Major League Baseball has a diversity problem, experts say. This year’s World Series is proof

most black people just aren’t into baseball…it is what it is

I didn’t play it or watch it growing up, and when I try to watch it, I often find it boring AF

I played basketball and still do…I played football…they are just more fun and action packed

Astros just played an 18 inning game and the final score was 1-0

 

“It’s not as fun,” Otero said, adding that a rock might fly up and hit a player in the face because of the field’s abysmal state.
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Not everything "needs to be fixed" with more black participation.

I want to see the reactions of Latam players reading this race bait article..."too expensive"..."not fun"

If anything, kind of reveals the joke of throwing a kitchen sink of excuses for diversity problems without getting to the core of actually improving them.

 

There's been talk of the lack of African Americans in MLB for years. This was a topic back when the Stros went to the WS in 2005 as that team didn't have any African Americans either.

As the article notes MLB is trying to address but I'm many fo the problems cited in the article isn't just MLB's fault. Football fields are expensive to build and maintain and football requires even more equipment to play than baseball. Yet there are still plenty of Afrlican Americans playing football. I think this really is a matter of culture that a lot of not just young African Americans but a lot of many young Americans aren't as interested in baseball as they were before.

 

Baseball's a really inefficient sport from a land use perspective - giant grass field that can't really be used for anything else, not really even soccer past the tot soccer level. At least a football field can double as a soccer/lacrosse/whatever field.

Just seems dumb to devote sparse urban green spaces to mostly empty grass fields in general. Housing, etc seems like a much bigger need and things like basketball, pickleball, playgrounds take up less room and cost less to maintain.

 

Regarding the specific example cited in the story since it's from Minnesota:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/02/us/world-series-mlb-black-players-youth-league-reaj/index.html
DJ Otero lives in Rosemount which is an outer ring suburb SE of the St. Paul. It's not surprising he's the only black player on his team because the area has very little racial diversity. From what I know of Rosemount it wouldn't surprise me if there were more Hmong living there than African Americans. Where I live in Minneapolis the Philipps neighborhood is nearyby which has one of the largest black populations in the Minnesota (along with Native American, Somali and Latino). There are several baseball / softball fields in and very near that neighborhood. They aren't as well maintained as some of the better off suburbs but the same goes for the basketball courts in those parks also.

 

Its really pretty simple blacks in america don't have as much acces do to monetary reasons and logistics can't afford equipment and the schools they frequent can't afford a team, and it takes too long to get the big money and it's freaking hard to get to the MLB and then harder to get that big money.

It will probably get worse when it comes to the great athlete because kids these days don't have any patience.

 

while the NFL and NBA have done a great job to promote its product, MLB has been the opposite.
to say that the mlb has done a horrible job pomoting baseball would be an understatement.

eg,

in the LA area, the 2nd largest TV market, most can't get the broadcast of the local mlb team on TV.
when Magic Johnson bought a minority interest in the Dodgers, he said that he'd fix this stupidity.
10+yrs later, the stupidity continues
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Most?

I would like to actually see those numbers.

I don't see how they could pass up a lot of that market with advertising, it would seem they are using the fact it's not carried on the airwaves.

I could be wrong.

 

How can MLB promote itself as an appealing or entertaining option for the youth?

 

Isn’t American participation in general significantly down? The sport isn’t fun so our top talent is going to basketball/football. Meanwhile it’s still super popular in Latin America so their top talent is playing the sport.

 

Michael Jordan played baseball and rocked a Hitler stash -- that's diversity.

#Progress

 

It's not about money. Baseball isn't as popular in urban settings, particularly with black kids, as basketball and football. Not even close to the same popularity.

It's not because baseball is anti-black or minority. Baseball is huge in Latin America and as such, by no coincidence, players from Latin America or of Latin descent make up a big chunk of most teams.

 

I think the cost of playing baseball is very overblown. Football takes up space and to field an actual team with helmets and pads is more expensive than to field a baseball team. Also if costs are such an issue with baseball why are countries that are much poorer than the US like Venezuala and DR producing so many baseball players.

I think this just comes down to culture. Our culture likes things that are fast paced, flashier and produce more scoring. Baseball frequently can be plodding and requires a lot of patience. It's one of the problems that Soccer has in the US.

 

yes, money and access are a just a small part of the equation…it’s just not a popular sport for black youth

most black kids probably aren’t thinking “I’d be playing baseball if I had more money”…if they had more money, they’d just be playing basketball in better conditions or buying nicer football/basketball gear

 

Astros are involved with some Urban youth baseball academies for a number of years now. Most notably, one in Acres Homes.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/ne...my-connects-children-of-color-to-12477715.php

 

What age are you?

I think you might have been that age when things started changing how old are you?

That's when Scenic woods and Tidwell were a 'middle class" and those parks reflected that those parks went downhill quick.

I grew up with my cousins in that area around 83 to 85 they went to Forest Brook.

 

That's my point one baseball academy when you got football and baseball camps all over the place.

 

This is the kind of race baiting nonsense that we do not need. Now if there was some sort of proof where teams specifically were leaving out well qualified players due to their race then that would be an issue.

So can we address this the opposite and say there are not enough Asians in baseball? How about middleasterns? This is so ridiculous.