Modern Baseball
and the Struggle to Integrate
Artemus Ward
Dept. of Political Science
Northern Illinois University
aeward@niu.edu
Introduction
• One of the most consistent beliefs in our popular culture is that in
professional sports African Americans have achieved parity with their
white counterparts.
• Is this so?
• How will we know when parity/equality is achieved? What measures
should we examine?
• We will discuss some of the gains and setbacks in modern baseball’s
struggle to integrate.
• We will see how the percentage of African-American players has
steadily declined in recent decades.
• And unlike in black baseball, front office and managerial positions were
virtually unavailable for years and even today remain predominantly
occupied by whites.
• Why?
Willie Mays
• Raised in Birmingham, AL Mays was a star athlete as
a kid.
• He played for the Birmingham Black Barons of the
NAL and was soon scouted by white teams.
• The Boston Braves and Brooklyn Dodgers passed on
him and he was signed by the New York Giants and
began his major league career in 1951.
• He excelled and played with the Giants until they
traded him to the New York Mets at the end of his
career because the Mets offered him a chance to
coach after he retired from playing.
• Mays was the hitting coach for the Mets through
1979.
• Suspended by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn for his PR
work for an Atlantic City Casino and reinstated in
1985 by Commissioner Peter Uberroth, Mays has
worked as a special assistant to the president of the
San Francisco Giants.
Ken Burns’ Baseball
Willie Mays 12:08
Integration
Effects
• While “full integration” remained remote, the civil rights strides of the
1940s through the 1960s took an inevitable toll not only on black
baseball but on other once valued separate organizations.
• Like the NAL and NNL, black institutions that had fulfilled a vital role
during segregation found themselves functioning in a vastly transformed
environment, often with predictable results.
• Many black hospitals, businesses, hotels, banks, and insurance
companies went out of business.
• Still others survived by continuing to offer unique services unavailable in
the white world such as black churches, historically black colleges, and
some black media outlets.
• Was integration worth the price?
• How would baseball handle integration? Could “full integration” be
achieved? If so, what would it look like?
Full
Integration?
Ken Burns’ Baseball
Curt Flood Discrimination
3:12
Pumpsie Green was the first African American to
play for the Red Sox. He is shown here with Earl
Wilson (left), who pitched a no-hitter in 1962, the
first by an African American in American League history.
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Despite the presence of blacks on several rosters in the 1950s, the task of “full”
integration of the major leagues was nowhere near complete.
As late as 1952, only 6 of the 16 major league teams featured a black player on
their roster.
Ten years after Jackie Robinson’s debut with the Dodgers, the last three teams
to finally place African Americans on their rosters were the Philadelphia Phillies
in 1957, the Detroit Tigers in 1958, and the Boston Red Sox in 1959.
Once on a major league team, African-Americans continued to face
discrimination in such areas as salaries and housing.
By 1961, 77 of 450 major league players were black (17%).
By 1975 African-Americans comprised 27% of major league players.
Given this trend, it was predicted by some that African Americans would
comprise 40% of MLB players in the 1980s, 50% in the 1990s, 60% in the
2000s, and 70% in the 2010s.
Jackie Robinson: Race Man
• In 1962 Jackie Robinson became the first
black player inducted into the Baseball Hall of
Fame.
• From 1957 to 1964, Robinson was the vice
president for personnel at Chock full o'Nuts—
the first black person to serve as vice
president of a major American corporation.
• In 1965 he became the first African American
to broadcast national baseball telecasts for
ABC sports.
• He served on the board of the NAACP, helped
found Freedom National Bank—a blackowned and operated commercial bank based
in Harlem, and established the Jackie
Ken Burns’ Baseball
Robinson Construction Company to build
Robinson Race Man 5:12
Ted Williams HOF speech 0:57
Robinson Dies 7:56
housing for low-income families.
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Hank
Aaron
Born in Mobile, Alabama, Henry Aaron began playing
professionally at age 18 for the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro
American League and helped them win the championship in 1952.
