Why are numbers of African-American baseball players declining?

Former Murphy High and South Alabama outfielder Quenton Montgomery: "We're brought up thinking that the way to make it, a lot of times, is strictly through basketball and football." (Chip English/
Mike Herndon | By Mike Herndon |
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on October 06, 2013 at 11:47 AM, updated October 06, 2013 at 12:11 PM

Hank Aaron. Satchel Paige. Willie McCovey. Billy Williams. Cleon Jones. Tommie Agee.

They are recognizable names -- part of the Mobile area's rich history in the sport of baseball. And they are all African-Americans.

But future lists of baseball greats from the area - or any other in the U.S. - likely will  look much different, as African-American participation in the sport has declined sharply in recent years. According to the New York Times, only 8.5 percent of the players on opening-day Major League Baseball rosters were African-Americans. That's compared to 19 percent in 1986, according to the Society for Baseball Research.

Why is the number dropping? It may be because many see a similar decline in the lower levels of the sport, as well.

At Murphy High School in Mobile, one of the biggest high schools in the state and one that carries a relatively balanced racial mix, former baseball coach Bryan Giles estimated that he had 10 black players in his 10 years at the school.

Giles had come to Murphy from Grand Bay and Alma Bryant high schools in south Mobile County, where his teams had enjoyed a better racial mix. His 1997 state championship team at Grand Bay included four black starters - three of which went on to play college baseball. One, Mark Woodyard, briefly played in the major leagues.

Giles attributed part of the reason for this to the difference between rural and urban communities. In rural high schools, students are more likely to play multiple sports - Woodyard, for instance, also played football.

But he also sees the numbers of black baseball players declining across the board, and he's not entirely sure why.

"I wish I knew," he said, adding that it may be as simple as numbers.  "I've often thought: You could get two people and they could go out and throw a football or play one-on-one (basketball), but it took more to play a baseball game."

Quendon Montgomery, one of those 10 African-American athletes who played for Giles at Murphy, said it was indeed easier to play pickup games of football or basketball as a kid than baseball. While a pickup game of football only requires a ball and a few friends, and every YMCA and Boys and Girls Club has a basketball hoop, baseball takes more people and, increasingly, more money for equipment.

"Bats are expensive," Montgomery said, adding that his first bat cost more than $150. "That's a lot of money compared to a basketball you can get for $12 at Wal-mart."

The advent of travel teams, which draw elite young players out of Little League, have also made the sport more expensive, causing New York Mets pitcher LaTroy Hawkins to tell ESPN earlier this year that baseball has become a sport for the rich.

Montgomery added that another reason more black athletes don't play baseball is that many of them don't grow up watching it. The reason they don't watch it, he said, is because there aren't many black players.

"In the Southeast, football is dominant," he said. "We're brought up thinking that the way to make it, a lot of times, is strictly through basketball and football, because the individual talents you have can be shown in those sports. Athleticism is shown more in sports like basketball and football."

Basketball and football are fast games. Baseball is slow. Basketball and football place a premium on athleticism, which is glorified in shoe advertisements and ESPN highlights. Baseball places a premium on hand-eye coordination and specific skills that are only developed through repetition - hours in the batting cage, hundreds of pitches from the mound.

Because of that, Giles said, kids who don't play baseball at an early age aren't likely to be competitive at it later. 

"Somebody asked if I thought I could take the best athlete in the school as a freshman who had never played baseball (and turn him into a player)," Giles said. "My answer was, I think I could make him a center fielder, but I didn't think he could ever hit. I think you could take that same athlete who never played football and turn him into a football player in four years.

"Hitting a baseball is just so hard. No matter how good an athlete you are, it doesn't help you hit a baseball."

Montgomery said he got into the sport because his father, who played college football at Southern Miss, would not allow him to play football until high school. He started playing coach-pitch at age 5 and by the time he reached high school, he was hooked on baseball.

He went on to play at South Alabama and is now a region manager at Dealers Specialties, a firm that collects data for car dealers. There are other African-American players like him who went on to the higher levels of the sport. Former Theodore outfielder Kentrail Davis and former St. Paul's star Destin Hood - a two-sport athlete who was also an Alabama football signee - are now in the minor leagues. Former Alabama Mr. Baseball Pat White of Daphne was a fourth-round Major League draft pick, but chose to play football at West Virginia instead.

But their numbers are declining. Major League Baseball has soug@ht to revive the sport in underserved areas through its RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) Initiative, which began by establishing a league in Los Angeles in 1989 and has since spread to 200 cities. Montgomery believes they need to do more.

"You see what the golf community is doing, what the PGA is doing - there's a foundation  where they go out into the community, give them equipment, give them lessons - I think something like that is needed," Montgomery said. "If Major League Baseball, in my opinion, gets more involved ... then I think they go somewhere because that's what I really saw in golf."

Of course, golf has Tiger Woods. The most recognizable African-American icons in baseball are retired.

Major League commissioner Bud Selig in April created a 17-member diversity task force to study and address the issue. Meanwhile, the next Hank Aaron may be out there. But odds are, he's a wide receiver or a point guard.