Race scorekeepers targeting baseball

No one is complaining about those numbers, and they probably shouldn't, but if you follow the current concern for the declining presence of black athletes in baseball, maybe they should give equal attention to the decline of white athletes in football and basketball.

If they're going to ask why blacks are losing out to whites and Hispanics in baseball, then ask why whites are losing ground to blacks and (white) Europeans in the NBA and NFL and what can be done about it.

If your answer is that whites simply don't have the skills to be elite basketball and football players, then maybe it's possible that blacks don't have the skills to be elite baseball players.

But of course no one would believe that. In reality, the prevailing sentiment is this: If blacks aren't well represented in a sport, something is wrong; if whites aren't well-represented in a sport, well, they're white, so it's understandable.

What I don't understand is if blacks don't want to play baseball, why is this important enough to implement programs to convince them otherwise, as has been proposed. We're talking about a sport here, not college.

Not coincidentally, the decline in black players in baseball has coincided with the increase in the number of Hispanic players, which has doubled since 1990, to 28.7 percent. That means one minority has displaced another. Asians (2.5 percent) might be the next ethnic group to impact the league as the game becomes increasingly international.

So, if the number of black players is increased, and the numbers of Asians, Hispanics and whites declines, will we also address that "problem" in the future and create a never-ending game of racial musical chairs?

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E-mail: drob@desnews.com