Opinion | Decline in Black MLB players traced down to youth level

Joe Perrino, Sports Editor

Over the past several years there has been a noticeable decline in Black representation across the MLB. A group that once made up nearly 20% of the league in the 1980s has decreased to just 6.7% at the beginning of the 2017 season.

What can we attribute this decline to? There are quite a few factors that contribute to falling youth interest; other sports such as basketball, football and soccer have increased or remained steady in popularity, while the length of baseball games remains troublingly slow. However, the clearest contributor to this issue of Black representation in the sport is simple access.

Baseball is one of the most expensive sports for youth athletes to take up. Why? Because it’s played on a diamond. (Get it? Because the field is shaped like a diamond? No? Okay, fine.) 

All jokes aside, I know about how much it costs because I watched my parents pay for my club program for five years during my adolescence. I eventually stopped playing after my senior year of high school, but I’m eternally grateful for that experience – one that helped foster my lifelong love for the game.

Baseball requires a lot of equipment to get your child started on their path. A new bat, if you want a good one, can exceed $400. A nice glove: $200. By the time you’re done buying a helmet, batting gloves, pants, socks and cleats, you might have spent over $1,000 and you haven’t even played a game yet. In contrast, all you need to play basketball is a $25 Spalding ball from your local Target and a neighborhood hoop.

So it makes sense, then, that a wide range of children are increasingly turning to other sports rather than baseball. Not everyone can afford to provide these costly resources, particularly in neighborhoods affected disproportionately by systemic inequality. As reported by the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2018, Black and African American families make up 22% of the poverty threshold in the United States, the second-largest group behind Native Americans. 

In many situations, white families have an economic advantage that can expose their children to better resources within the game, all before their kids have even taken the field. 

How can this be fixed?

There is a wide group of former African American baseball players who have taken it upon themselves to help revive the game in the Black community – one of whom is Hank Aaron, an athlete who hit the second-most home runs in MLB history. 

He created the Hank Aaron Invitational in July 2015, a free annual camp for Black players ages 13 to 18, who receive an invite to the event from the MLB. Invitees are then able to showcase their skills to college and professional scouts. Around 200 players attend this camp annually, and almost 90% of its attendees who graduated high school between 2016 to 2019 have made it to the college or professional level.

While the MLB is making a clear effort to improve Black representation in its league, cost barriers to play the game at the youth level remain the same. Baseball has to become more accessible to families within all communities – only then can there be a significant change to diversity and inclusion in the sport.