Baseball’s racial disparity continues, from Little League to the majors – Chicago Tribune

But citing basketball as the reason for a decline is just scratching the surface.

Youth sports participation is down among almost all games and all races, according to a Wall Street Journal article . From 2000-2013, baseball took the biggest hit, falling from 8.8 million players aged 7 to 17 to 5.3 million, a decrease of almost 40 percent.

Economics also play a significant role when examining African-American youth participation in low-income neighborhoods in cities like Chicago. And the price to play baseball has never been higher.

“I think the cost of the game (caused a) decline,” Collier said. “It’s pay to play. The kids couldn’t afford it. The scouts are looking for more polished players. Kids in the inner city were not getting resources or trained the way scouts were looking for.”

Travel teams can cost anywhere from $1,000-$2,000 per season. To play in high-profile showcases, where pro scouts often will check out players, there are sometimes fees of at least $100 or as much as $500. To keep up with the cream of the crop, extra training is necessary with private pitching or hitting coaches outside of team practices, running a player at least $40 a pop once or twice a week.

A quality baseball glove can cost up to $100 or more, aluminum bats run into the hundreds of dollars and name-brand cleats start around $150.

“We haven’t even mentioned gas, hotels, and going to the tournaments, days off of work,” said Ryan Robinson, a coach at Simeon High who also coaches a youth travel team in Chicago. “Parents are all out of vacation by the time summer is over.”

George Harris’ son James, 14, plays with ACE, which covers almost all costs. But on other travel teams the expenses added up quickly.

“Everyone (on the team) contributes toward paying tournaments,” he said. “Tournaments are like $500-$600 (each). April, May, June, July, you’re talking about 13-14 tournaments. That’s a chunk of change.”

NCAA baseball scholarships at the Division I level are capped at 11.7, which means that few players receive full scholarships. Basketball and football – large revenue sports for colleges – grant most players full rides.

That doesn’t bode well for talented players who have MLB dreams but don’t have finances to pay for college. According to USA Today, 55 percent of first-round selections were high school players followed by 45 percent in 2013 and 35 percent in 2015. That was the lowest percentage since 2008.

The sharp decline of black players and simultaneous rise of white players at Historically Black Colleges and Universities is also telling.

In the Southwestern Athletic Conference, for instance, black baseball player participation rates dropped from 86.5 percent in the 1999-2000 season to 45.2 percent in the 2014 season, according to The Undefeated. Meanwhile, white players increased from 3.3 percent to 27.2 percent, and Hispanic players rose from 2.6 percent to 23.1 percent. Similarly in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, black players dropped from 59 percent in 1999-2000 to 31.1 percent in 2014-2015 as white players increased from 24.7 percent to 50.2 percent.

Overall in college baseball, white athletes made up 83.3 percent of players in 2014-15 while African-Americans made up just 2.9 percent and Latinos another 5.8 percent, according to the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.

McKinney had athletic scholarship offers from Division I universities such as Michigan, he said, but they were only partial scholarships and his family couldn’t afford the remaining multi-thousand dollar price to attend. He decided to instead take a full-ride offer from Chicago State.

“I first got in contact with Michigan my sophomore year of high school,” said McKinney, a pitcher and first baseman. “I was at a showcase and I played really good. But what they were offering, I would still be paying a great amount of pocket. So that was out the door.”

Major League Baseball is making efforts to make baseball more diverse again, too.

ACE, which was created in 2007 by the White Sox, has produced stellar talent as the program has increased in popularity on the South Side, sending 122 players to colleges with scholarships and seeing another 18 drafted.

It’s one of several MLB initiatives and programs meant to inspire young black players from cities to gravitate toward the game and break down barriers that keep them out of it. Most of the programs are free or at a comparatively low cost.

Every big league club supports a Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) team, which has served about two million youth players since 1989. The Urban Youth Academy started about a decade ago in Compton, Calif., and now is in six cities, offering free-year round instruction and league play as well as mentorship.

“We are making an effort to reach out to young people, not only to African-Americans, getting them engaged in our game,” said Tony Reagins, the former Angels general manager who currently works as the league’s senior vice president for youth programs. “We’re giving kids an opportunity to touch the game. What we’re trying to do is make sure they have an ability to participate and eliminate the economic barriers.”

There are hints of a change in baseball’s demographics once again.

Twelve of the 77 players, or 15.5 percent, picked on the first day of the MLB draft in June were African-Americans. Last year, black players made up 25 percent of first-round picks (9 of 36), which was the highest percentage since 1992.

Corey Ray, a Simeon graduate who played in the ACE program and went on to compete at Louisville, was the No. 5 pick in this year’s draft by the Brewers to become the highest pick out of Chicago since 1989.

“People hear you’re from the South Side of Chicago and the first thing they say is, ‘Oh, that’s tough,’ or ‘Oh, there’s a lot of crime,’ or ‘How did you get out?'” Ray said. “I’m showing I’m from the South Side of Chicago and there is some positivity going on there. It’s great to be a first-rounder but I expected to be in (pro) baseball with all the help I got. I knew one of us would do it.”

Like the success of the 2015 Jackie Robinson West Little League national championship (later vacated), Ray’s ascent has inspired black youth to feel connected to baseball and want to play, some coaches said.