MLB continues to court/recruit Black players with the Andre Dawson Classic

[El Bombi]

Afro-Latinos took the place of DOAS/FBA.

It is what it is.

 

[get these nets]

Spoiler: The 2022 Champs

 

[imfromthesouthside]

Afro-Latinos took the place of DOAS/FBA.

It is what it is.

Doesn’t have to be we could run that shyt. Sad we quit the sport.

 

[get these nets]

In edition, we also need younger, hipper owners who are intuned with whats going on in the world.

 

[get these nets]

*HBCU, and for ASU the B stands for "Beisbol been berry berry good to me"
*just jokes

 

[jerzboy]

Good . MLB need more blacc players . Easy $

I’m thankful my son likes the sport. I didn’t love it growing up and played 1 season. Now that I’m older, I love it, and as a father I’m glad my son likes it. Plus, career wise, it’s one of the best business decisions when it comes to pro-sports. That and soccer

 

[get these nets]

*Coppin State punched their ticket to the College World Series tourney

 

[get these nets]

Coppin eliminated

 

[MikelArteta]

Beisbul is dying

 

[get these nets]

Beisbul is dying

One of the most popular sports in the Spanish speaking world. The USA grows more Hispanic/Latino in population by the day.
How could baseball be dying?

 

[DJ Paul's Arm]

Haven’t really paid attention to the MLB since Barry bonds retired.

Watching teams intentionally walk him when the bases are loaded was goat status.

 

[feelosofer]

I got to see Ricky Henderson at the very end of his career. Playing for the Newark Bears. He was stealing bases in his mid 40s.

Facts

 

[get these nets]

Baker laments lack of US-born Black players in World Series​

Oct 27, 2022





HOUSTON (AP) — Dusty Baker grew up watching Black stars shine in the World Series, paving his path to a life devoted to baseball.
When he leads the Houston Astros in Game 1 of the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night, the AL and NL champions are expected to play without any U.S.-born Black players for the first time since 1950, shortly after Jackie Robinson broke the Major League Baseball color barrier.
It’s a fact that deeply disturbs the 73-year-old Baker, one of two Black MLB managers, who has spent his entire life either playing or coaching baseball.
“What hurts is that I don’t know how much hope that it gives some of the young African-American kids,” Baker told The Associated Press on Thursday. “Because when I was their age, I had a bunch of guys, (Willie) Mays, (Hank) Aaron, Frank Robinson, Tommy Davis — my hero — Maury Wills, all these guys. We need to do something before we lose them.”
Jackie Robinson debuted in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers and played in the World Series that year. Since then, the 1950 matchup between the New York Yankees and Phillies has been the only World Series without a U.S.-born Black player.
Houston and Philadelphia will announce their 26-man rosters several hours before Game 1 on Friday night at Minute Maid Park, and neither is expected to have a U.S.-born Black player. Michael Brantley, a Black outfielder for Houston, is out for the season because of a shoulder injury.

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“I don’t think that that’s something that baseball should really be proud of,” said Baker, who won a World Series as an outfielder with the Dodgers in 1981 and is seeking his first championship as a manager. “It looks bad. It lets people know that it didn’t take a year or even a decade to get to this point.”
Indeed, the dwindling number of Black MLB players has been an issue for years. Richard Lapchick, director of The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida is the lead author for his group’s annual reports on diversity hiring practices in sports. He said that Black players made up just 7.2% of opening day roster this year, the lowest percentage since study data was first collected in 1991, when 18% of MLB players were Black.
Starting in 1954, when Mays and the New York Giants played against Larry Doby and Cleveland, every single team to reach the World Series had at least one U.S.-born Black player until the 2005 Astros did not.
The Phillies had no Black players on their opening roster this year for the first time since 1959. Roman Quinn, a Black backup outfielder, played 23 games before being released.
Philadelphia power-hitting rookie Darick Hall made his debut in late June and played 41 games — his mother is white and his father is Black and white, and he identifies as multiracial. Hall wasn’t on the Phillies’ roster for any of the first three rounds this postseason and isn’t expected to be on the World Series roster.
Last summer, for the first time in MLB draft history, four of the first five players selected were Black.
All four, along with more than 300 big leaguers including Atlanta’s Michael Harris II, Cincinnati’s Hunter Greene, Pittsburgh’s Ke’Bryan Hayes and Milwaukee’s Devin Williams, took part in MLB diversity-based initiatives such as the MLB Youth Academy, DREAM Series and the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program.
While “very disappointed and discouraged” with the situation this year, Baker hopes the makeup of the top of the most recent draft means this will be the last World Series where U.S.-born Black players aren’t represented.
“There is help on the way,” he said. “You can tell by the number of African-American number one draft choices. The academies are producing players. So hopefully in the near future we won’t have to talk about this anymore or even be in this situation

