We are just a little past the halfway point of the MLB season; the annual All-Star game is coming up tonight in Atlanta. Opening day rosters across baseball this year featured more than 250 international players representing 18 different countries.
But Gerald Early, a professor of African and African-American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis and author of the book "Play Harder: The Triumph of Black Baseball in America," argues there’s at least one demographic that’s not represented in MLB as much as it could — and should be.
Early says African-Americans have been playing baseball for a lot longer than many people realize, and joined The Show to talk about what attracted African-Americans to baseball more than a century ago.
Full conversation
GERALD EARLY: Well, I think he in the 19th century, around the time of the Civil War, I think Black people were attracted to baseball because it was a growing sport in the United States. It was a popular sport in the United States. I think partly Black people wanted to play it because they felt it would make them seem more American.
You must remember at this time, right after the Civil War, Black people’s citizenship in the United States was not settled until the passage of the 14th Amendment. And so playing baseball was a way of showing themselves as being American. I also think it was attractive because it showed Black people could organize and do things for themselves, and organizing was very important for Black people, for the oppressed, uplift of the race.
MARK BRODIE: It’s interesting because I think for a lot of Americans, they look at baseball — and even if they don’t necessarily consider it anymore the national pastime — for a lot of folks, baseball is sort of seen as the sport that maybe reflects America or is thought of as quintessentially American more so than other sports. It’s interesting that around the time of the Civil War, that was also seemingly the way that African Americans were thinking about it too?
GERALD EARLY: Yes, I believe so. Baseball is our oldest professional sport. And in this way, it has some deeper roots than other sports. And I think it has a certain kind of tradition that Americans especially feel close to. Baseball represents a real sense of what America is about.
MARK BRODIE: Let me ask you about the 1940s, when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, when he came up, of course, with the Brooklyn Dodgers. And I was reading some interesting commentary this year around Jackie Robinson Day, which is celebrated every year across Major League Baseball.
And there were some writers suggesting that the true story of Jackie Robinson making it to the majors is not really told in the sense that, yes, he was able to play and made the majors and broke the color barrier, but it was not that easy for him. And he endured horrible things both before and after.
And also, it wasn’t like that led to a flood of Black players making it to the majors as well. I’m wondering what you make of that kind of criticism, of the way that we celebrate Jackie Robinson and Jackie Robinson Day, and maybe think about how the color barrier in baseball was broken?
GERALD EARLY: Well, Robinson, it wasn’t easy for Robinson to do it. He had to endure a great deal. That’s all true. And it didn’t lead to a flood of Black players. At least it didn’t lead to a flood of Black players on other teams. Integration was slow in Major league baseball. Robinson, I think, prevailed largely because of his personality.
MARK BRODIE: Why do you think it is that with Robinson’s success, when he made the majors and the Dodgers success with him on the team, why didn’t more teams bring Black players aboard?
GERALD EARLY: Well, you know, it is institutional, structural racism, the racism of the old boy network in baseball. ... All Hollywood studios believe, “Oh, sound movies. It’s just a passing fancy.“ That’s harmfully commonplace. And Black people in baseball, that’s just a fad that’s not really going to last.
Some people were afraid. Some owners were afraid that it was going to alienate white people from going to ballgames and didn’t want to do that, alienating white fans. So there were several reasons why owners were very slow about doing it, and they didn’t feel as though they really needed Black players.
As time went along and Black players had enormous success, outsized success in the major leagues, integration began to pick up a little more and a little more. But also there were changes in the country that were happening that also propelled integration.
MARK BRODIE: To what do you attribute the fact that, even as it took so long for Jackie Robinson to break the color barrier? And as you’ve discussed, a lot of teams didn’t bring in a lot of other African American players in the immediate seasons following. And yet, it seems as though that didn’t really cause a drop in interest among African Americans to play baseball. I’m curious to what you attribute that?
GERALD EARLY: Baseball was still the major sport in the United States. Robinson making it, in fact, made a lot of Black people, Black players, Black athletes think, “Oh, yeah, well, if he made it, I can make it, too.” So, no, there wasn’t an immediate drop off in the interest of Blacks wanting to play baseball.
And the other thing is that even though some of the Negro Leagues died after Robinson made it in 1947, Negro League baseball still continued for at least another 10 years. So there were still players still playing in the Negro Leagues.
MARK BRODIE: So what do you think then led to the drop off in participation in baseball among Black Americans? Because we see, for example, right now Major League Baseball over the last few years has really been trying to make an effort to get more players from the African American community into baseball. What led to the decline in the first place, do you think?
GERALD EARLY: Oh, I think it was, several factors led to the decline. And, among them is that the rise of Black, athletes having access to professional football and professional basketball as the sports began to really rise in America and become a powerful presence in American professional sports,and also the collegiate element of both of those sports as well.
And those sports also became basketball and football much more embedded in Black American school culture, both at Black colleges and also in Black high school culture. And baseball, on the other hand, did not become nearly as embedded in Black people’s school culture as those other sports did.
So that’s partly it. The other thing is that Black people, as fans of the sport, seem to have dropped off, and their interest in the game seem to have dropped off as they drifted more toward basketball and football, especially as the number of Black people in those sports increased.
The thing is, baseball in some ways may not feel terrific pressure about diversifying because so many Black Latinos play the game. There’s not a lack of Black people playing Major League Baseball, playing professional baseball. It’s just a lack of Black Americans playing it.
MARK BRODIE: How important is it to have stars of the game, Black stars of the game, really make this a priority? I’m thinking of people like CC Sabathia or Mookie Betts, people who are not shy about speaking their mind and saying what’s important to them. Are players like that or former players like that really able to make a difference here?
GERALD EARLY: Anything helps, and if those players speak out and really make this a priority and really go to the Black community and preach the gospel of baseball, I mean, really go to Black schools and preach the gospel of baseball and tell those kids, “This is a great game. It’s deep part of the Black people’s heritage.”
We used to have leagues be organized teams, stuff like that. It is a deep part of your history. If people started preaching that a lot, yeah, I think it would have an effect. I’m not saying that by itself it would make a drastic change, but it would certainly be the start of something.
Black people need to be reminded of how much baseball is embedded in their cultural heritage. It’s like jazz. It’s like ragtime. It’s deeply embedded in Black people’s heritage.
