Adam Jones Wants Black Folks To Play Baseball

Adam Jones and I have much in common. He is the only African-American player in Spring Training for the Baltimore Orioles, and I am the only black person I know that likes the Orioles. Or baseball, for that matter.

He wants more black folks to play baseball, and so do I.

The problem for both of us is that the big wall between African-Americans and baseball is not one easily torn down with role models and diversity initiatives. It’s not something where you can take black kids to a game and expect them to fall in love with an American pastime that, to this day, is unreasonably regarded as exclusionary of black players.

The reasons are many why black folks don’t particularly care for baseball, but they begin with Jackie Robinson. No force was as good or as bad for minorities in baseball as Jackie Robinson. We cherish what he did and how he did it, but loathe that it was necessary to be done.

If you consider that most black sports fans born after 1975 couldn’t tell you anything about the man other than breaking the baseball color barrier, you get to one of the surface issues of a deeply-rooted breakdown between a sport and a people.

Jackie Robinson was a six-time All-Star, Rookie of the Year, National League MVP, and a World Series champion. I thank Wikipedia for much of that info, because I honestly didn’t know it offhand. And that’s the problem.

Robinson, Bob Gibson, and countless others—they’re pioneers more than players. For most black folks, we stop at the line for bravery and tenacity in the face of angst. Forget your RBI and ERA—white folks didn’t like you, and that’s good enough for me to love you eternally.

Baseball shouldn’t tell black folks over and over again about breaking color barriers. Baseball should tell black folks about baseball. The odds are against the sport already with the lack of baseball fields in black communities, but it doesn’t help that our scope of reference with the sport is just civil rights.

Black families should also be willing to step outside of our usual tastes and try to embrace something different. Something diverse. Something that presents a much better chance for our children becoming professional athletes than football and basketball combined.

Black kids don’t think about Fritz Pollard when introduced to the NFL, or Earl Lloyd when introduced to the NBA. But Jackie Robinson? There is no “blacks in baseball” discussion without his name being mentioned.

It doesn’t have to be that way anymore.

All Adam Jones has to do is be a center fielder for the Baltimore Orioles. If he plays well and lives a clean life, kids of all races will take notice and be inclined to follow his lead. No one ever talks about a disparity of black interest in lacrosse or swimming, because America is used to black kids not being interested.

But with America’s game, it appears that racial harmony and inclusion must be a part of its ultimate presentation of purity.

Baseball has the misfortune of being the sport most aligned with racial segregation, even though it was second among the major sports leagues to desegregate, just years before the NBA. And don’t get me wrong, baseball is still evil when it comes to managerial and front office opportunities for minority candidates.

But for the conversation of attracting black children, Major League Baseball has to concern itself with convincing black children that a strikeout is as impressive as a three-pointer, and that a full count is as exhilarating as third-and-two on the opponent’s 36-yard line.