[Baseball] Fences

With the many baseball references in Fences, I decided to write about African Americans and Baseball for this blog. Early in the first act Troy Bono and Rose discuss baseball and race. This leads me to the Major leagues today, and the question of why the percentage of African Americans in MLB is so much less than in the NFL and NBA. In 1975 the number was 27 percent, and by 1995 it had dropped to about 19 percent. However over the past decade and a half the number had fallen even more, with just 9.5 percent of Players on 2010 opening day rosters African American. There are many theories for this decline, but one of the easiest to identify is college athletics. College baseball is much less of a moneymaker compared to Football and Basketball, so the number of full scholarships is significantly lower. Also compared to football the number of total roster spots is less than half. The SEC conference shows some scary numbers, as states with African American populations as high as 36%(Mississippi) only one of the 13 schools had as many as 4 African Americans on the 2006 roster (Tennessee), with 2 schools (Mississippi and Mississippi state) having non on the Roster. The fact that none of these schools had any African American Coaches on staff in 2006 might explain some of the numbers, as recruiting in such a big factor. But when it comes to money at the next level, the top NCAA football and Basketball players are essentially guaranteed both money and fame after college. Baseball is a much longer road to the Majors, with most MLB players spending at least a few years in the minors before making it to the majors, if they do at all.