Aaron received two offers from MLB teams via telegram; one offer
was from the New York Giants, the other from the then Boston
Braves. Years later, Aaron remembered:
"I had the Giants' contract in my hand. But the Braves offered fifty
dollars a month more. That's the only thing that kept Willie
Mays and me from being teammates – fifty dollars."
Aaron played 23 seasons for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves
and the Milwaukee Brewers.
He broke Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record in 1973 and
finished with 755.
Since 1980 he has served as senior vice president of the Braves
and is currently one of 11 African-American senior vice
presidents and vice presidents in MLB.
On January 21, 2007 Major League baseball announced the sale
of the Atlanta Braves. In that announcement,
Commissioner Selig also announced that Aaron would be playing
a major role in the management of the Braves, forming programs
Ken Burns’
Baseball
through major league baseball that will encourage the influx of
Hank Aaron 7:20
minorities into baseball.
Frank
Robinson
(1975)
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Ken Burns’ Baseball
Frank Robinson 2:21
Frank Robinson began his 21-year career in 1956 with
the Cincinnati Reds, won the MVP award in 1961, was
traded to the Baltimore Orioles and won it again in 1966—
the only player in history to win it in both the NL and AL.
Not long after Frank Robinson was hired by the Cleveland
Indians in 1975 as baseball's first black manager (he was
a player-manager), the Hall of Fame slugger who hit 586
home runs remembered how, as far back as 1961, he had
begun to think about staying in baseball.
''By the time I was ready to be a manager,'' he said at the
time, ''I believed baseball would be ready for a black
manager. Not that I was thinking about being the first
black manager. It turned out that way, but I would be just
as happy being the third or the fifth black manager.''
Almost prophetically, Frank Robinson was hired in 1981
by the San Francisco Giants as the fourth black manager,
and he was hired in 1988 by the Baltimore Orioles as the
fifth black manager. He managed the Montreal
Expos/Washington Nationals from 2002-06.
He sought a front-office position with the Nationals but
they declined. Robinson has since been an advisor to the
Commissioner.
The Campanis Affair (1987)
• In 1987 Los Angeles Dodger General Manager Al
Campanis appeared on ABC News’ Nightline to
discuss the 40th anniversary of Jackie Robinson
breaking the color barrier.
• Campanis had played alongside Robinson and
considered him a friend.
• Anchorman Ted Koppel asked him why there were
so few black managers and no black general
managers in Major League Baseball.
• Campanis' reply was that blacks "may not have
some of the necessities to be, let's say, a field
manager, or, perhaps, a general manager" for these
positions.
• Elsewhere in the interview he said that blacks are
often poor swimmers "because they don't have the
buoyancy." Koppel tried to give Campanis several
opportunities to clarify ("Do you really believe that?")
or back down on his remarks but Campanis
confirmed his views with his replies.
• A protest erupted the next morning and he was
forced to resign.
Ken Burns’ Baseball
Campanis Controversy 3:54
Bob Watson (1988)
• Watson was a solid major leaguer from
1966 to 1984. On his retirement he
became a hitting coach.
• In 1988 the Houston Astros named him
Assistant General Manager—the first
African American to hold that position.
• In 1993 he became the second AfricanAmerican General Manager in the majors
when the Astros promoted him.
• He served as New York Yankees GM
from 1995-1998.
• Since then Watson has served as Major
League Baseball's vice president in
charge of discipline and vice president of
rules and on-field operations.
Bill White (1989)
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Bill White, a 13-year Major League veteran with a solid but not superstar career, was
a sportscaster for 18 years following his retirement in 1969.
Working for the Yankees, he became the first African-American play-by-play
announcer in history. "We hired him," then Yankees president Michael Burke was
quoted in The New York Post as saying, "because he was the best man for the job."
In 1989 he was appointed President of the National League—the first AfricanAmerican is all of sports to hold such a high position.
