Bartram
Brand HBCUbian
There was/is a series on ESPN about the dramatic decline in the number of American-born blacks in pro baseball (25% in the 70s to 10% now). First of all,,,, sitting up here listening at these guys lamenting this, doing all the psycho-analysis, looking at social trends, interviewing high schoolers as to why they are not interested in baseball, blah, blah, blah, i'm thinking to myself, welp, there are what,, about 30-40 HBCUs with baseball teams full of American-born blacks. Is ESPN/MLB totally overlooking this source of American-born black baseball players? Anyway, hears an article along the same lines as the ESPN piece.
Fewer Blacks in Baseball
mlb
Fewer blacks step up to plate in pro baseball
By Mike Klis, Denver Post Sports Writer
As he stood in left field for the Anaheim Angels during Game 1 of the World Series last fall, Garret Anderson was surrounded by white friends.
His teammate in center field, Darin Erstad, was white, as was right fielder Tim Salmon. The entire Angels infield of Troy Glaus, David Eckstein, Adam Kennedy and Scott Spiezio was white. Angels starting pitcher Jarrod Washburn and designated hitter Brad Fullmer were white. Bengie Molina, the catcher, was Latin American.
Had Anderson bothered to notice, he would have seen pretty much what Jackie Robinson saw while playing first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1947 World Series.
"I don't pay attention to that stuff," said Anderson, the lone African-American starting player on the eventual world-champion Angels.
A recently released racial survey, however, revealed numbers that baseball may not be able to ignore.
A little more than 50 years after Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball, the number of African-American players in the big leagues has dropped to its lowest level since 1960.
The Angels are one of seven teams that finished April with just one African-American player on the roster.
The others were Boston (utility infielder Damian Jackson), St. Louis (backup outfielder Kerry Robinson), the New York Yankees (injured shortstop Derek Jeter), Houston (backup outfielder Brian Hunter), Montreal (backup outfielder Ron Calloway) and Texas (starting outfielder Carl Everett).
More than 20 baseball players and officials at all levels interviewed for this report say there are a number of factors:
* Baseball is not reaching out in the inner cities to combat the perception that basketball and football offer more glamorous athletic opportunities.
* A lack of facilities, or facilities in poor condition, deters participation in inner cities.
* Real or perceived racism drives young black players away from the sport.
* The increasing cost of equipment and of joining organized leagues makes it difficult for some families to participate.
Regardless of the cause, the numbers tell the story.
"I'm not going to say it hasn't gone unnoticed," said Colorado Rockies pitcher Shawn Chacon.
Chacon is part of a Rockies team that has the most African-American players in the majors, with five. The four others are Preston Wilson, Charles Johnson, Darren Oliver and Jay Payton. Although the Rockies score well in racial equality, what does it say about baseball as an industry when just one team has 20 percent African-American players when in 1975, blacks represented 27 percent of all big-league players?
"I tell kids it's an ideal time to be in baseball. Because the best athletes are playing basketball and football," said Rockies scout Orsino Hill, once a professional baseball player and uncle to former all-star Darryl Strawberry.
A recent report by Richard Lapchick for the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida revealed that only 10 percent of major-league players in 2002 were African-Americans ? the smallest percentage of black baseball players since 1960.
"That's a slap to Jackie and Hank (Aaron) and all the guys who played before us," said veteran Chicago Cubs outfielder Tom Goodwin. "We're not carrying the torch. We've got to keep it burning."
The decrease in the number of African-American ballplayers was gradual from its height in the mid-1970s until 1995, when they filled 19 percent of big-league rosters. But since the year of the wildcard and the opening of Coors Field, the number of African-American players has dropped nearly by half.
"Our industry, I don't think, is doing a real good job in the inner cities," said San Diego Padres general manager Kevin Towers. "The inner-city kids are playing basketball. They're not playing baseball."
