Major diversity issues in MLB

There were 76 players either selected by fans or players, appointed by managers or chosen to replace injured players for the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Cincinnati.

Of those 76 players, eight are black. To put that in perspective, in 1971 the National League All-Stars had five black starters. They were Hank Aaron, Dock Ellis, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Willie Stargell. Eleven of the NL’s 29 players were black.

The ’71 American League All-Stars had six black players and three starters – Vida Blue, Rod Carew and Frank Robinson.

There were five black players on the 2015 American League All-Star roster: Chris Archer, Lorenzo Cain, Prince Fielder, Adam Jones and David Price. The three black NL All-Stars were Dee Gordon (injured), Andrew McCutcheon and Justin Upton.

When compared to the percentage of African Americans in the United States (13.2 percent), the 11 percent on All-Star rosters signals under-representation of black players. What is really disturbing is that USA TODAY reported African Americans represented just 7.8 percent of the 868 players on 2015 opening day rosters and disabled lists.

It should be noted that the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) came up with a higher number – 8.3 percent. Its percentage is based on “players who identify themselves as black.”

The St. Louis Cardinals had one black player – Jason Heyward – on its opening day roster. Xavier Scruggs is on the 40-man roster and has spent time in the Majors, but is currently not on the Cardinals 25-man roster. Tommy Pham is a Vietnamese American.

The last time MLB had such a low number of opening day African-American players was 1958, according to SABR.

SABR statistics concluded that 1981 was the high-water mark for black Major League Baseball players at 18.7 percent.

Richard Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of Central Florida, presents an annual report card on racial and gender equality. This year, MLB received an A for racial hiring practices, a C+/C for gender hiring practices and a B overall grade.

Obviously, most hiring and employment for teams does not include players.

“Although the total percentage of players of color has steadily risen over the years, there has been a concern in Major League Baseball about the relatively small and declining percentage of African-American players,” Lapchick wrote in his report. “The concern is shared by leaders in the African-American community and all groups supporting diversity and inclusion.”

Commissioner Rob Manfred said on April 15, Jackie Robinson Day, he expects the game’s number of black players to increase in the near future.

“You’ve got to go through a couple of (draft) cycles until you see any improvement,” he told USA TODAY. “It took us awhile to get to where we find ourselves. And quite frankly, it might have come faster than we had hoped.”

Eighteen African Americans were selected in the first round of the June amateur draft since 2012. Seven African Americans were drafted in the first round in2013, the highest number since 1992.

Managerial and coaching jobs held by minorities dipped this year, something that concerns Lapchick.

“There was a decrease in the percentage of people of color as managers, coaches, team senior administrators, and in the League Office. … There was an increase in the percentage of people of color in the team professional administrator positions and in the general manager position,” Lapchick wrote.

“All changes were small except in the manager position, where there was a 10 percentage point drop and the position of coaches, where there was a 4.2 percentage point drop. The percent of people of color as team vice presidents remained the same from the 2014 report.”

MLB began the season with one black manager, Lloyd McClendon. His Seattle Mariners were picked by many pundits to reach the postseason and have been one of the year’s biggest disappointments. MLB could find itself with no black managers later this year if McClendon’s team doesn’t get its act together.