On Blacks in Baseball

John Hawkins at Right Wing News questions why Bud Selig is upset about the lack of Blacks in baseball:

So, why is the fact that only 8.4% of MLB baseball players are black a problem? In basketball, as of 2004, only 21% of the league was white and almost half of them were from Europe. So, if anything, the numbers are far more skewed in NBA…

Yet, when Larry Bird said that the NBA needed more white players back in 2004, it was extremely controversial and he was slammed by some people as a bigot.

Double standards aside, who cares whether a particular race of people are playing particular sports? In particular, if blacks are as into baseball, what difference does it really make in the end if MLB attendance is at an “all-time high?” Reaching out to young people of all races to get them to play your sport makes sense, but who cares about racial diversity for diversity’s sake in a professional sport?

I think the difference here is that the decline in African Americans in baseball highlights the game’s ignoring the inner city. Given that baseball is located near large urban centers, these are the people who will attend the game and they’re not being turned onto it by and large. And when we’re talking about the American game, every area should be strong. The future of baseball in the next 20-30 years doesn’t look bright when ads during baseball games are target primarily to guys in their 40s-50s with enlarged prostates, and keeping attendance high will require doing some restoration work.