PatsWSB47

Only 8.4 percent of MLBers were black in '06

NEW YORK (AP) - Only 8.4 percent of major league players last season were black, the lowest level in at least two decades.

As recently as 1995, 19 percent of big leaguers were black, according to Richard Lapchick, director of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports. Nine percent were black in both 2004 and 2005, and the current figure is the lowest since at least the mid-1980s, he said.
Just 3 percent of pitchers were blacks in 2006, Lapchick said Thursday in his annual study, the same as the previous year.

Lapchick gave baseball a B+ for racial diversity, the same as last year, and a C+ for gender, up from a C. Its overall grade improved from C+ to B.

"Jackie Robinson's dream was to increase the percentage of African-American players as well as coaches and front-office personnel," Lapchick said. "While MLB has achieved these new distinctions regarding who runs the game, the percentage of African-Americans playing the game reached a new low."

Baseball is holding its first "Civil Rights Game" exhibition in Memphis, Tenn., this weekend and is planning a celebration on April 15 to mark the 60th anniversary of Robinson breaking the sport's color barrier.

Cleveland pitcher C.C. Sabathia said this month that baseball must do more to promote the game in inner cities.

"It's not just a problem - it's a crisis," he said.
Lapchick gave baseball a B+ for race and a C for gender for its senior administration hiring. When it came to team vice presidents, he gave a B for race and an F for gender. He gave a D for general managers - Kenny Williams of the Chicago White Sox is the only black GM and Omar Minaya of the New York Mets is the only Latino GM. For the central offices, he gave an A+ for race and an A for gender.

Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.



http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6...HPHMA&GT1=9232

Is this a crisis?

Harry Boy

__________________
Harry Boy (Genius)

In The Absence Of Law And Order Society Will Surely Destroy Itself

Patters

It seems a low, but Lapchick gave the MLB a B+, so I would guess the problem isn't serious, despite Fox's sensational headline. The MLB needs to do more to promote the game in inner cities, as Cleveland pitcher Sabithia suggested in the article. At any rate, it's certainly not as serious as what's going on at Harvard U., where the Globe reported that of 32 coaches, 0% are black and only one is non-white (Indian).

Patters

Harry Boy

__________________
Harry Boy (Genius)

In The Absence Of Law And Order Society Will Surely Destroy Itself

PatsFanInEaglesLand

Should we set up set up a Basketball program in middle class suburbs, I mean the American white players make up far less than 8.4% of the NBA.

What grade does the NBA get?

Georgetown is in the final four, who was their last white player?

Patters

Why not? It would probably be a good investment by the NBA. These issues appear to be more cultural than racial, and perhaps if the sports were better promoted, young white kids who don't make the baseball team, would try out for basketball, and young black kids who don't make the basketball team, would try out for baseball. Sorry, PFIEL, there's no issue here unless someone presents more evidence than just a stat.

scout

Baseball is diversified with more players coming from different countries then in the past decades. The greatest inroads have come from Latin players, who at one time were frowned upon. I'm sure the percentage of MLB players of the population of Puerto Rico is far greater then that of U.S. I heard a story of kids learning baseball down there by using bottle caps and broomsticks. That would surely help hand-eye coordination at the very least. Japanese are now employed by a number of teams, it wasn't too long ago when I can remember them not being good enough for MLB. I don't think its a crisis that there are fewer blacks playing baseball. I couldn't tell you how many managers are black and that's a good thing, as its appearently not a problem (as it is in college football). Now if MLB had made George Bush commissioner as he had really wanted, I'm sure we would have a lot less to worry about.

patsfan13

Great athletes start out as little kids playing games they like. We should let kids play whatever games they want.

__________________
"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."

maverick4

Personally, I do not understand the 'diversity for the sake of diversity' argument. It is more important to make sure there is no racism or discrimination in sports / work / admissions, but for this Major League Baseball situation, I do not see a problem related to that.

Black athletes are flocking mostly to basketball or football or track. I see the MLB percentage as representative of the fact that there simply isn't as much interest in baseball among Black youth. And you can bet your ass Black athletes are not being discriminated against in the baseball system.