Keep baseball dream within reach for all

Fifth of eight parts

Sixty years after Jackie Robinson's desegregation of major-league baseball, African Americans are playing the game at the lowest percentages in decades. The reasons for the decline are multiple and complex, ranging from interest and greater career options to access.

One theory accounting for a small part of the decline is that black American ballplayers now have very little public presence in the black community. Unlike Negro leaguers and early major-leaguers, these men now have the choice and, on the whole, have chosen to live elsewhere. That in itself is a very different discussion that would encompass the choices of successful people of color from all walks of life.

Sure, it's not like NBA or NFL players live in African American neighborhoods. But the media provide multiple exposures to the players in those leagues. Those sports, made more for SportsCenter and video games than radio, are more dominantly a part of black popular culture than baseball, a presence that compensates for the absence of real-world player contact.

I caught the tail end of that neighborhood era with the Dodgers' Willie Davis living around the corner and umpire Emmett Ashford living two doors down from where I grew up in Los Angeles. I could see Willie and his house and say, "I want to be like him." (I had no interest in becoming an umpire.) Even beyond the absence of African Americans in ownership and the small numbers in management, the decline in the number of American-born blacks playing the game seems to have, rightly, fully captured the attention of the leaders of major-league baseball.

Also, while growing up, my brother and I would wait eagerly for the publication of Ebony magazine's spring training feature. In that annual edition, the editors published photos of every black player participating in spring training. By the time the 1980s came around, when the percentage of African Americans in the game was nearing 30 percent, I guess it became impractical for the magazine to continue the annual tabulation. The presence of black players on a team was not so novel, and that issue of the magazine was becoming a phone book. But now, with the percentage of African Americans below 10 percent, Ebony might be well served to start that annual survey anew.

When Jackie Robinson entered major-league baseball, there was nowhere for African American participation to go but up. By the time the 1970s and 1980s came, it was much like black jockeys in the early Kentucky Derby races. Not only were 13 of the 15 jockeys in the inaugural 1875 Derby black, so also was the winner. Then, early in the 1900s, for a variety of reasons, black jockeys disappeared. Certainly, these are different times, and there are different reasons for the decline of African American participation in baseball, but there are lessons to be learned.

The biggest lesson is that the racial face of a given sport has changed dramatically in the past. In 1975, major-league baseball was 28 percent black. Now, barely into this new millennium, we are down to 8 percent.

In addition to reading Ebony, my brother and I grew up playing baseball at Baldwin Plaza Little League. (For those of you who saw the movie Ray, I was actually on the same team with Ray Charles Jr.) Dramatically, like the decline in numbers, the park was shut down. Priorities for this land had changed, and a school with no baseball diamond was constructed on the site. The opportunity to easily play baseball, to walk to a field with organized play, was gone. My brother and I never played organized baseball again. Scenes like ours are replayed over and over again.

Sometimes it's priorities; others neglect. Often, it's finances, but the ball fields continue to be shut down. We began to play football. Others - many others - moved on to basketball.

There is hope for baseball. The sport now has a commendable effort under way to bring American blacks back to the game. One example is the launching of the new Urban Youth Academy in Compton, Calif. How about one in Philadelphia? In this town with Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins, combined with a newly enlightened league, we have a unique opportunity to begin to turn those declining numbers around. But only time and the level of effort extended will tell.

I, for one, want more kids to focus on the opportunities that exist beyond sports. But it is important for those who do have athletic talent and dreams to know about the baseball option. It is a fantastic game and a permanent part of our culture. A positive change in the African American participation numbers will not occur overnight.

But with average salaries at nearly $3 million per year, the baseball dreams should be made accessible to all who have the talent.