The Atlanta Braves are in the World Series for the first time since 1999, and only have one Black player to show for it.
Outfielder Terrance Gore is the only African American player on the Braves’ World Series roster. There are three other Braves on the active roster who appear to be of African descent, but are Hispanic. This includes Ozzie Albies, Guillermo Heredia and Jorge Soler.
The lack of diversity on the National League pennant-winning roster would disappoint Henry “Hank” Aaron.
Aaron died at 86 in January 2021. He is considered the greatest player in Braves’ history and is in many conversations for being the greatest baseball player of all time as well. “Hammerin’ Hank” is most known for passing former Babe Ruth on the all-time home run career list, as he finished his career with 755 long balls.
Despite Barry Bonds ultimately eclipsing the mark in 2007 and finishing his career with 762 home runs, Aaron is still referred to as the true home run king because of allegations surrounding Bonds using performance enhancers throughout his career.
On Aaron’s path to passing Ruth, he received death threats and many vulgar letters from fans that included racial slurs because he was a Black man.
“In fact, I am still somewhat connected with baseball,” Aaron said in an interview with YES Networks after his career. “The commissioner wanted me to still be connected to baseball and try to figure out some way why we’re not having as many minorities. American-minority Blacks playing baseball that we had a few years ago. I don’t have that answer, but I’m going to work on it.”
In 2015, the Hank Aaron Invitational was launched, a program dedicated to developing the skills of high-school-aged players from “diverse backgrounds.” This past summer, Ken Griffey, Jr. lead instruction at the two-week event.
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