Blacks in Baseball: My Beef with Bill James

ESPN.com’s Rob Neyer wrote last month about Bill James’ comments during an interview with Dugout Central. Asked if he was concerned about “the steady decline of the American-born Black player in the big leagues over the last decade,” James replied that, as long as they were being given an equal opportunity as everyone else to play ball, that it didn’t matter one bit.

To his credit, James said, “I don't see what difference it makes what color the players are.” But I’m going to have to disagree.

Borrowing only Josh Gibson from the Negro Leagues, I can easily put together an All-Star team of active players who are African American:

P          CC Sabathia

C         Josh Gibson*

1B        Ryan Howard

2B        Orlando Hudson

3B        Chone Figgins**

SS        Jimmy Rollins

OF       Torii Hunter

OF       Curtis Granderson

OF       Ken Griffey Jr.

DH       Milton Bradley

Bench: Prince Fielder, Derrek Lee, Vernon Wells, Jermaine Dye, Carl Crawford, Dmitri Young, Garrett Anderson, Derek Jeter, Frank Thomas

Bullpen: Tom Gordon

* Gibson is one of the most prominent former members of the Negro Leagues, and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

** To be fair, Figgins has never made an All-Star team but has been in the top 25 in MVP voting three times in his six full seasons in the majors.

While one might argue that multiple lists of active non-black All-Stars could be made, the reality is that the majority of African American ballplayers are standout players, and many are superstars. So why shouldn’t baseball fans want more black athletes to choose baseball over basketball and football?

When I buy a ticket to a ballgame, I want to see the very best players on the field no matter what they look like (I can only take so much of pitchers who are painful to watch, e.g. Daisuke Matsuzaka, Daniel Cabrera, and Steve Trachsel). I believe that if the percentage of African American players in the major leagues was higher, I wouldn’t have to wonder how so many mediocre ballplayers have the privilege of wearing big-league uniforms.