The Lapchick report stated African-Americans account for four of five National Basketball Association players and two of every three players in the National Football League. "One reason why the black athlete isn't playing baseball is because baseball doesn't market their players like they do in the NBA and NFL," Hill said. "The NBA and NFL make sure people know who their players are. Baseball is kind of stuck in this dinosaur way of thinking in that, 'We're the national pastime ? every kid wants to play baseball.' That's not the way it is. African-American children aren't playing baseball because baseball doesn't appeal to them."
There is no greater irony regarding the gradual disappearance of African-American ballplayers than this: In 1997, the year baseball celebrated the 50-year anniversary of Robinson's breaking the color barrier, his former organization, the Los Angeles Dodgers, opened that season with just one African-American player: Wayne Kirby, a backup outfielder. Fifty years and no progress, at least not statistically.
"What happened that year with the Dodgers was astonishing," Lapchick said.
When decreases are this drastic, they're usually the result of several factors.
Latin American boom
The drop in black ballplayers has been exceeded by an even greater decrease in white ballplayers. Since Lapchick began formally reporting on race and gender in all major sports, white ballplayers decreased from 70 percent in 1989 to 58 percent in 1997, although the percentage was back up to 60 last season.
Statistically, the roster spots vacated by the white and black ballplayers have been filled by Latin Americans. Since 1989, the number of Latino ballplayers has more than doubled from 13 to 28 percent.
"Baseball is still the No. 1 sport over there," said the Cubs' Dusty Baker, one of baseball's four black managers. "In America, baseball is not the No. 1 sport. There are about 18 different sports here, with X Games on the rise. Soccer's on the rise."
The LeBron James factor
It's not so much that Latin Americans took over big-league roster spots as African-Americans forfeited them. Hill, who at 41 is 12 days older than his more famous nephew, Strawberry, grew up playing in the same southern Los Angeles sandlots where future major- league stars such as Strawberry, Eric Davis, Ozzie Smith, Eddie Murray and Chris Brown spent their afternoons and evenings. Rockies scouting director Bill Schmidt grew up not far from the area and scouted all the Los Angeles high schools that were once fertile ground for major-league stars.
"Now, I can't tell you when's the last time I went to southern L.A. to scout," Schmidt said.
Baseball can't observe somebody who's not there.
"I think communities themselves are a lot different," said Rockies center fielder Wilson, who grew up in South Carolina. "Baseball used to be a community sport where people would get together and play a game. It seems a whole lot harder to get enough guys to play a baseball game. But it only takes four kids to have a pickup basketball game."
More than convenience, African-American children see a greater reward in basketball and football. LeBron James didn't have to leave high school to play in basketball games televised on ESPN. In Division I college football and the NFL, African-Americans dominate the glamorous skill positions of running back, wide receiver, defensive back and, finally, quarterback.
The NCAA Final Four basketball tournament has become one of the biggest events in sports. When they're through with college, the best basketball and football players go straight to the top professional league.
College baseball games, however, aren't televised until the final rounds of the World Series. If an African-American child happens to tune in, he will be lucky to see more than one or two players of his skin color.
"When I scout college baseball games, I'm the only black in the stadium," Hill said. "And I go to Chicago. I go to St. Louis. It's very rare that you see African-Americans playing college baseball."
The star college baseball player goes straight to Elmira, N.Y., for the minor leagues. On a bus. With $15 a day meal money and an $850 a month salary.
"Baseball's just not as glamorous as the other sports," Goodwin said. "In baseball, you're drafted, and you're hot stuff for a couple minutes, and the next thing you know, you're gone. A couple years later, your buddies are going, whatever happened to that guy?' He went off to the minor leagues for a couple years. And little kids see that.
"You look at LeBron James: I don't think his situation hurts basketball, but as far as getting youths to play baseball, that's not going to help us."
Derrick Martin played shortstop and outfield in a Denver-area police athletic league from age 8 until 13, when he decided to specialize in football. An all-state senior cornerback at Thomas Jefferson High School, Martin will play football at the University of Wyoming next year.
"I like baseball; it was fun," Martin said. "But I wanted to concentrate on football. I thought I had a better future in football."
