THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Monday, May 05, 2008

Race Report Card

I enjoyed JC’s take.  I haven’t read the linked PDF report, but my initial reaction follows:

JC, good stuff.

Isn’t it possible to look at the overall black pro athlete population and say
a) that it has declined,
b) that a smaller slice of that pie goes to MLB and a larger slice to NFL, NBA

So that the combination of the two results in a cancelling effect for NFL, NBA to make it look like they are unaffected?

Also, MLB has seen a rise in run scoring, resulting in a drop in small ball (meaning stealing bases), and maybe even less reliance on fielding.  And perhaps black ballplayers are disproportionate in these types of ballplayers.  The Vince Colemans et al may simply choose to be a RB or WR.

I will presume the height of the black ballplayer may have been the height of the SB revolution.

Tom

By the way, the number of American players playing MLB in 1969 (24 teams) is the same as today (30 teams).  This is similar to the NHL, where the number of North American born players has held steady at around 400 players over the last 3 decades.