On African Americans And Baseball

Richard Justice writes: "Black players accounted for 27 percent of major league rosters in the mid-1970s. When the 1968 All-Star Game was in the Astrodome, the National League's biggest stars--Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey and Bob Gibson--were black."
"And then the decline came, first slowly, then dramatically. Only 8.2 percent of major leaguers were black in 2007.
"Reasons for the decline include economics, opportunity and marketing. Hundreds of inner-city high schools dropped baseball. Diamonds, which are expensive to maintain, were paved over."