NEW YORK (AP) — According to Darryl Strawberry, Major League Baseball should concentrate on fostering and promoting the sport within urban areas so as to significantly increase the number of African American athletes.
“They have academies everywhere else, but they don’t have the attraction for what inner cities are all about,” Strawberry said Thursday at Citi Field prior to what the New York Mets marketed as their “Black Legacy Game” against the St. Louis Cardinals. “That’s where we played — me and Eric Davis, Chris Brown, all of us came from the inner city and inner city baseball was organized.”
Strawberry, Davis, and Brown all hail from the Los Angeles region and began their major league careers in 1983 and 1984.
“They don’t have them anymore. Those parks have been shut down. Now they’re used as soccer fields instead of being baseball fields,” Strawberrie stated.
African American athletes made up 6.2% of the opening-day rosters this season—up slightly from 6% last season but down by 18% since 1991 when The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida initiated their yearly examination.
The MLB has tried to spark interest among African American high school students through the DREAM Series, organized alongside USA Baseball. This series started in 2017, with notable attendee Hunter Greene, who is now the star pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds.
Strawberry suggested that the MLB needs to boost its marketing efforts to draw more Black athletes who might typically choose basketball or football instead. His two sons, D.J., who scored over 1,000 points at Maryland, and Jordan, with similar achievements at Mercer, exemplify this trend. Jordan Strawberry joined his dad at Citi Field.
“Young African-American children tend to shun baseball because it isn’t promoted as much as basketball,” Darryl Strawberry stated. “Basketball showcases its players, promotes their jerseys, and advertises their sneakers, which is what draws kids in.”
My son Jordan is here with me. He spent his childhood playing basketball. He also excelled as a baseball player. I often wonder what would have happened if he had continued with a bat in hand. Basketball’s promotional allure is incredibly strong and tends to attract many athletes towards it. Therefore, making the sport appealing is essential for drawing more players.
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