Said White shortly after he took over the league presidency: "I hope to bring to the
job my experience as a player and a love of the game. I also hope to bring a little
more harmony between players and owners."
A writer for Ebony magazine described White in a 1992 article as a man loathed to
use his position to proselytize for broad changes in the game, particularly in regard to
hiring of more minorities for leadership posts. He didn't apologize for not doing so
either. As White said in the article, "I haven't used my position to try and be visible to
do anything except do my job here.“
He served through 1994 and was succeeded by another African-American: Leonard
S. Coleman, Jr.—the final president of the National League before the NL and AL
were eliminated as independent organizations and folded into the Commissioner’s
Office in 1999.
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Marge Schott
Banned (1996)
On December 21, 1984, Marge Schott, who was a minority shareholder of the
Cincinnati Reds, purchased a controlling interest, becoming their CEO and President
in 1985. Schott became the second woman in MLB history to have controlling
interest in a team without inheriting it.
Schott quickly became a very outspoken owner and in 1992, Schott called two former
star players, Eric Davis and Dave Parker, “million dollar niggers.” Before the start of
an owner’s conference call she reportedly said: "I would never hire another nigger. I'd
rather have a trained monkey working for me than a nigger.”
Later in the year, Schott issued a statement that essentially supported Nazi leader
Adolf Hitler, and wondered why the use of the word "Jap" was offensive.
After an investigation by MLB, Schott was suspended from day-to-day operations of
the Reds in 1993.
Her problems didn't end there, however. On May 5, 1996, Schott again voiced her
support of Hitler, saying that he "was good in the beginning, but went too far.“
Following those comments, Schott became the first, and to date only, woman to be
banned, and the only person to be banned solely for the content of his or her speech
on a matter of public concern.
She was reinstated in 1998 but sold her controlling interest in the Reds in 1999 after
learning that she had lost the support of the board. She died in 2004.
Managing
• There were 4 African-American managers at the start of the
2010 season and 2 at the start of the 2011 season.
• In the 2010 MLB season, African-Americans held 12% of
the coaching positions (down two percentage points from
2009)
• According to MLB, people of color constitute 42 percent of
the coaching positions within the combined Major and Minor
Leagues based on 2010 MLB workforce data.
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Ulice
Payne,
Jr.
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Ulice Payne Jr. was a collegiate basketball star at
Marquette and was drafted by the Detroit Pistons.
He earned law degrees and was the first managing
partner at Foley & Lardner.
In 2003 he was named President and CEO of the
Milwaukee Brewers, the first and only AfricanAmerican to hold this position in MLB history.
Things, however, quickly went sour between Payne
and the Brewers organization.
On November 9, 2003, Payne told the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel that most of his plans for rebuilding
the team had been destroyed by other executive
members of the organization who had voted to slash
the 2004 payroll.
While many in the Brewers organization claimed that
Payne had signed the budget himself, Payne
continued to hold that he was being kept out of the
loop and undercut.
By November 21, 2003, Payne had agreed to allow
his four year contract to be bought out for $2.7
million.
The Front Office
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Of the staff in MLB’s Central Office, 33% were people of color (AfricanAmerican, Latino, and Asian) based on 2010 MLB workforce data.
According to MLB, at the director and managerial level (the front office) at
the MLB Central Office, 22.5% of the employees were people of color based
2010 MLB workforce data.
In the 2010 MLB season, 9.8% of team vice presidents were people of
color, down 6.7% points from the prior year.
In the 2010 MLB season, 16% of senior team administrators were people of
color, the same as the previous year.
In 2010, the percentage of people of color holding professional positions
with teams was 13%, down 2% from the previous year.
At the start of the 2011 season, there were three African-American general
managers on individual teams.
No African-Americans owned baseball teams and there were no black
presidents or CEOs of baseball teams. Why not?
