Baker laments lack of US-born Black players at World Series

HOUSTON (AP) – Dusty Baker grew up watching Black stars shine in the World Series and paved his way to a life dedicated to baseball.

When he leads the Houston Astros in Game 1 of the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night, the AL and NL champions are expected to play without US-born Black players. For the first time since 1950, shortly after Jackie Robinson broke the Major League Baseball color barrier.

A fact that deeply disturbs Baker, 73, one of two Black MLB executives who has spent his entire life playing or coaching baseball.

“The pain is, I don’t know how much hope it gives to some young African-American children,” Baker told the Associated Press on Thursday. “Because when I was their age, I had a lot of guys, (Willie) Mays, (Hank) Aaron, Frank Robinson, Tommy Davis – my hero – Maury Wills, all these guys. We have to do something before we lose them.”

Jackie Robinson debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 and played in the World Series that year. Since then, the 1950 game between the New York Yankees and the Phillies has been the only World Series without a US-born Black player.

Houston and Philadelphia will announce their 26-man roster a few hours before Game 1 at Minute Maid Park on Friday night, and neither is expected to feature a US-born Black player. Houston’s black forward Michael Brantley has been out for the season due to a shoulder injury.

“I don’t think that’s something baseball should really be proud of,” said Baker, who won a World Series with the Dodgers in 1981 and was seeking his first title as a manager.. “It looks bad. It lets people know that it didn’t take a year or even ten years to get to this point.”

Indeed, the dwindling number of Black MLB players has been a problem for years. Richard Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport in Central Florida, is the lead author of his group’s annual reports on diversity recruitment practices in sport. He said Black players made up just 7.2% of the opening roster this year, the lowest percentage since the study data was first collected in 1991, when 18% of MLB players were Black.

Beginning in 1954, when the Mays and the New York Giants played against Larry Doby and Cleveland, every team that reached the World Series had at least one U.S.-born Black player up until the 2005 Astros.

For the first time since 1959, the Phillies had no Black players on their opening roster this year. Roman Quinn, a black backup outfielder, played 23 games before being released.

Philadelphia’s strong kick rookie Darick Hall made his debut in late June and played 41 games – his mother is white and his father is Black and white and describes himself as multiracial. Hall was not on the Phillies roster for the first three rounds post-season and is not expected to be on the World Series roster.

Last summer, four of the top five players selected for the first time in MLB draft history were Black.

Four of them, including Michael Harris II of Atlanta, Hunter Greene of Cincinnati, Ke’Bryan Hayes of Pittsburgh, and Devin Williams of Milwaukee, along with more than 300 major league players, including MLB Youth Academy, DREAM Series, and Reviving. took part in diversity-based initiatives. Inner Cities Baseball (RBI) program.

While he is “very disappointed and discouraged” by this year’s situation, Baker hopes the makeover of the latest draft will mean that this will be the last World Series without US-born Black players to be represented.

“Help is on the way,” he said. “You can tell by the number of African-Americans’ number one draft picks. Academies train players. So hopefully in the near future we won’t have to talk about it anymore, or even be in this situation.”

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AP Baseball Writer Ben Walker contributed to this story.

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