Terrific piece. I was watching the Game of the Week the day Willie and Bobby ran together at the chain-link fence in Candlestick. Somewhat a scary moment. Your point about travel ball is right down the middle. It's evil in how it segregates. I couldn't have played at that level (for reasons beyond my lack of talent). When I first played Little League at age 9, a bunch of us were grouped on one team so a mother could car-pool us the 7 miles from our small community to the field. Great insights here.
"Blacks make up only 6% of MLB rosters, a trend that isn't reversing". When did we stop counting baseball players whose ancestors originated from the African continent as not being Black? Minnie Minoso (Cuban) & Luis Márquez (Puerto Rican) were Black pioneers in major league baseball. Roberto Clemente (Puerto Rican) was definitely considered Black in my boyhood. The presence of Blacks in baseball is huge - There were 108 players from the Dominican Republic on opening day rosters and inactive lists (Total Pool - 949) at the start of the 2024 season. Now I know that the theme of your article speaks to the decline of Black Americans in baseball at all levels, which has been an issue for decades. And there is no light at the end of the tunnel for the reasons that you stated in your article. On an editorial note, you meant to write "Bobby Bonds" at the beginning of your article.
Terrific piece. I was watching the Game of the Week the day Willie and Bobby ran together at the chain-link fence in Candlestick. Somewhat a scary moment. Your point about travel ball is right down the middle. It's evil in how it segregates. I couldn't have played at that level (for reasons beyond my lack of talent). When I first played Little League at age 9, a bunch of us were grouped on one team so a mother could car-pool us the 7 miles from our small community to the field. Great insights here.
"Blacks make up only 6% of MLB rosters, a trend that isn't reversing". When did we stop counting baseball players whose ancestors originated from the African continent as not being Black? Minnie Minoso (Cuban) & Luis Márquez (Puerto Rican) were Black pioneers in major league baseball. Roberto Clemente (Puerto Rican) was definitely considered Black in my boyhood. The presence of Blacks in baseball is huge - There were 108 players from the Dominican Republic on opening day rosters and inactive lists (Total Pool - 949) at the start of the 2024 season. Now I know that the theme of your article speaks to the decline of Black Americans in baseball at all levels, which has been an issue for decades. And there is no light at the end of the tunnel for the reasons that you stated in your article. On an editorial note, you meant to write "Bobby Bonds" at the beginning of your article.
The Bobby/Barry typo has been corrected.
Excellent! Thx