Plagued by poor facilities
True story. The spring blizzard, coupled with ballfield scheduling conflicts, forced the Denver Montbello High School baseball team to hold several hitting practice sessions this year in the school shower.
"We had two choices," said Montbello baseball coach Herb Sanders. "We either hit in the shower or we didn't hit."
Danny Hall is in his 10th year as the Georgia Tech baseball coach. Although the campus is in downtown Atlanta, Hall didn't sign his first inner-city player until this year, when he lured center fielder Avery Johnson.
Hall said the reason he hasn't recruited more from the inner city is because most of the Avery Johnsons are playing in the suburbs.
"The facilities in the inner city are bad," Hall said. "Nothing to where you say, 'Boy, that's awful,' but 30 miles out of town, Cobb County, every field you see is a castle. Compare it with what else is available in the metro area, and they seem a lot worse. I wish there was a solution."
Improving baseball facilities in the inner cities, however, can become a Catch-22. For years, the Rockies had a "Field of Dreams" program in which their highest- paid players donated enough money to build 49 state-of-the-art youth ballparks in the Denver metro area and beyond. The Rockies began tapering off the program two years ago, however, as they realized that the slogan "If you build it, they will come," may be fine with movies and ghosts, but it only goes so far in real life.
Questions of racism linger
Statistically, it's difficult to charge prejudice as a contributing factor to the decline of African-American ballplayers when the percentage of white major-league players also has dropped significantly.
Anecdotally, baseball can also present a strong defense by asking: Wasn't racism stronger in 1975, when 27 percent of big-league players were African-Americans, than in 2002, when there were 10 percent? Still, many African-American ballplayers can't look at baseball's 100 percent white ownership fraternity and not wonder if true equality exists, just like they can't forget what Dodgers vice president Al Campanis said 16 years ago about how blacks didn't have "the necessities" to manage. Nor can they forget that 10 years ago, Cincinnati owner Marge Schott referred to Davis and Dave Parker by using the N-word.
"There's no question that African-Americans believe racism is a factor in baseball," Lapchick said. "Whether it's a reasonable belief, I can't say. But I don't think, in this country's cultural climate, that Marge Schott was alone among owners when she shared her position on race."
More costs, fewer incentives
Sanders believes the nationwide epidemic of African-American children living in fatherless family environments has contributed to baseball's participation decline.
Lapchick said that while baseball has improved dramatically in hiring African-Americans for management positions, the perception remains there aren't many employment opportunities available to minorities after their playing days are finished.
Many of those interviewed believe the increasing financial commitment of youth baseball has chased away African-American children from the ball diamonds.
"It's getting to where it's almost like golf," Payton said.
For its part, Major League Baseball recognizes it is losing African-American ballplayers at an alarming rate. It started its Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program in 1989, and today 120,000 children, ages 13 through 18 from 185 cities, participate, according to Tom Brasuell, the commissioner's vice president for community affairs.
There are signs the RBI program is beginning to make a difference. Vic Darensbourg, a relief pitcher on the Colorado Rockies' disabled list, became the first RBI alumnus to reach the majors when he was called up by Florida in 1998.
"It's a good program because it gives kids another sport to love besides basketball and football," said Darensbourg, who played in a Los Angeles RBI league when he was 17. Perhaps confirming RBI's impact is the recent Lapchick report showing a significant increase in African-American players at the Division I college level, from 2.8 percent in 1999 to 6.7 percent in 2001.
Perhaps most promising is the academy Major League Baseball has financially committed to build in Los Angeles. It would be the first of its kind in the United States.
"There's no doubt in my mind that Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in 1947 was the most powerful event of the 20th century in all of sports," said Bud Selig, baseball's commissioner. "And there's no question we are starting to see an evolution of the African-American ballplayers from what we had in the 1950s and '60s. We need to continue to make progress in promoting baseball to the inner-city kids. We've made progress, but we need more."
The problem with the RBI program and L.A. academy, however, is that they address teenagers. A critical time to capture interest is between the ages of 8 and 12, when most boys get over their fear of the hard, little ball and experience the kind of love that lasts a lifetime.
