Where's the Outcry?

Recently there has been a fair amount of attention paid to the declining number of African-American kids playing baseball, as well as the declining number of blacks in MLB. HBO's "Real Sports" did a piece on it, and ESPN recently had an article up where pitcher C.C. Sabathia called this a "crisis." Click here to read more.     When I was a kid growing up in the early 90's, my baseball hero was Ken Griffey Jr. (left). I'm sure many other kids had Barry Bonds as their hero. It wasn't in spite of their race or because of it. They were simply the best players, and we left it at that. Since when did everything have to be categorized, divided, and balanced? Since when did race have to be accounted for in all things? Aren't we past this? Clearly not.     You may have thought, judging by the title, that I was going to agree with the position of Sabathia and many others, deploring the lack of interest baseball has in the black community and vice-versa. But I'm not going to do that, because I think this entire issue is ridiculous. African-Americans make up around 13% of the U.S. population and somewhere around 9% of Major League Baseball. Sure, that number is slightly lower, but its disparity is nothing when compared to the disparity of white Americans in the NBA or NFL.     Now, opponents will say that plenty of white kids are playing basketball and football; blacks are just winning out positions because they are bigger, faster, stronger, better. And they'd be right, you'll have no argument with me there. African-Americans dominate football and basketball at the professional level - that is not a racist statement. It is a statement of fact. But that does not mean that they have to dominate every sport. Where is the outcry for more African-American interest in hockey, in golf, in tennis? Where is the anger that there aren't more inner-city opportunities for these sports?     It is not the responsibility of baseball to reach out to the inner city. Interest in baseball among inner-city black America has been steadily declining over the last twenty years, just as interest in basketball has risen. You need look no further than the phenomenon of streetball to realize this is true. It is simply a matter of marketing. Basketball and the NBA go to where the interest is, where they are a part of the culture. Major League baseball does the same thing. Just because that isn't among black America as much anymore, doesn't make this a social crisis.     This whole thing reminds me of the comments Bryant Gumbel made during the previous Winter Olympics. "So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention." Look, I understand that blacks dominate modern athletics. I accept this fact like I accept the fact that my roommate is tall and thin, and I am short and thick. These are facts. But let's not get all up in a tiff because blacks aren't dominating every sport all the time. Let's just let whoever play whatever they want and let the chips fall where they may.