 

[get these nets]

'Hell yeah' Dusty Baker is bothered by MLB's lack of Black players — and how he's helping HBCUs

Dusty Baker's historic World Series win with Houston Astros showed him a stark reality, one he hopes events like HBCU Classic will one day solve.

www.yahoo.com

* article excerpt 02/17/23

How HBCU Classic was formed​

The HBCU Classic began with Baker's blessing during spring training in 2022, according to MLB.com, and Astros owner Jim Crane, a progressive in diversity, also jumped aboard.

The showcase is important for baseball but especially minorities at HBCUs. Only two players from the Southwestern Athletic Conference were selected in the 2022 MLB Draft, both on the final day, a number that pales compared to bigger Power Five leagues. The SEC, for instance, had 86 players taken in the same draft, and Jackson State hasn't had a player selected since outfielder Bryce Brown in the 15th round of the 2017 draft.

It all makes for a unique opportunity in Houston, with scouts expected to be in attendance.

It is an honor for the kids to have an opportunity to do that play," said JSU coach Omar Johnson, entering his 17th season. "We are excited about it."

Opportunity is the start. Baker shudders at the dwindling numbers of Black players at all levels of baseball, but especially in the majors. While 38% of MLB players were of color on Opening Day rosters last season, only 7.2% of the players were Black, according to The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida.

At the grassroots level, the biggest disparity Baker sees is kids learning and receiving better instructions at a younger age. But he also cites a lack of affordability for parents who can't get off work to meet the demands of rigorous travel-ball schedules. Estimates vary, but the cost to compete in travel leagues can run from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand — or more — depending on the league or showcase circuit.

“We have to make it affordable for young kids to learn the game and travel,” Baker said. “And give them the same opportunities to learn at the same age. The difference is in economics, (so) make it affordable for young people to go to showcases.”

For Baker, the advice he'd give to young Black players today is the same he would give to his son, 24-year-old Darren, a second baseman in the Washington Nationals organization: Be prepared, be on time, be twice as good as anyone else, and persevere.

“You have to have someone in authority that believes in you,” Baker said.

 

[get these nets]

*Announcement in August 2023

2024 MLB game is coming to Rickwood Field in Birmingham​

• Home

MLB at RICKWOOD FIELD​

Rickwood Field, the oldest professional ballpark in the United States and former home of the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues, will be the site of a special Regular Season contest between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants on June 20, 2024.

The Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues called Rickwood Field home from 1924 through 1960. As a teenager, Willie Mays began his professional career with the Black Barons in 1948. He played with them before beginning his legendary MLB career as a member of the New York Giants in 1951. Rickwood Field was the site of the final Negro League World Series game in October 1948, which saw Mays’ Black Barons falling to the Homestead Grays in five games.

MiLB at RICKWOOD FIELD

Montgomery Biscuits vs. Birmingham Barons
A special Minor League Baseball contest, the first such event at Rickwood Field since the last “Rickwood Classic” in 2019, will feature the Montgomery Biscuits and the Birmingham Barons on Tuesday, June 18. The teams will honor the legacy of the Negro Leagues by playing as the Montgomery Grey Sox and Birmingham Black Barons