Here's to You, Mr. Robinson

April 15, 1947: Jackie Robinson put on a Brooklyn Dodger hat and changed the history of our pastime and our country.
April 15, 2007: Commentators and guests at tonight's Dodger game took this anniversary to ponder the "crisis" of Blacks disappearing from Baseball.

Is the writing on the wall? Black participation in Major League Baseball peaked in 1975 at 27 percent. In 1994, that number was down to 19 percent. It has stayed or gone down every year since. Today, it's 8-and-a-half. And that's just the players. Today there are 2 Black managers. There's only been 3 Black General Managers in MLB history.

The questions every commentator was asking tonight without directly asking them were: Is Jackie Robinson's Legacy in danger? Could Blacks become less and less visible in the pastime they had to fight tooth and nail to be a part of in the first place?

Around the horn... to Jayme Rubenstein.

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I say No to the first, Yes to the second. I say these questions are NOT one and the same, as many at ESPN want us to think.

42's Legacy IS forever whether Blacks continue to play Major League Baseball or not. It took a brave and talented man to cross that "thin," "white" foul line. As much as I like to be color-blind and believe talent gets you through the door... no one can deny its Jackie's bat that unlocked that door for the Hammerin Hanks, the Say Hey Kids, the Big Hurts, the D-Trains of today and tomorrow. He will always be The First. No one can take that Legacy away.

So why are Blacks leaving baseball? My humble opinion: It's the economy, stupid.
a) Competition from other major sports. Blacks now make up roughly 75 percent of the NBA. Roughly 67 percent of the NFL.
b) Competition from other talent pools. Major League Baseball is farming and scouting a lot of talent in Central and South America. Latino participation has DOUBLED since 1990 (13 to 26 percent).

Advocates for more Black ballplayers still suggest a sort of indirect racism, saying Baseball has ignored the inner city; scouts purposely avoiding what they deem to be "bad neighborhoods" with "rough kids." That may be so. But it doesn't sound like anyone's being denied a contract because of their skin color... just maybe their geography. Baseball HAS shown an interest in urban areas through its 18-year program Reviving Baseball in the Inner-City (RBI) producing players like Carl Crawford, Dontrelle Willis, and Boston's own Coco Crisp. But Baseball did this for money... not morality.

Anyone who thinks that Jackie Robinson's Legacy gets chipped away every time a Black kid picks up a basketball instead of a glove is missing the point. Jackie's goal wasn't for Blacks to jump over a certain ratio. It was for them to jump over that foul line. They have. And while other factors may slow that traffic now, racism is not one of them.

We can all thank Number 42 for that.

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That's my piece on players. As for so few managers and GMs of color, I won't even touch it. Some say it's racist. Some say it's just Good Ol Boys making sure their frat brothers and colleagues take their place. These are assumptions. I won't add to them.