A most interesting assortment of reactions and comments.
I live in the heart of Chicago. Starting a team in an urban area (as I did) was what was most convenient for me. It also had the result of diversity. This was not a planeed occurrence, as it just happened. Our teams have been unlike any in the area. We recruited players from the area and it was nothing more than that. The perspective I have from running my team opened my eyes to many things I had previously been unaware of. So my views are much different from those who have not had this type of experience and are in the outlying suburbs.
America is changing. However, baseball has not sufficiently changed with the changing face of America. As far as I am concerned there is no legitimate explanation for the demographic imbalance in the sport of baseball. If there is one then someone please enlighten me.
Interestingly, but not suprisingly no one wants to comment on the subject matter of the story which reported on the latest MLB response to the declining numbers of African American players was by funding baseball in Ghana. This is apparently being done to seek more talented players. This was written as the lead story in the Sunday, Chicago Tribune Sports section just two weeks ago and the problem of the steadily declining numbers of African Americans in professional baseball was central to this story.
My Clubber baseball program has provided a legitimate blueprint and answer to the declining numbers of players of color in baseball. This is why the Chicago Blackhawks funded the Clubbers $25K for the 2004-2005 season. The MLB has chosen not to address this issue in any meaningful way; consequently only 9% of African American players are in the MLB today. This is down 50% from 1991. 60 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier that is a most telling statistic.
Last year the White Sox offerred the Clubbers autographed memorabilia to address the fund raising needs of our urban team. This was not something we could use and easily convert to a meaningful source of funding to the benefit of any of our players, so the offer of accepting any autographed memorabilia was graciously turned down.