AP Photo
Major League Baseball, celebrating Jackie Robinson Day on Sunday, has the lowest percentage of African-American players since the earliest days of the sport's integration, according to research conducted by USA TODAY Sports.
The African-American population in baseball this season has plummeted to 8.05%, less than half the 17.25% in 1959 when the Boston Red Sox became the last team to integrate their roster, 12 years after Robinson broke baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
It's a dramatic decline from 1975, when 27% of rosters were African-American. In 1995, the percentage was 19%.
"Baseball likes to say things are getting better," says former 20-game winner and front office executive...
On a day honoring arguably the greatest third baseman of all time — legendary Orioles Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson — the rookie phenom now patrolling the hot corner for Baltimore showed what he could do.Twenty-year-old... more »
TORONTO — When the Yankees loaded the bases with nobody out in the first inning Saturday, it looked as if they might cruise to an easy victory and then sit back over dinner and wait for the result from Texas. A... more »
Players come and go this year, or they change positions or roles, but one thing the A's never vary is their flair for the dramatic. With Oakland down by two in the ninth and showing little offensive oomph all day, third... more »
Email
Print
Share