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Diversity in baseball still has long way to go – Chicago Tribune
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Major League Baseball’s commissioner-elect, Rob Manfred, visited the Little League World Series this week, lauding the talent of 13-year-old Mo’ne Davis, the sport’s new wonder girl.
“Fifty years ago people would have had a list of things women couldn’t do that was as long as your arm, and they’re doing every single one of them today,” Manfred told the Associated Press. “I’m not betting against the gender. It’s a really great story for Little League. It’s a really great story for diversity and equality, and we should embrace it and hope that she continues to develop.”
Indeed, the Mo’ne Davis story, along with the saga of Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West team advancing to the U.S. championship game, have been great for baseball.
Interest is sky high. TV ratings for the Little League World Series are up. And Davis even made the cover of Sports Illustrated.
But baseball has a long way to go to increase diversity, and whether the Little League World Series is must-see TV or not, the problem will still exist.
After the decline in African-American players in the majors over the last two decades, there have been dozens of theories why blacks — and young people in general — have tuned out the game in favor of football and basketball.
Whether the attention Davis and the Jackie Robinson West players received this week can slowly change things remains to be seen. Remember when Tiger Woods’ arrival was supposed to introduce a generation of African-Americans to golf?
But there’s always hope, and some players think things will change as time goes on.
“I hope so,” Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen said. “I think the economy itself has to change. The rate of single-parent families in the black community is drastic, and that has a lot to do with it as well.
“You have to make a lot of sacrifices in this game to be able to play, especially as a young kid and especially in those colder states, where you don’t get baseball (in the spring) and you have to have money to play for a team that travels. And that’s hard, especially in a single-parent home, with a mom or dad with a countless amount of jobs and two or three kids or more.
“It’s hard to do. I had a lot of sacrifices made for myself, but my family stayed together. I’m not saying you can’t make it in a single-parent family, but it’s very difficult. But baseball is doing everything it can to get those numbers back up.”
MLB created a task force in April 2013 to study how to increase diversity. Among its findings were that the sport is hurting in urban areas because of the high cost of equipment, “insufficient exposure to leagues” and training facilities, a shortage of scouts and experienced coaches and fewer scholarships available to baseball players.
The initiatives underway include expanding the RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) program and raising the profile of current and former major leaguers in marketing campaigns. McCutchen is doing his part, and other popular black stars such as David Price and Adam Jones can help boost the game’s profile in black communities.
But one thing the task force didn’t mention was the lack of African-American owners in baseball. White Sox executive vice president Ken Williams, the first black general manager to build a World Series champion, says baseball still has that significant barrier to overcome.
“There has never been (black) ownership in Major League Baseball,” he said. “And as it was Jackie (Robinson’s) responsibility to do what he did, and Frank Robinson’s responsibility to become the first black manager, and on and on in the game (with) the levels that have been broken, it’s part of my responsibility, at least while I’m still in the game, to pursue that as the next step.
“So, yes, I think there are still some things that need to happen in the game.”
Hopefully Williams will be around long enough to see that barrier broken. For now, we have the Little League team from Chicago, showing the world there are still many talented black kids who love the game and can play it with passion.
If someone could only bottle the passion of the Jackie Robinson West players and bring it to the major leagues in bigger numbers, a great sport would be that much better.
Twitter @PWSullivan
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