By Anthony Manuel Caravalho, Sports Editor
African-Americans represent 22% more incarcerated persons (28% versus 6% in MLB) than the grand ‘ole game employs, according to The Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law.
As opening day arrives at the major league level and in prison baseball, SQ Giants players like Aaron “June” Miles wanted to challenge the status quo.
“I’m inviting Magic, Reggie, Steph Curry, and all of MLB to see incarcerated ball players who could have played — just for the chance to stop our kids from becoming stats,” said SQ Giants Aaron “June” Miles. “Earvin, our race turns its lonely eyes to you, challenging you to come see our solutions, because you’ve got abilities to change the world to what it should be.”
The passionate challenge stemmed from SQ Giants players’ viewing a historic 2022 San Francisco Chronicle “Sporting Green” headline that read “No Blacks In The WS [World Series].”
The 2022 fall classic between the Houston Astros and the Philadelphia Phillies employed no American-born African-American baseball players, which marked the first occurrence since Jackie Robinson donned a uniform for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
In 2025, the LA Dodgers, employed one African-American player; Mookie Betts, who stars for the perennial champions.
“I can’t believe that in 2022 there were no Blacks in the World Series,” said SQ Giants centerfielder Kameron “Kam” Hamilton, “and Magic’s champion LA Dodgers only employed one of us.”
The Press Democrat reported that a 66% decline in African-American ball players has occurred since the peak participation mark hit 18.1% in 1981. Today, only 6.2% of the league’s Black ballplayers are American-born.
“The slow whitening of baseball seems to have done as much damage as the outright bigotry that Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Bob Gibson, Reggie Jackson, Curt Flood and countless others endured,” said resident Allen Crews. “MLB starts a couple of academies in inner cities and yet “Magic” [Johnson, Dodgers owner] hasn’t addressed the biggest issue in baseball. My generation doesn’t even acknowledge the game that changed the world.”
So, what happened? The amateur draft, stricter age requirements in some states in the U.S., and lower taxation overseas shifted player development to Latin America.
Mark Armour and Daniel Levitt reported in Baseball Demographics that the number of Latino players more than doubled in 30 years from 7.7% to 16.1%. That is the polar opposite to the plight of African-American players. Baseball Demographics also reported Asian participation in MLB increased to 2.1% in 2016, from no players in 1993.
The problem starts in Little League and is getting worse because of an elite travel team culture. The cost for one child to play, beginning at age 6 up to 18, could exceed $21,500 per season, according to North Texas Baseball Select. The article noted that a family could spend $200,000 just to help their kid chase a mega-contract.
Miles stated that the travel league phenomenon eliminates inner cities’ opportunities in baseball, leaving faint hope that a future big leaguer will follow in the shadows of Willie Mays and Reggie Jackson. Instead, economically disadvantaged areas have become baseball deserts, devoid of chances for African-American players. He asked “where is the next Darryl Strawberry, Eric Davis, or Doc Gooden?”
Miles said that we may have seen African-American ball players flourish for the last time, because today the last generation of baseball players may be in the penitentiaries of our country.