Fewer African Americans playing college baseball
Sacramento City College’s Jared James stepped into the batter’s box to face Cosumnes River College’s Josh Pigg during a recent game, an unusual moment for both sophomores.
It was just the third time in two years that James, an African American, faced a pitcher who also is African American. And one of the other times came against Pigg.
“You can’t help but notice,” James said. “It’s a very rare thing, and it’s a funny feeling.”
Much has been made about the decline of African Americans playing major-league baseball, which annually honors Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947. The percentage of African Americans in the major leagues has dwindled from 19 percent in 1986 to 8.2 percent this season, far lower than the 76 percent of NBA players and 66 percent of NFL players who are African American.
The percentage is even lower in college baseball. Only 2.6 percent of NCAA Division I baseball players were African American in a 2011-12 survey by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, down from 6.9 percent in 2002. The same report noted that 57.2 percent of basketball players and 43.2 percent of football players in Division I were African American in 2011-12.
James and Pigg are among nine African Americans who played baseball at Sac City, Cosumnes River, American River, Sierra, Sacramento State and UC Davis this season.
“I really wasn’t aware of how few African Americans were playing until I got here,” said UC Davis second baseman Steven Patterson, one of the Aggies’ two African Americans along with center fielder Kevin Barker. “It’s pretty uncommon, especially in our (Big West) conference. It just motivates Kevin and myself to prove that we can play the game just as well.”
Even on baseball teams at traditional black colleges, African Americans often are in the minority.
Small-college power Winston-Salem in North Carolina, a member of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities with a student population that is 75 percent African American, has a baseball team that is a little more than 25 percent black. Chicago State, which played at Sacramento State earlier this month and has a school undergraduate enrollment that also is 75 percent African American, has five blacks on its 28-man roster.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/05/19/6417049/fewer-african-americans-playing.html#storylink=cpy
