

[mikecubs]

The 2018 MLB Racial and Gender Report Card

Sunday will mark the 71st anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier. MLB players will honor his legacy the same way they have since 2009, by wearing No. 42 on the field on Jackie Robinson Day. Robinson's number is the only one in any sport to be universally retired by every team in the league.

Robinson's vision for the future of baseball in America was a talent pool with more diversity and inclusion to push the sport forward. However, his passion for change did not stop at the talent that was playing on the diamond; he wanted to see real change in manager and front-office positions as well. While baseball is moving in that direction, there is still a long way to go to achieve Robinson's goal.

On Thursday, The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport released the 2018 Major League Baseball Racial and Gender Report Card. The findings display an overall improvement in inclusive hiring practices in MLB front offices and on the field.

MLB received a B-plus for racial hiring practices and a C for gender hiring practices, resulting in an overall grade of C-plus/B-minus. The racial hiring increased substantially and the gender hiring grade increased slightly. The overall grade also increased.

It should be mentioned that the player data in the report has not changed from 2017, due to a change in the MLB's reporting period for this data; 2018 marked the first year that MLB has moved to a calendar-year reporting period instead of one that begins on Opening Day of each respective season.

I have high hopes that the history made last year, when 42.5 percent of MLB players were people of color, will continue into the future. Jackie Robinson would not be satisfied, however, with the lack of representation of African-American players; last year's findings showed only 7.7 percent. This was the lowest percentage of African-American players since we began these studies in 1991. In 1991, 18 percent of all players in MLB were African-American -- a stark difference from where we are today.

The diminishing number of African-American professional baseball players is a reflection of the demographics in collegiate baseball and the opportunities for African-American youth to play the game. African-American youth can more easily find role models within the ranks of the NBA or NFL when choosing what sport to pursue. There is still a great struggle for these children, predominantly in urban areas, to find opportunities to play baseball. The barriers standing in the way of participation range from a lack of access to playing fields to high fees for travel teams.

In NCAA Division I in 2017, only 3.7 percent of male student-athletes participating on varsity baseball teams identified as African-American. Compare that to professional pipelines for football and basketball: In Division I, 44.2 percent of football and 53 percent of basketball male student-athletes were African-American.

MLB is making strides in providing opportunities to the youth of our country to better connect with America's pastime. The Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) initiative aims to create opportunities for young people from underserved and diverse communities to play baseball and softball. RBI currently serves hundreds of thousands of young Americans in over 300 programs in approximately 200 cities worldwide. This year was the third consecutive year that an alumnus of the RBI program was selected within the top five picks in the draft.

MLB officials were encouraged by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) Annual Participation Report, which showed promising growth in baseball among African-American youth. Among other findings, it reported that baseball has the second-highest rate of participation among African-American youth, exceeding that for football.

There remains a lack of racial diversity in the key positions of manager and general manager in MLB. There are only four major league managers of color -- three Latinos and one of two of more races -- which is an increase of one from 2017. This is six below the all-time high of 10, reached in both 2002 and 2009.

There are only two racially diverse individuals at the general manager position: Farhan Zaidi (Los Angeles Dodgers), the first Muslim general manager for any American professional sports franchise; and Al Avila (Detroit Tigers), who identifies as Latino. Jackie Robinson would surely be frustrated with the lack of diverse representation in these positions. MLB lags behind the NFL and NBA in these areas and needs to improve in the near future.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder and leader of the Rainbow/PUSH coalition, shared with me, "In many ways, Jackie Robinson not only broke the color barrier for baseball in 1947, he was the spark that ignited the entire civil rights movement in America. Before Rosa [Parks] sat, before Martin [Luther King] marched, before Malcolm [X] spoke, Jackie Robinson was stealing bases, hitting home runs and winning awards with the Brooklyn Dodgers. As he succeeded we all succeeded, and he was a catalyst to help begin tearing down the walls of separation, segregation and division in this country.

"[But] as we commemorate the 71st year of his historic breakthrough, the game of baseball is still in great need of inclusion both on and off the field of play. ... An enormous gap still exits as the number of African-American players and personnel pale in comparison to other ethnic groups. Not only are there fewer blacks playing the game, Major League Baseball lags far behind the NFL and NBA in hiring coaches, executives and other leaders in administration and management.

"I appeal to Commissioner Rob Manfred, in the spirit [of] Jackie Robinson, to lead Major League Baseball in investing more resources into underprivileged and underserved areas where predominantly black youth can be found. In the same way MLB has prioritized developing players and pipelines in Latin American countries, there should be a more intentional effort to connect and cultivate black communities in the U.S. with the national pastime."

I do think Jackie Robinson would be proud of the initiative taken within the MLB's central office regarding racial and gender inclusive hiring practices. This year, the percentage of people of color in the office increased by 5.7 percentage points to 33.8 percent and the percentage of women increased by 2.5 percentage points to 31.8 percent.