"Baseball, probably more than any other sport, is a game you have to love," Goodwin said. "How many people do you hear say, 'I don't like to watch baseball on TV'? You've got to go out and play it to develop a love for the game. I think it all starts with Little League. We need to have our black children playing Little League. It's kind of late to play baseball in high school."
Hill found out that recruiting junior high kids to baseball can be a waste of time. "I was at one of my 12-year-old son's basketball games this winter," Hill said. "And I was telling the kids, 'You guys should start focusing on baseball. It's the highest-paying sport, and all the black kids are playing basketball and football. With your athleticism, if you can pick up the baseball skills, you'd be able to skate to the big leagues.' And they all looked at me and went, 'Baseball?' Like I was crazy or something."
Quote/unquote
'There is no hip-hop in baseball. There is no histrionics in baseball. Baseball is more of a casual game. It moves along at its own pace. It doesn't jibe with the popular youth culture.' - Herb Sanders, Montbello High baseball coach
'I think part of the reason is the cost of organized baseball. You've got two or three kids in Little League, the cost of bats, ball, cleats and insurance, it's tough. It'll cost you $400, $500 a kid before it's over with. - Dusty Baker, Chicago Cubs manager
'If the talent is there, we'll find them. I've scouted games at Crenshaw High School. I've scouted Dorsey High School. But I can't tell you the last time I've been in there. Nobody's getting drafted out of there.' - Bill Schmidt, Colorado Rockies scout, who is white, on scouting in the inner cities, particularly southern Los Angeles
'Sports anymore, rarely do you see kids play three sports. They just focus on one and work year-round at it. That means baseball doesn't get the spillover it used to where the star football player or the stud basketball player used to play baseball in the spring just for the fun of it.' - Kevin Towers, San Diego Padres general manager
'(With basketball), anybody can play. All you need is a basketball and a hoop. You don't have to buy cleats, or buy a glove or buy a bat or come up with money to play in a league. Kids are playing year-round.' - Jay Payton, Rockies outfielder
'Why would you spend $3 million to sign one player in the first round when, for that same money, you can sign 100 kids from Latin America, have 15 of those make it to the big leagues and two or three become all-stars?' - Orsino Hill, Rockies scout
Fewer Blacks in Baseball
mlb
Fewer blacks step up to plate in pro baseball
By Mike Klis, Denver Post Sports Writer
As he stood in left field for the Anaheim Angels during Game 1 of the World Series last fall, Garret Anderson was surrounded by white friends.
His teammate in center field, Darin Erstad, was white, as was right fielder Tim Salmon. The entire Angels infield of Troy Glaus, David Eckstein, Adam Kennedy and Scott Spiezio was white. Angels starting pitcher Jarrod Washburn and designated hitter Brad Fullmer were white. Bengie Molina, the catcher, was Latin American.
Had Anderson bothered to notice, he would have seen pretty much what Jackie Robinson saw while playing first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1947 World Series.
"I don't pay attention to that stuff," said Anderson, the lone African-American starting player on the eventual world-champion Angels.
A recently released racial survey, however, revealed numbers that baseball may not be able to ignore.
A little more than 50 years after Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball, the number of African-American players in the big leagues has dropped to its lowest level since 1960.
The Angels are one of seven teams that finished April with just one African-American player on the roster.
The others were Boston (utility infielder Damian Jackson), St. Louis (backup outfielder Kerry Robinson), the New York Yankees (injured shortstop Derek Jeter), Houston (backup outfielder Brian Hunter), Montreal (backup outfielder Ron Calloway) and Texas (starting outfielder Carl Everett).
More than 20 baseball players and officials at all levels interviewed for this report say there are a number of factors:
* Baseball is not reaching out in the inner cities to combat the perception that basketball and football offer more glamorous athletic opportunities.
* A lack of facilities, or facilities in poor condition, deters participation in inner cities.
* Real or perceived racism drives young black players away from the sport.
