Jackie Robinson Day is April 15, and, in its annual tradition, Major League Baseball will pat itself on the back for allowing a Black man to don a uniform.
Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers 75 years ago on April 15, 1947. While there was constant growth of Black participation in baseball from that day until the early 1990s, today’s game sees a glaring absence of African Americans. This isn’t just on the field. It’s in managerial and coaching offices, front offices, and the stands.
It’s a low tide for player inclusion in Major League Baseball and all the platitudes and self-serving speeches headed our way on Friday will not change the situation.
USA TODAY and the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) choose April 15 to release respective reports on the number of Black players on MLB Opening Day rosters.
Black players made up just 7.6% of 2021 Opening Day rosters in MLB, down from 18.7% in 1981, according to SABR.
The 2022 numbers weren’t available for this edition. Unless there are two dozen or more Black players out there that I’m not aware of the analysis will conclude that too few African Americans are in the Majors.
The baseball talking heads and beat writers will say “it’s bad,” and then refuse to acknowledge that racism still plays a role.
You’ll hear lack of equipment, lack of playing fields, lack of Black interest compared to football and basketball, lack of this and lack of that.
What you will not hear is that too many owners, general managers, and fans could care less about the number of Black players. They will praise Jackie Robinson, call him a great man, then joyfully cheer for a franchise that has one, two, even no Black players.
FORBES reported last week that the Philadelphia Phillies did not have a Black player on its 25-man season opening roster for the first time since 1959, 12 years after Robinson broke the so-called “color barrier.”
It will also be the first Phillies team without a starting Black player since 1984.
All players and on-field staff will wear Robinson’s No. 42 in Dodgers blue on April 15, and an MLB video celebrating “Jackie’s legacy as a Hall of Fame and trailblazing player, social justice advocate, civil rights icon and pioneer in business and broadcasting” will part of pregame festivities. The St. Louis Cardinals will be sporting theirs in a road game at Milwaukee.
Note the use of “Jackie” by broadcasters on April 15. I never use just his first name. It now seems acceptable when it is disrespectful. Few people in baseball ever met Robinson. Yet they feel they can call him by his first name only.
You can’t have a self-serving event without a self-serving logo and MLB will display a 75th Anniversary patch “that shows an unmistakable illustration of Jackie Robinson and his impending swing in minimal form.”
Don’t get me wrong; Robinson deserves all honors for being a first and being one of baseball’s greatest all-time players.
But all the Robinson acknowledgments do not earn MLB a free pass for its past – and current – attitude about race, players, and staff.
The Reid Roundup
Kansas point guard Dajuan Harris, who hails from Columbia, Missouri, has relatives in the Kirkwood area and several traveled to New Orleans to watch the KU win the national championship…Harris’ Columbia Rock Bridge team defeated North Carolina guard Caleb Love’s CBC squad 63-59 in the Missouri Class 5 championship on March 16, 2019, in Springfield…The late Frank Robinson became MLB’s first Black manager on April 8, 1975 for the Cleveland Indians. Forty-seven years later, MLB has just two current Black managers, Houston’s Dusty Baker, and the L.A. Dodgers Dave Roberts…A revised edition of the United States Football League kicks off this week and two of its eight head coaches are Black. Former Houston, Texas A&M and Arizona coach Kevin Sumlin leads the Houston Gamblers. Kirby Wilson brings 36 years of coaching experience, including 24 as an NFL assistant coach to the helm of the Pittsburgh Maulers…Don’t be surprised if Jayson Tatum receives a few MVP votes after his finest NBA season which saw him average 26.9 points, 8 rebounds, and 4.4 assists….At 51-31, Tatum’s Boston Celtics finished first in the NBA Atlantic Division and second in the Eastern Conference. Boston opens the playoffs on April 17 and will likely face the Brooklyn Nets in a first-round series.
