NFL
By: Melo Williams
I’m from the era when playing baseball was cool in the Black community. My friends and I played whiffle ball and home run derby in the streets as kids for fun and also played Little League baseball as well. Many of my Black childhood friends had dreams of playing in the Major Leagues. Numerous baseball players from my hometown in Wisconsin have actually been drafted into the Major Leagues. Baseball shared the King of Sports title in my city.
I say all that to say this, the love for baseball has decreased dramatically in the Black community as a whole, so to see that four of the top five overall picks were Black was a happy historic moment for me personally, the Black community, and MLB who has been trying to figure out ways to restore the love for baseball in the Black community.
Jackson Holliday, son of former Major League All-Star and future Hall of Famer Matt Holliday was selected first overall by the Baltimore Orioles. The next four players selected to round off the top five overall draft picks were Black. Druw Jones, also a son of a former major league All-Star and future Hall of Fame inductee as well, Andruw Jones, was selected second overall by the Arizona Diamondbacks, Kumar Rocker was selected third overall by the Texas Rangers, Termarr Johnson was selected fourth overall by my favorite team the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Elijah Green was selected fifth overall by the Washington Nationals in the 2022 Major League Baseball Draft.
MLB has been heavily scrutinized for the major decline and the low numbers of Black athletes not wanting to play baseball anymore. According to a report by The Institue for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida, only 7.2% of the league was Black players at the start of this season. Many former and current Black MLB players attribute poor marketing in the inner cities by Major League Baseball as the main reason for the heavy drop in numbers for Blacks in baseball but that MLB has done a poor job marketing in general for the sport of baseball. I spoke with sports journalist Chris Henderson previously about the low numbers of Blacks in baseball and he said “it’s mind-boggling to see the lack of numbers of Blacks in MLB now compared to what the numbers used to be.” He went on to say that even as a reporter most times he’s the only official Black reporter in the stadium.
The four Black players that were selected in the top five are alumni of the DREAM Series, a diversity-focused development program sponsored by MLB and USA Baseball. Furthermore, six (33%) of the first 18 picks were Black. A total of nine (30%) Black players were selected in the first round, the most by total and percentage since 1992 when 10 of the 28 first-round selections were Black (35.7%) according to a press release by MLB. The other Black players drafted in the first round was Justin Crawford, the son of former MLB All-Star Carl Crawford, who was selected 17th overall by the Philadelphia Phillies, Cam Collier, son of former Major Leaguer Lou Collier, was selected 18th overall by the Cincinnati Reds, Eric Brown Jr. was selected 27th overall by the Milwaukee Brewers, Xavier Isaac selected 29th overall by the Tampa Bay Rays, and Reggie Crawford selected 30th overall by the San Francisco Giants. The report also stated overall 12 players selected in the first round were Black or Latino (40%).
Other notable Black players that were selected included:
*Marquis Grissom Jr. was drafted by the Washington Nationals in the 13th round
*Chipola Junior College pitcher Kenya Huggins was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the fourth round with the 123rd overall pick. Huggins went undrafted in the inaugural MLB Draft Combine in 2021 as a high schooler.
*Grambling State catcher John Garcia was drafted by the Houston Astros with the 583rd overall pick
*Texas Southern University outfielder Johnathon Thomas was selected by the Washington Nationals with the 561st overall pick
It’s interesting to note that almost all of the Black players drafted in the 2022 MLB Draft, I watched their fathers play the game in my childhood or as an adult. Overall kids want to become what they see on television and in their communities. MLB must do a better job promoting the game of baseball as a whole but it’s important to reach Black communities if Rob Manfred and baseball’s team owners really care about diversifying the sport of baseball on the field, in the front office, and in ownership being that Magic Johnson owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers is the only Black owner in MLB. Outstanding achievement on draft night if I must say so myself but more work must be done. Hopefully,draft night was the change-up pitch that needed to be thrown that’ll reverse the numbers for Blacks kids wanting to play baseball again.
