Baseball is in need of black players

Jackie Robinson, who became the league’s first African-American player on April 15, 1947 has his number 42 retired by every MLB (Major League Baseball) team. Robinson’s entry to the league led the way to integrated teams and a steady rise in the number of professional black baseball players. However, in recent years, there has been growing concern about the decreasing numbers of black players in the league.

                                
The share of black MLB players reached a high of 18.7% in 1981, According to the Society of Baseball Research. In 2014, 8.3% on opening day rosters were black. Before the most recent decade’s decline, the last time baseball had such a small share of black players was 1958.

As the number of black players has decreased, baseball has seen a rising of white players. In 2012, the percentage of white ballplayers 63.9% increased to levels last seen in 1995, when 64.5% of players were white. Historically, the share of white players has been shrinking since the color barrier was broken, bottoming out at 60.3% in 2004. Since then, the percentage of white players has trended upward. 

Major League Baseball’s racial diversity today roughly mirrors that of the U.S. population. In 2012, whites comprised about the same share of the population (63%) as they did in Major League Baseball, according to the most recent comparable data. By contrast, Hispanics were over represented in baseball, comprising 26.9% of players and 17% of the U.S. population. (When Jackie Robinson debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, less than 1% of players were Latino.)