* The increasing cost of equipment and of joining organized leagues makes it difficult for some families to participate.
Regardless of the cause, the numbers tell the story.
"I'm not going to say it hasn't gone unnoticed," said Colorado Rockies pitcher Shawn Chacon.
Chacon is part of a Rockies team that has the most African-American players in the majors, with five. The four others are Preston Wilson, Charles Johnson, Darren Oliver and Jay Payton. Although the Rockies score well in racial equality, what does it say about baseball as an industry when just one team has 20 percent African-American players when in 1975, blacks represented 27 percent of all big-league players?
"I tell kids it's an ideal time to be in baseball. Because the best athletes are playing basketball and football," said Rockies scout Orsino Hill, once a professional baseball player and uncle to former all-star Darryl Strawberry.
A recent report by Richard Lapchick for the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida revealed that only 10 percent of major-league players in 2002 were African-Americans ? the smallest percentage of black baseball players since 1960.
"That's a slap to Jackie and Hank (Aaron) and all the guys who played before us," said veteran Chicago Cubs outfielder Tom Goodwin. "We're not carrying the torch. We've got to keep it burning."
The decrease in the number of African-American ballplayers was gradual from its height in the mid-1970s until 1995, when they filled 19 percent of big-league rosters. But since the year of the wildcard and the opening of Coors Field, the number of African-American players has dropped nearly by half.
"Our industry, I don't think, is doing a real good job in the inner cities," said San Diego Padres general manager Kevin Towers. "The inner-city kids are playing basketball. They're not playing baseball."
The Lapchick report stated African-Americans account for four of five National Basketball Association players and two of every three players in the National Football League. "One reason why the black athlete isn't playing baseball is because baseball doesn't market their players like they do in the NBA and NFL," Hill said. "The NBA and NFL make sure people know who their players are. Baseball is kind of stuck in this dinosaur way of thinking in that, 'We're the national pastime ? every kid wants to play baseball.' That's not the way it is. African-American children aren't playing baseball because baseball doesn't appeal to them."
There is no greater irony regarding the gradual disappearance of African-American ballplayers than this: In 1997, the year baseball celebrated the 50-year anniversary of Robinson's breaking the color barrier, his former organization, the Los Angeles Dodgers, opened that season with just one African-American player: Wayne Kirby, a backup outfielder. Fifty years and no progress, at least not statistically.
"What happened that year with the Dodgers was astonishing," Lapchick said.
When decreases are this drastic, they're usually the result of several factors.
Latin American boom
The drop in black ballplayers has been exceeded by an even greater decrease in white ballplayers. Since Lapchick began formally reporting on race and gender in all major sports, white ballplayers decreased from 70 percent in 1989 to 58 percent in 1997, although the percentage was back up to 60 last season.
Statistically, the roster spots vacated by the white and black ballplayers have been filled by Latin Americans. Since 1989, the number of Latino ballplayers has more than doubled from 13 to 28 percent.
"Baseball is still the No. 1 sport over there," said the Cubs' Dusty Baker, one of baseball's four black managers. "In America, baseball is not the No. 1 sport. There are about 18 different sports here, with X Games on the rise. Soccer's on the rise."
The LeBron James factor
It's not so much that Latin Americans took over big-league roster spots as African-Americans forfeited them. Hill, who at 41 is 12 days older than his more famous nephew, Strawberry, grew up playing in the same southern Los Angeles sandlots where future major- league stars such as Strawberry, Eric Davis, Ozzie Smith, Eddie Murray and Chris Brown spent their afternoons and evenings. Rockies scouting director Bill Schmidt grew up not far from the area and scouted all the Los Angeles high schools that were once fertile ground for major-league stars.
"Now, I can't tell you when's the last time I went to southern L.A. to scout," Schmidt said.
Baseball can't observe somebody who's not there.
"I think communities themselves are a lot different," said Rockies center fielder Wilson, who grew up in South Carolina. "Baseball used to be a community sport where people would get together and play a game. It seems a whole lot harder to get enough guys to play a baseball game. But it only takes four kids to have a pickup basketball game."