Void in the
Community
• Although desegregation theoretically rendered black baseball and
other separate institutions superfluous, many African Americans still
remain far from “integrated” into institutions that they were formerly
excluded from.
• In fact, geographical isolation and joblessness of blacks in major
cities has remained disturbingly high.
• In addition, some of the moderating institutional supports that once
alleviated the plight of blacks have disappeared, leaving a void in the
community.
• Despite enabling individual black athletes to grow enormously
wealthy, integrated organized baseball has never approached the
importance of the Negro Leagues in black communities.
• Beginning in the 1960s, black interest in baseball began to wane.
Why?
African-American
Fans Dwindle
• The ambivalence of organized baseball contributed to the
disengagement of black fans.
• While accepting black players, the industry had never fully
resigned itself to black patrons.
• As late as 1991, several teams admitted fearing the impact
of black fans on white attendance.
• Not surprisingly, the percentage of black major league
attendance by the late 1980s fell to below 7%, and to as low
as 3% in communities such as Chicago and Philadelphia
that had once enthusiastically supported black baseball.
African-American
Players Decline
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Black America’s disengagement from baseball in recent years has been coupled
by the decline in the number of African Americans on major league rosters.
In 1975, 27% of major league ballplayers were African-American.
In 1996 that number had fallen to 17%.
In 2003, African Americans occupied only 10% of roster spots.
In 2005 the Houston Astros became the first team in 52 years to go to a World
Series without one African American on their team.
By 2011 the percentage of African Americans in baseball had fallen to 8.5%--the
lowest since the Boston Red Sox became the last team to integrate in 1959.
In 2003, only 2 black major leaguers had emerged from the once-flourishing
black baseball hotbeds of New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
Why the decline?
• In 2007, All-Star Gary Sheffield’s commented
in GQ about the dwindling number of AfricanAmericans in Major League Baseball and the
growing number of Latin players:
• “I called it years ago. What I called is that
you're going to see more black faces, but
there ain't no English going to be coming out.
… [It's about] being able to tell [Latin players]
what to do -- being able to control them.
Where I'm from, you can't control us. You
might get a guy to do it that way for a while
because he wants to benefit, but in the end,
he is going to go back to being who he is. And
that's a person that you're going to talk to with
respect, you're going to talk to like a man.
These are the things my race demands. So, if
you're equally good as this Latin player, guess
who's going to get sent home? I know a lot of
players that are home now can outplay a lot of
these guys.”
• Is Sheffield right?
Sheffield
on
Race
Position Segregation:
“Stacking”
• Is there an issue of “stacking” for the positions of pitcher, catcher and
infielder -- baseball’s primary “thinking positions”?
• For the 2010 season, 5% of pitchers and 11% of infielders were AfricanAmerican.
• 29% percent of outfielders, who rely on speed and reactive ability, were
African-American during the 2010 MLB season. This percentage was
almost three times that of the total percentage of African-Americans in
MLB.
• Historically, there have been almost no African-American catchers. In
fact, in 2010 there were none, decreasing from 1% in 2009.
• Why?
• At the same time, measures of skill (e.g., home runs, hits, and at bats),
not race or playing position, are the only significant predictors of salary.
Inner City
Baseball?
• Why has baseball declined in inner cities and in the African-American
community?
• Some have suggested that African-Americans are like most fans in the
era of free agency and have a stronger attachment to individual players
rather than to teams.
• Some point to a lack of recreational facilities and equipment to play
baseball in the inner cities. As a result, many young African-Americans
turned to football and basketball, games that require less equipment and
playing space.
• Still others point out that with football and basketball both offering more
opportunities for athletic scholarships and a quicker path to professional
play, the trend appears unlikely to shift in the near future.
• Frank Robinson, the first black manager in major league baseball
history, said that “baseball is now third, maybe fourth in the [inner-city]
household.”
Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities
• Baseball has attempted to stimulate black interest in
the game in recent years through such ventures as
the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program.
