Quote:Major League Baseball, alarmed by its historic low 7.7 % of African-American players on opening-day rosters this season, will announce the creation of a formal task force Wednesday to help reverse the decline, three MLB executives told USA TODAY Sports.

The executives spoke on the condition of anonymity because Commissioner Bud Selig has yet to announce it.

The 17-member committee will consist of owners, executives and coaches, including Hall of Famer Frank Robinson, Chicago White Sox vice president Kenny Williams, Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg and Southern University baseball coach Roger Cador.

Selig is urging them to find ways to increase the pipeline of diverse athletes to baseball, particularly African-Americans.

The African-American percentage in baseball this season is the lowest since the Boston Red Sox became the final team to integrate its roster in 1959, according to a USA TODAY Sports study that includes major-league players on the opening-day disabled lists. It's a drop from 8.05% last season, a dramatic decline from 1995 when 19% of the rosters were African-American players, and far from the peak of 27% in 1975.

"I never thought I'd see anything like this,'' Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan told USA TODAY Sports in a telephone interview from Los Angeles on Tuesday. "But I've seen it coming. There, for a long time, there were a lot of African-American players to look up to and emulate, but there's not enough big stars now to dissuade them from basketball and football.''

While Hollywood celebrated the premiere of "42'' Tuesday night, the story of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier in 1947, four teams opened the season without a single African-American player on the opening-day roster - the St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers. The Giants, who have won two of the last three World Series championships, did not have a single African-American player in their major-league camp. There are 18 teams who have two or fewer African-American players, with the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees accounting for nearly 17% of the African-American population in baseball.

"I'm not sure there's a way to stem the tide,'' said Morgan, Cincinnati Reds senior adviser. "There has to be more involvement to attract athletes to come here. Let's hope this committee will help. There's no doubt the movie will open eyes, but after that, let's wait.''

Major League Baseball launched its RBI program (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) in 1989 and has built four urban academies with three others being developed. MLB rosters are comprised of 28.2% foreign-born players - the fourth-largest total in baseball history - but still struggle to attract many of the best athletes in the United States.

There were seven African-American players selected in the first round of last year's June draft, the most since 1992.

One factor that could reverse the trend in the long term: Concern over head injuries in football. Tuesday, a class-action lawsuit was brought forward by about 4,200 former NFL players in federal court alleging negligence and fraud in handling concussion-linked injuries.

"You look at those kind of things, and that's why I talk to guys trying to get them to play baseball,'' said Reds outfielder Derrick Robinson, 25, who spurned a football scholarship in 2006 to play alongside Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin at the University of Florida. "Some of them say it's boring, but hey, I love it. It's so much better on the body and for longevity.

"Besides, you look at this game now, and it's changing. The game's being revolutionized now with speed and defense. We need all of the great athletes we can get.''

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Quote:Major League Baseball revealed some interesting data in its Player Diversity Report, released Nov. 13. Big-league 40-man rosters were 62 percent Caucasian, 28 percent Hispanic, 8 percent African-American, and 1 percent Asian.

(04-17-2014 09:12 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  It's not an everyman's game in the US anymore. If you want to play baseball that's good enough for scouts to attend, you're going to have to be in some expensive travel leagues from little league on up. Even poorer white kids aren't in the game any more. It's getting sort of like hockey and soccer in that regard. Now soccer's trying to get out of that funk but baseball's going right in it.

The game isn't learned and played for fun on a sandlot, empty spot in the road, some field, or anywhere like that anymore. It is played on some well-manicured field that costs a lot to reserve. The game is sanitized. Basketball and football are readily available for free and everyone can come out there and play...if they can ball.

What baseball also lacks is personality. Eccentric characters like Rickey Henderson are gone. Smug guys you hate like Barry Bonds are gone.

Now amongst Latins it is popular because it's the game you play in the streets and they have really big personalities playing the game. Who, white or black, in the game could you consider larger than life right now?

I'll just wait for my black NASCAR winner. That dude would be in for some money!

(04-17-2014 09:18 PM)THE NC Herd Fan Wrote:  

(04-17-2014 09:12 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  It's not an everyman's game in the US anymore. If you want to play baseball that's good enough for scouts to attend, you're going to have to be in some expensive travel leagues from little league on up. Even poorer white kids aren't in the game any more. It's getting sort of like hockey and soccer in that regard. Now soccer's trying to get out of that funk but baseball's going right in it.

The game isn't learned and played for fun on a sandlot, empty spot in the road, some field, or anywhere like that anymore. It is played on some well-manicured field that costs a lot to reserve. The game is sanitized. Basketball and football are readily available for free and everyone can come out there and play...if they can ball.

What baseball also lacks is personality. Eccentric characters like Rickey Henderson are gone. Smug guys you hate like Barry Bonds are gone.

Now amongst Latins it is popular because it's the game you play in the streets and they have really big personalities playing the game. Who, white or black, in the game could you consider larger than life right now?

I'll just wait for my black NASCAR winner. That dude would be in for some money!

My son played club soccer made it to premier level, but I came to the realization that most D1 players come from the Academy level which is extremely expensive and players give up all varsity sports to play at that level. Very few D1 soccer players are selected if all they play is varsity for their school team.

(04-17-2014 09:12 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  It's not an everyman's game in the US anymore. If you want to play baseball that's good enough for scouts to attend, you're going to have to be in some expensive travel leagues from little league on up. Even poorer white kids aren't in the game any more. It's getting sort of like hockey and soccer in that regard. Now soccer's trying to get out of that funk but baseball's going right in it.