More than convenience, African-American children see a greater reward in basketball and football. LeBron James didn't have to leave high school to play in basketball games televised on ESPN. In Division I college football and the NFL, African-Americans dominate the glamorous skill positions of running back, wide receiver, defensive back and, finally, quarterback.
The NCAA Final Four basketball tournament has become one of the biggest events in sports. When they're through with college, the best basketball and football players go straight to the top professional league.
College baseball games, however, aren't televised until the final rounds of the World Series. If an African-American child happens to tune in, he will be lucky to see more than one or two players of his skin color.
"When I scout college baseball games, I'm the only black in the stadium," Hill said. "And I go to Chicago. I go to St. Louis. It's very rare that you see African-Americans playing college baseball."
The star college baseball player goes straight to Elmira, N.Y., for the minor leagues. On a bus. With $15 a day meal money and an $850 a month salary.
"Baseball's just not as glamorous as the other sports," Goodwin said. "In baseball, you're drafted, and you're hot stuff for a couple minutes, and the next thing you know, you're gone. A couple years later, your buddies are going, whatever happened to that guy?' He went off to the minor leagues for a couple years. And little kids see that.
"You look at LeBron James: I don't think his situation hurts basketball, but as far as getting youths to play baseball, that's not going to help us."
Derrick Martin played shortstop and outfield in a Denver-area police athletic league from age 8 until 13, when he decided to specialize in football. An all-state senior cornerback at Thomas Jefferson High School, Martin will play football at the University of Wyoming next year.
"I like baseball; it was fun," Martin said. "But I wanted to concentrate on football. I thought I had a better future in football."
Plagued by poor facilities
True story. The spring blizzard, coupled with ballfield scheduling conflicts, forced the Denver Montbello High School baseball team to hold several hitting practice sessions this year in the school shower.
"We had two choices," said Montbello baseball coach Herb Sanders. "We either hit in the shower or we didn't hit."
Danny Hall is in his 10th year as the Georgia Tech baseball coach. Although the campus is in downtown Atlanta, Hall didn't sign his first inner-city player until this year, when he lured center fielder Avery Johnson.
Hall said the reason he hasn't recruited more from the inner city is because most of the Avery Johnsons are playing in the suburbs.
"The facilities in the inner city are bad," Hall said. "Nothing to where you say, 'Boy, that's awful,' but 30 miles out of town, Cobb County, every field you see is a castle. Compare it with what else is available in the metro area, and they seem a lot worse. I wish there was a solution."
Improving baseball facilities in the inner cities, however, can become a Catch-22. For years, the Rockies had a "Field of Dreams" program in which their highest- paid players donated enough money to build 49 state-of-the-art youth ballparks in the Denver metro area and beyond. The Rockies began tapering off the program two years ago, however, as they realized that the slogan "If you build it, they will come," may be fine with movies and ghosts, but it only goes so far in real life.
Questions of racism linger
Statistically, it's difficult to charge prejudice as a contributing factor to the decline of African-American ballplayers when the percentage of white major-league players also has dropped significantly.
Anecdotally, baseball can also present a strong defense by asking: Wasn't racism stronger in 1975, when 27 percent of big-league players were African-Americans, than in 2002, when there were 10 percent? Still, many African-American ballplayers can't look at baseball's 100 percent white ownership fraternity and not wonder if true equality exists, just like they can't forget what Dodgers vice president Al Campanis said 16 years ago about how blacks didn't have "the necessities" to manage. Nor can they forget that 10 years ago, Cincinnati owner Marge Schott referred to Davis and Dave Parker by using the N-word.
"There's no question that African-Americans believe racism is a factor in baseball," Lapchick said. "Whether it's a reasonable belief, I can't say. But I don't think, in this country's cultural climate, that Marge Schott was alone among owners when she shared her position on race."
More costs, fewer incentives
Sanders believes the nationwide epidemic of African-American children living in fatherless family environments has contributed to baseball's participation decline.