The area that best reflects who is playing on the field is team coaches. This year, the number of coaches of color improved to an all-time high of 45.9 percent. Hopefully, this will provide a more diverse pipeline for managerial and general manager positions in the near future.

The largest percentages of women in baseball are: MLB central office staff, senior administrators and team professional administrators. These percentages are 31.8, 27.7, and 27.7 for each area respectively. None of these resulted in good grades.

There are no people of color or women who are team presidents. Also, team vice presidents in the MLB are predominately white males. Representation for people of color and women has increased this year to 13.9 percent and 18.5 percent, respectively, but there is still a need for improvement in order for sports to become more diverse and inclusive. As progress occurs and this becomes reality, we might see changes in the demographics of managers and general managers in MLB.

Delise O'Meally, the executive director of the Institute for Sport and Social Justice, shared this with me: "While it is encouraging to see the progress the league office has made over the past year by harnessing diversity and inclusion as a business imperative, similar progress is not seen at the team level, where the leadership structure continues to remain overwhelmingly white and male.

"In a league with such diverse rosters, where the best of the best come together to create magic on the diamond, the continued lack of diversity in the team front offices is disappointing. On the field as well as in the boardroom, America's pastime should reflect the changing face of this nation."

America will honor Jackie Robinson this Sunday and every player will don his number to mark 71 years since the debut of the player who changed the sport forever. I hope that the league continues its efforts in honoring Robinson as a hero of the sport by carrying out his dream of diversity and inclusion throughout baseball in our nation for years to come.

www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23132253/major-league-baseball-gets-average-marks-hiring-practices

[mikecubs]

Not a fan of Jessie Jackson but I agree MLB should put even more into RBI program. They should also do a big time campaign on how their sport was the one that started the civil rights movement and how it's absolutely NOT a white sport. They should also do a big time campaign on how football is the sport that is truly the white sport because the teams are owned by a bunch of rich white billionaires that use up black athletes then throw them away after their bodies and most importantly their minds are shot.

[mikecubs]

MLB's African-American population regains lost ground; can growth continue?

It’s certainly not worth celebrating, but Major League Baseball has at least made back the loss of African American players that a year ago resulted in a historic low.

The African-American population increased to 7.8%, up from 7.1% a year ago, on Major League Baseball’s opening-day rosters and disabled lists, according to USA TODAY Sports' annual study.

It may not look like a significant increase, but it happens to be baseball’s largest growth since 2007-2008.

There are 68 African Americans on rosters, six more than a year ago, when baseball had its lowest percentage of black players since 1958.

Yet, despite the modest uptick, nearly one-third of all teams don’t have more than one African-American on their 25-man roster or DL.

“We’re starting to see some progress,’’ MLB executive vice president Tony Reagins says, “but is there a lot of work to be done? Absolutely.

“Our goal is to get our numbers back to 19% and 20%. That’s a lofty goal. But this isn’t a one-time effort. We are fully committed to this.’’

Major League Baseball no longer is accepting excuses for its African-American declining population, and is taking full responsibility.

For the first time, MLB is making every club accountable for its actions, sending out an extensive survey to each club asking how many minorities are in their front offices, among their scouting ranks, their coaching staffs, and players in their minor-league system.

It’s called the Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report, providing information and performance metrics of their initiatives during the past year. It will be the first time the Commissioner’s office has proactively shared the information publicly, and is expected to be released in two weeks.

“It is important that we create an atmosphere within baseball,’’ MLB said in a statement, “where diversity is celebrated and inclusion is promoted as a strength of our business.’’

Franchises failing in that mission will be publicly identified.

It’s embarrassing to Major League Baseball that the New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox series this week features more African-Americans than three entire divisions.

The San Diego Padres, considered to have the richest farm system in baseball, once again do not have a single African-American on the opening-day roster. There are six other teams who have only one African-American.

The Cleveland Indians, with outfielders Michael Brantley and Rajai Davis, are the lone AL Central team with more than one African-American.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Mets, who play in the two largest cities in America, had only one African-American, 33-year-old Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp, active on Opening Day.

It’s unacceptable, MLB knows it, and insists it will do something about it.

“We’re ramping up our scouting efforts in inner cities,’’ says Reagins, former GM of the Los Angeles Angels, “and that’s going to be a big part of our objectives. We’re going to focus on going back to the inner cities, those high schools, those baseball programs, that have been forgotten.

“You’re going to see our scouts go back to the same areas that provided us with Eric Davis and Darryl Strawberry and Eddie Murray and Kenny Landreaux in South-Central LA. That used to be a breeding ground for MLB. I think we have the opportunity to get back to that.

“It’s going to take work, but we’re committed to do that.’’

Major League Baseball executives don’t speak about it publicly, and are careful in choosing their words, but they understand this is their opportunity to take advantage of football's spiraling issues with head injuries. There are five states with active proposals in legislature that would prohibit kids under the age of 12 from playing organized tackle football.

