Baseball must find ways to re-attract black youth

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Major League Baseball needs to find ways to address the declining interest in baseball among young blacks, panelists on a round-table discussion associated with this weekend’s Civil Rights Game said Friday.

Speakers, such as Hall of Famer Hank Aaron, said one reason for the declining interest is the expense of the sport, with college athletic scholarships in football and basketball becoming more important to inner-city teens.

But Ken Williams, general manager of the Chicago White Sox, said his worries about minority youths extend beyond sports to the social issues in the country.

“I’m less concerned about young, inner-city, African-American kids playing baseball than I am about the murder rate or the lack of high school diplomas,” Williams said.

The comments came during a forum on Baseball and the Civil Rights Movement held Friday afternoon in advance of Saturday’s 2nd Annual National Civil Rights Game between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Mets.

Friday’s discussions was held at the National Civil Rights Museum, the former Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed 40 years ago. The location was bittersweet for one panelist — the late civil rights leader’s son, Martin Luther King III.

Other panelists included Mets general manager Omar Minaya, Sharon Robinson, the daughter of baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson, and Ambassador Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz.

King said the number of black baseball players continues to decline, standing today at about 9 percent.

“Somehow we must find better ways to bring young people, particularly black Americans, into the sport of baseball,” King said.

Aaron recalled the days of struggle when he broke into baseball — staying in different hotels from white players, being told he needed to find a meal at another restaurant from the rest of the team, the racial slurs from fans.

“I never thought about giving up,” said Aaron, who is second on the all-time home run list after former San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds passed him last season. “I felt like I had a job to do, and I was blessed to be playing professional baseball.

“The players that were coming after me, I had to set an example for them.”

Several times during the discussion, the current presidential campaign involving Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton was used as a backdrop for the discussion.

The country can show today’s youth that its possible for a black man or for a woman to strive for the presidency, panelists said, in the same way that Robinson breaking into baseball provided inspiration for black players.

Williams said society needs to change before baseball will. He noted that a significant number of black men in their 20s and 30s are in jail rather than at home helping their families.

“The struggle is an ongoing struggle,” Sharon Robinson said, “and we must struggle.”

If baseball is to become more attractive to inner-city youths, Minaya said, it will be up to Major League Baseball to lead the effort.

Ideas included more marketing to make baseball interesting to minority youths, funding fields and equipment for those who can’t afford it, and providing leadership opportunities for minorities, such as the levels Minaya and Williams have reached in their general manager roles.

“We have a responsibility in our positions, whether its as general manager or team president or owner, to be open-minded,” Minaya said. “Make sure that door of opportunity is open for those coming behind you.”