"We understand that this is something that's incredibly alarming in Major League Baseball" - Stephen A. Smith calls out MLB for low number of African American players in the sport
Stephen A. Smith spoke on the incredibly low percentage of MLB players who are African American during a recent segment on ESPN's "First Take" regarding the recent Josh Donaldson and Tim Anderson controversy. Only 7.2% of MLB players are African American, which is significantly lower than other professional sports leagues, with about 70% of the players in the NFL being African American, and about 74% in the NBA.
This is a huge dropoff in the amount of representation within a sport that is supposed to be America's Pastime.
Stephen A. Smith recently called out this disparity on his ESPN show "First Take," which was uploaded to YouTube by ESPN and can be seen below.
The incident that this topic stemmed from resulted in a suspension for Josh Donaldson, as reported by Jon Heyman via a tweet.
Josh Donaldson has received a one-game suspension and a fine. He has chosen to appeal.
"Josh Donaldson has received a one-game suspension and a fine. He has chosen to appeal" - @ Jon Heyman
The low percentage of African American players in the MLB is a major concern for the league and something that they are actively working on.
Stephen A. Smith used his platform to call out the MLB
This issue has a little more to it than one would expect, as the MLB is the only sports league that has fewer African American players now than when the metric first began being recorded. In 1991, African Americans made up about 18% of the MLB and now that number has dropped by over 10% to 7.2%.
An independent study commissioned in 2022 graded the MLB with a B for racial hiring, showing that things are okay, but there are still improvements to be made. Since the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox cleared the benches for a tussle after Josh Donaldson directed comments to Tim Anderson, this discussion of race in baseball has been at the forefront.
Jason Benetti, a Chicago White Sox reporter, commented on the recent controversy with class, and a clip was posted to Twitter by The Athletic.
"A person like Tim Anderson in the game of baseball should never feel like he has to say that he wasn't bothering somebody.”
@jasonbenetti shared his thoughts on the Tim Anderson-Josh Donaldson situation with @jaysonst + @dougglanville
on The Athletic Baseball Show. https://t.co/mgPNVtuvWR
"A person like Tim Anderson in the game of baseball should never feel like he has to say that he wasn't bothering somebody.” - @ Jason Benetti
Stephen A. Smith was absolutely correct when he said that the MLB does have concerns about the declining number of African American players in the sport, but the true challenge will be how to raise these numbers. Baseball is no longer the most popular sport in North America, but there are signs of hope for improved diversity.
The MLB commited up to $150 million to the Players Alliance, whose goal is to improve the number of African American players and professionals throughout the sport, as seen below via a tweet.
MLB has announced its commitment of up to $150 million to the Players Alliance over 10 years, the largest financial commitment in MLB history, with the goal of improving investment in Black players and professionals across the sport. https://t.co/Ps6WHSIhGh
"MLB has announced its commitment of up to $150 million to the Players Alliance over 10 years" - @ MLB
Stephen A. Smith used his platform to shine a light on this important issue within the game, and now is a very important time for the MLB to take these issues seriously and find ways to improve upon them.