Parents’ growing concern with football concussions, and CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) research, has helped trigger the dramatic rise in kids playing baseball. The annual Sports & Fitness Industry Association revealed in its annual report in 2017 that baseball had the highest growth (6%) of any major sport while football declined 4.7%. Casual play in baseball is up 49.1% in the last three years. The report also said that baseball has the second-highest participation rate among African-American youth behind basketball.

“We’re going to continue to do what we do with our Play Ball initiatives,’’ Reagins says, “creating that awareness and engaging with boys and girls in communities.

“And if we have opportunities to get more young people engaged because they’re not playing another sport, so be it. But we want to provide our best opportunities for young people around the country.’’

Certainly, MLB is encouraged by the influx of African-Americans in their amateur draft, featuring 41 players selected in the first round since 2012 - 20.1% of the 204 total selections. Last year was also only the fourth time in the history of the draft that the first two picks were African Americans, with Royce Lewis selected by the Minnesota Twins and Hunter Greene going to the Cincinnati Reds.

There should also be staying power among the ranks, considering that 75% of the African-Americans in baseball are 30 years or younger.

“I’m not smart enough to know what happened before, and the reasons for the lull,’’ Reagins says, “but I can tell that we’re fully committed to take advantage of our resources now.

“Hopefully, five years from now, we’re talking about 15 to 20% (African-American population), sustaining that, and growing from there. We want to continue to build that pipeline year after year.

“The commitment is there.’’

This time, for real.

www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2018/04/11/mlb-african-americans-opening-day-rosters/507685002/

[mikecubs]

So we see baseball is the fastest growing youth sport for 2017 and number 2 among black Americans. So much for lowly minor league soccer fans predictions of baseball "dying" just because people couldn't care less about the national telecasts of teams that are not their own and like to go to games instead and watch the regional team network.

This is also very great that this is coming at footballs expense.

Baseball had a MASSIVE role in the civil rights movement and doesn't destroy it's players. Contracts are also GUARANTEED.

Football is lead by 30 white owners and a guy from Pakistan who throw their mostly black players away like trash once they are used up physically and most importantly mentally.

[mikecubs]

The fantasies of going back to old times when football goes bye bye as a major sport and having baseball be number 1 won't happen though. Basketball is cheaper, easier to find place to play in the inner city, is by far more international(basically it's everywhere, baseball is only in Latin America, Japan, South Korea and to an extent Phillipines and Australia). NBA franchise values are slightly higher than MLB despite MLB currently making more revenue due to basketball having a higher growth rate % in revenue by far. China is a gold mine for NBA.

Still though baseball is on a role. Other than NBA no sport is better positioned. Look at the problems of other sports

NFL/football= undergoing it's demise because of head injuries(If a CTE pill is found however forget I said all this and they will probably stay number 1 though NBA is coming fast)

NHL- Trailing baseball by far and has it's own head injury issues, it's audience is mostly white which is dying(Canada will lose about 1/3rds of white from this generation to the next for example). Also hockey is unable to overcome it's north/south civil war. If the war ever ended it would be a Cubs win the world series type miracle.

MLS/soccer- The players are garbage. The US lost to Trinnidad and Tobaggo(only 300,000+ population LOL) in the tournament for world cup qualification. I've read the talent level is similar to Bulgaria. MLS will never overcome the Europe problem. It will grow some due to immigration and footballs demise without a CTE pill but the best players will ALWAYS go to Europe because those franchises are worth billions. So it will always be minor league. MLS per forbes lost $20M last season as a whole. So soccer fans are stuck deciding between following a crap league or a good league overseas but the problem is what connection will they have to an overseas league since the teams don't represent their country/home town? Then factor in the Mexican league too. In terms of viewership the premier league is number 1, Mexican league number 2, MLS number 3.

[DowntownBooster]

^^^Hey Mike, I was just on HFBoards and noticed a new member with the user name of MikeCubs (joined on May 29, 2018). The posts were made in the thread titled OT: MLB concerned with attendance 1/3 through season in the Business of Hockey section. Is that you or is it just a coincidence that someone over there has the same user name?

[mikecubs]

Jun 5, 2018 14:46:10 GMT -6 DowntownBooster said:

^^^Hey Mike, I was just on HFBoards and noticed a new member with the user name of MikeCubs (joined on May 29, 2018). The posts were made in the thread titled OT: MLB concerned with attendance 1/3 through season in the Business of Hockey section. Is that you or is it just a coincidence that someone over there has the same user name?

It's me. It was a baseball thread so I thought I'd join in.

[DowntownBooster]

Jun 7, 2018 7:16:25 GMT -6 mikecubs said:

Jun 5, 2018 14:46:10 GMT -6 DowntownBooster said:

^^^Hey Mike, I was just on HFBoards and noticed a new member with the user name of MikeCubs (joined on May 29, 2018). The posts were made in the thread titled OT: MLB concerned with attendance 1/3 through season in the Business of Hockey section. Is that you or is it just a coincidence that someone over there has the same user name?

It's me. It was a baseball thread so I thought I'd join in.

Cool! It's always nice to see a familiar name on another site like HFBoards or Skyscraperpage.