Where are the African-American baseball players? The numbers continue to decline

Ebony, May, 2007 by Yusuf Davis

In addition to players, baseball is striking out with Black fans, turned off by the lack of Black faces on the playing field and the high cost of tickets. There are no statistics to support the decline of fans, but anecdotal evidence suggests that Black fans are balking at baseball on all levels.

"At a typical minor league game with 2,000 or so fans, you might only see one or two Black fans, and those are usually parents," says Linda Nelson, "On a good day, for a theme event [church night], you might see 15 or 20 Black fans."