• Founded in 1989, four years after Dwight Gooden
was the last African-American player to win the Cy
Young award, the 185 RBI programs around the
world are run with varying degrees of success.
• One of the better RBI program is in Los Angeles,
which sends youths to showcase camps and out-ofstate tournaments, because of the financial support
of then Dodgers pitcher Kevin Brown, who is white.
• African-Americans accounted for 65% of the
participants in RBI in 2009; In 2011 they accounted
for 50%.
• Do you think this program will work?
• Many feel that the real problem is the escalating
costs of simply attending a Major League game.
Diversity Economic Impact
Engagement Initiative (DEIE)
• DEIE is one of MLB’s newest initiatives to
advance the level of MLB’s current workforce and
supplier diversity efforts as well as create
methodologies for cultural assessments, diversity
economic platforms and industry-wide diversity
training.
• This internal consultant model approach will be
developed throughout the industry’s Central
Office, member Clubs and eventually the Minor
Leagues.
Diverse Business Partner
Program (DBP)
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Major League Baseball's Diverse Business Partner's Program is the leading
supplier diversity program in sports.
This major league procurement initiative has produced significant economic
opportunity for baseball's Commissioner's office, its franchises and local
communities.
The strategic implementation of MLB's Diverse Business Partners Program
has resulted in well over $800 million being spent with thousands of
minority- and women-owned businesses.
This award-winning program has continued to enrich baseball's business
case for diversity by establishing a procurement environment that
economically benefits the league as well as its minority and majority
business partners.
The DBP program has been awarded the recognition of being listed with
"America's Top 50 Organizations for Multicultural Business Opportunities"
for several years running.
The Civil
Rights Game
• Beginning in 2007, an annual Civil Rights game has
been played between two teams during the regular
season in order to "embrace baseball's history
of African-American players," as well as to generate
interest for future black players.
• In conjunction with the Civil Rights Game, Major
League Baseball honors three pioneers of civil rights
with the Beacon Awards (Beacon of Life Award,
Beacon of Change Award and Beacon of Hope Award).
The Selig Business Conference
• MLB and the Atlanta Braves, along with MLB's Major and Minor
League Clubs and strategic partners, launched the inaugural Selig
Business Conference at the Georgia Aquarium (May 12-13, 2011).
• This event provides a unique opportunity for career networking and
entrepreneurs to connect with MLB industry representatives as well
as register their resumes and business profiles on-site.
• The Conference not only captures MLB's advocacy in regards to
supplier and workforce diversity, but also presents discussions that
are educational, entertaining and celebratory.
Conclusion
• Despite the strides made by African Americans in baseball, frontoffice and managerial positions continue to remain relatively elusive
and the number of African Americans in baseball continues to
decline as other sports gain in popularity with the community.
• In recent years MLB has undertaken a number of initiatives to try to
promote diversity both on the field and off.
• By all accounts, if African-American fans and kids have little or no
interest in baseball it will be nearly impossible to reverse the
declining number of African American players and the small number
of African American managerial and front office personnel.
Bibliography
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Anderson, Dave. 1988. “Sports of The Times; Frank Robinson Isn’t Enough.” New York Times,
April 15.
Bailey, Joanna Shepherd and George B. Shepherd. 2011. “Baseball’s Accidental Racism: The
Draft, African-American Players, and the Law.” Connecticut Law Review 44 (1): 199-256
Hill, Justice B. 2007. “Whatever the Job, White Got It Done,” mlb.com, February 19.
Lanctot, Neil. 2004. Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution
(Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press).
Lapchick, Richard, et. al. 2011. “The 2011 Racial and Gender Report Card: Major League
Baseball.” The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports.
Smith, Earl and Monica A. Steff/ 1989. Race, Position Segregation and Salary Equity in
Professional Baseball. 13 Journal of Sport and Social Issues (2, Sep): 92-110.
Ward, Geoffrey C. and Ken Burns. 1994. Baseball (PBS Home Video).