Jackie Robinson Broke the Color Line, Professional Baseball Rebuilt It
Today is Jackie Robinson Day in Major League Baseball. The number 42 is retired across the league, but on this day, every player will wear it in honor of the man who integrated the big leagues.
The day may feel like a celebration of progress, but the game Robinson integrated does not look the way it once did. The number of Black American players is not just low. Their presence in the game is nearly nonexistent. This is the tension at the center of the celebration that happens every April 15th. They honor the man who broke the color line while ignoring how the sport quietly rebuilt it in new ways.
In the 1970s, Black players made up roughly a quarter of Major League Baseball rosters. Through the 1980s, that number remained strong, often nearing 18 to 20 percent. Then the decline began. In the early 2000s, Black players represented around 12 to 13 percent of Major League Baseball rosters, but by the 2010s, it had fallen below 10 percent. Today, it sits around 6 to 7 percent.
This is no small shift. More than football and comparable to basketball, baseball was the sport of our community for decades. There was a time when Black folks would put on their Sunday best and watch Negro League baseball games. As these numbers show, something deeper than kids simply choosing football or basketball has happened. When Adam Jones called baseball a “white man’s sport” in 2016, he was called a racist. But he wasn’t talking about who can play it, but about who the system is built to include, support, and sustain.
Playing baseball is expensive. To put it bluntly, it has become a pay-to-play system.
If you want to play the best teams, that means you have to participate in travel ball. (A year- round, elite youth baseball system where teams travel to tournaments and showcases). That alone can cost families between $1,000 and $3,000 a year. And if your team is one of the best, that price can skyrocket to $5,000 to $6,000.
Then there is equipment. To play the game, you need, at a minimum, a ball, a glove, and a bat. A glove can cost $200 if you want a high-quality one, and if you want a good bat, it can cost more than $300. And then there are the $50 to $100 lessons needed to learn how to swing that thing.
All told, a family can end up spending $7,000 to $10,000 a year for their kid to play baseball. Compare that to basketball, where a ball and a hoop can get you started, or football, where school programs cover most costs.
Baseball is not just more expensive. It demands a level of access that precludes many kids from our community.
Fixing this will take more than symbolic celebrations of integration. Major League Baseball has to invest real money in Black communities by funding local leagues and covering the cost of travel ball and equipment. And though they have pledged to do much of this, they have yet to follow through in any meaningful way.
Jackie Robinson Day asks us to remember what courage looked like in the past. It should also force us to confront what exclusion looks like today. Until the game looks more like the communities that once sustained it, the celebration will always feel incomplete. Like rounding third and getting thrown out at home.
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