The game isn't learned and played for fun on a sandlot, empty spot in the road, some field, or anywhere like that anymore. It is played on some well-manicured field that costs a lot to reserve. The game is sanitized. Basketball and football are readily available for free and everyone can come out there and play...if they can ball.

What baseball also lacks is personality. Eccentric characters like Rickey Henderson are gone. Smug guys you hate like Barry Bonds are gone.

Now amongst Latins it is popular because it's the game you play in the streets and they have really big personalities playing the game. Who, white or black, in the game could you consider larger than life right now?

I'll just wait for my black NASCAR winner. That dude would be in for some money!

(04-17-2014 09:24 PM)Fo Shizzle Wrote:  

(04-17-2014 09:12 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  It's not an everyman's game in the US anymore. If you want to play baseball that's good enough for scouts to attend, you're going to have to be in some expensive travel leagues from little league on up. Even poorer white kids aren't in the game any more. It's getting sort of like hockey and soccer in that regard. Now soccer's trying to get out of that funk but baseball's going right in it.

The game isn't learned and played for fun on a sandlot, empty spot in the road, some field, or anywhere like that anymore. It is played on some well-manicured field that costs a lot to reserve. The game is sanitized. Basketball and football are readily available for free and everyone can come out there and play...if they can ball.

What baseball also lacks is personality. Eccentric characters like Rickey Henderson are gone. Smug guys you hate like Barry Bonds are gone.

Now amongst Latins it is popular because it's the game you play in the streets and they have really big personalities playing the game. Who, white or black, in the game could you consider larger than life right now?

I'll just wait for my black NASCAR winner. That dude would be in for some money!

From my experience with travel baseball...If you have talent?...someone will pay your way...regardless of your race or background. That is just what I observe here in my area. I can't speak beyond that. What I see is that there are just not that many black kids that come out to play in the first place. Another problem is "parental help". Very few kids become good at baseball without a Dad that works with them. Unfortunately that is lacking in the black community. Baseball takes a ton of teaching in regard to fundamentals to be skilled. Id say soccer is that way also.

(04-17-2014 09:24 PM)Fo Shizzle Wrote:  

(04-17-2014 09:12 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  It's not an everyman's game in the US anymore. If you want to play baseball that's good enough for scouts to attend, you're going to have to be in some expensive travel leagues from little league on up. Even poorer white kids aren't in the game any more. It's getting sort of like hockey and soccer in that regard. Now soccer's trying to get out of that funk but baseball's going right in it.

The game isn't learned and played for fun on a sandlot, empty spot in the road, some field, or anywhere like that anymore. It is played on some well-manicured field that costs a lot to reserve. The game is sanitized. Basketball and football are readily available for free and everyone can come out there and play...if they can ball.

What baseball also lacks is personality. Eccentric characters like Rickey Henderson are gone. Smug guys you hate like Barry Bonds are gone.

Now amongst Latins it is popular because it's the game you play in the streets and they have really big personalities playing the game. Who, white or black, in the game could you consider larger than life right now?

I'll just wait for my black NASCAR winner. That dude would be in for some money!

From my experience with travel baseball...If you have talent?...someone will pay your way...regardless of your race or background. That is just what I observe here in my area. I can't speak beyond that. What I see is that there are just not that many black kids that come out to play in the first place. Another problem is "parental help". Very few kids become good at baseball without a Dad that works with them. Unfortunately that is lacking in the black community. Baseball takes a ton of teaching in regard to fundamentals to be skilled. Id say soccer is that way also.

(04-17-2014 09:31 PM)THE NC Herd Fan Wrote:  

(04-17-2014 09:24 PM)Fo Shizzle Wrote:  

(04-17-2014 09:12 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  It's not an everyman's game in the US anymore. If you want to play baseball that's good enough for scouts to attend, you're going to have to be in some expensive travel leagues from little league on up. Even poorer white kids aren't in the game any more. It's getting sort of like hockey and soccer in that regard. Now soccer's trying to get out of that funk but baseball's going right in it.

The game isn't learned and played for fun on a sandlot, empty spot in the road, some field, or anywhere like that anymore. It is played on some well-manicured field that costs a lot to reserve. The game is sanitized. Basketball and football are readily available for free and everyone can come out there and play...if they can ball.

What baseball also lacks is personality. Eccentric characters like Rickey Henderson are gone. Smug guys you hate like Barry Bonds are gone.

Now amongst Latins it is popular because it's the game you play in the streets and they have really big personalities playing the game. Who, white or black, in the game could you consider larger than life right now?

I'll just wait for my black NASCAR winner. That dude would be in for some money!

From my experience with travel baseball...If you have talent?...someone will pay your way...regardless of your race or background. That is just what I observe here in my area. I can't speak beyond that. What I see is that there are just not that many black kids that come out to play in the first place. Another problem is "parental help". Very few kids become good at baseball without a Dad that works with them. Unfortunately that is lacking in the black community. Baseball takes a ton of teaching in regard to fundamentals to be skilled. Id say soccer is that way also.

Baseball is kind of a dying sport at the youth level. Soccer has really started to pull away a lot of kids that would likely have played baseball.

As for soccer, most of the minority players are Hispanic, from what I can tell, and their parents are very involved. Last year my son was one of two non-Hispanic players on his team. All parents were very involved in helping support the team.

The reason travel baseball teams and club soccer are so expensive is so they can provide fully paid spots to about 1/3 of the players on the roster.

(04-17-2014 09:12 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  It's not an everyman's game in the US anymore. If you want to play baseball that's good enough for scouts to attend, you're going to have to be in some expensive travel leagues from little league on up. Even poorer white kids aren't in the game any more. It's getting sort of like hockey and soccer in that regard. Now soccer's trying to get out of that funk but baseball's going right in it.