Baseball Losing Minority Numbers

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"Organizations are going to go out and get the best talent, regardless of race or culture,'' Morgan said. "Baseball will be fine. There's going to be talented players.''

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I can only imagine what outspoken Negro League legends like Rube Foster or Satchel Paige would say about the dwindling number of black Americans in Major League Baseball today. From the infancy of professional baseball in the U.S. in 1869 until the day Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, the nation's black baseball leaders fought relentlessly for their place in the Major Leagues. Sixty years later, one can't help but wonder how disappointed Foster or Paige would be with the place American athletes of color currently hold in the sport. In 1974, black players made up 27 percent of the league. In 1995, it was 19 percent. In 2006, Major League Baseball released figures that the percentage was down to 8.4. The rest of the story Kevin Foote kfoote@theadvertiser.com