This year marks the second anniversary of the Civil Rights Game and the sixth year of MLB’s Jackie Robinson Day around the country. To the casual observer it would appear that the seeds of Robinson’s endeavors fell on fertile soil. But a closer examination would reveal that although much has changed, many things have not.
The decline in the number of African American baseball players and the lack of black managers is the lowest in decades. The number of black players peaked in 1975 at 27 percent and, in 2008 — the last full season — was at 8.2 percent. Currently, there are five black managers out of 30 teams in baseball, up from just one black manager in 2006.
“I would like for everyone to understand that we are still trying to get a piece of the pie,” Hank Aaron said in a panel discussion June 19, 2009. “We are still trying to get where we were supposed to get when Jackie broke into baseball. I just don’t want people to lose the focus on what this is all about. There [have] been a few of us [who have] reached the top, but a lot of us [are] still trying to get to the top.”
The league has been tarnished in recent years with a major steroid scandal and has struggled to maintain its integrity in the public eye. With bigger problems on their plate, race relations became a public relations showcase to deflect from the larger problems at hand. Once again, inclusiveness is on the back burner for Major League Baseball. –lenn durant
Return to rollingout.com for Part II of Pimping the Legacy of Jackie Robinson and to find out how Major League Baseball silences black media. Upcoming: The Top 10 Reasons to Boycott Baseball.