Lapchick said that while baseball has improved dramatically in hiring African-Americans for management positions, the perception remains there aren't many employment opportunities available to minorities after their playing days are finished.
Many of those interviewed believe the increasing financial commitment of youth baseball has chased away African-American children from the ball diamonds.
"It's getting to where it's almost like golf," Payton said.
For its part, Major League Baseball recognizes it is losing African-American ballplayers at an alarming rate. It started its Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program in 1989, and today 120,000 children, ages 13 through 18 from 185 cities, participate, according to Tom Brasuell, the commissioner's vice president for community affairs.
There are signs the RBI program is beginning to make a difference. Vic Darensbourg, a relief pitcher on the Colorado Rockies' disabled list, became the first RBI alumnus to reach the majors when he was called up by Florida in 1998.
"It's a good program because it gives kids another sport to love besides basketball and football," said Darensbourg, who played in a Los Angeles RBI league when he was 17. Perhaps confirming RBI's impact is the recent Lapchick report showing a significant increase in African-American players at the Division I college level, from 2.8 percent in 1999 to 6.7 percent in 2001.
Perhaps most promising is the academy Major League Baseball has financially committed to build in Los Angeles. It would be the first of its kind in the United States.
"There's no doubt in my mind that Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in 1947 was the most powerful event of the 20th century in all of sports," said Bud Selig, baseball's commissioner. "And there's no question we are starting to see an evolution of the African-American ballplayers from what we had in the 1950s and '60s. We need to continue to make progress in promoting baseball to the inner-city kids. We've made progress, but we need more."
The problem with the RBI program and L.A. academy, however, is that they address teenagers. A critical time to capture interest is between the ages of 8 and 12, when most boys get over their fear of the hard, little ball and experience the kind of love that lasts a lifetime.
"Baseball, probably more than any other sport, is a game you have to love," Goodwin said. "How many people do you hear say, 'I don't like to watch baseball on TV'? You've got to go out and play it to develop a love for the game. I think it all starts with Little League. We need to have our black children playing Little League. It's kind of late to play baseball in high school."
Hill found out that recruiting junior high kids to baseball can be a waste of time. "I was at one of my 12-year-old son's basketball games this winter," Hill said. "And I was telling the kids, 'You guys should start focusing on baseball. It's the highest-paying sport, and all the black kids are playing basketball and football. With your athleticism, if you can pick up the baseball skills, you'd be able to skate to the big leagues.' And they all looked at me and went, 'Baseball?' Like I was crazy or something."
Quote/unquote
'There is no hip-hop in baseball. There is no histrionics in baseball. Baseball is more of a casual game. It moves along at its own pace. It doesn't jibe with the popular youth culture.' - Herb Sanders, Montbello High baseball coach
'I think part of the reason is the cost of organized baseball. You've got two or three kids in Little League, the cost of bats, ball, cleats and insurance, it's tough. It'll cost you $400, $500 a kid before it's over with. - Dusty Baker, Chicago Cubs manager
'If the talent is there, we'll find them. I've scouted games at Crenshaw High School. I've scouted Dorsey High School. But I can't tell you the last time I've been in there. Nobody's getting drafted out of there.' - Bill Schmidt, Colorado Rockies scout, who is white, on scouting in the inner cities, particularly southern Los Angeles
'Sports anymore, rarely do you see kids play three sports. They just focus on one and work year-round at it. That means baseball doesn't get the spillover it used to where the star football player or the stud basketball player used to play baseball in the spring just for the fun of it.' - Kevin Towers, San Diego Padres general manager
'(With basketball), anybody can play. All you need is a basketball and a hoop. You don't have to buy cleats, or buy a glove or buy a bat or come up with money to play in a league. Kids are playing year-round.' - Jay Payton, Rockies outfielder
'Why would you spend $3 million to sign one player in the first round when, for that same money, you can sign 100 kids from Latin America, have 15 of those make it to the big leagues and two or three become all-stars?' - Orsino Hill, Rockies scout
