Has Baseball Turned Its Back on Blacks? MLB Efforts in the Inner Cities Extend to All Aspects of Community'

Solomon, Jimmie Lee, Ebony

Major League Baseball is the sport of Jackie Robinson. Because of his valor and Branch Rickey's dating example, throughout the 1950s and '60s, the best African-American athletes were playing baseball. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case, and we take the decline of African-American participation seriously.

As we noticed this downward trend, we faced a challenge. Do we accept that other sports are simply cheaper to play? That baseball has become so predominant in Latin America that we don't need to focus on the game domestically? That the game and its players and fans have simply changed? Major League Baseball is not content to concede that African-American players and fans are lost to us. We opt instead to carry on …

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Publication information: Article title: Has Baseball Turned Its Back on Blacks? MLB Efforts in the Inner Cities Extend to All Aspects of Community'. Contributors: Solomon, Jimmie Lee - Author. Magazine title: Ebony. Volume: 62. Issue: 7 Publication date: May 2007. Page number: 176. © 1999 Johnson Publishing Co. COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale Group.

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