Blacks and baseball – First in a series
Jackie Robinson Day is Wednesday, April 15. All 30 MLB teams: players, coaches and managers, will wear Robinson’s No. 42, which in 2004 was permanently retired by MLB.
April 15, 1947, was the day the 26-year-old Robinson broke the majors’ color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers as the first Black player to play in the big leagues in the 20th century.
“I think he was the right person for the job,” said Minnesota pitcher Simeon Woods Richardson of Robinson (1919-1972). “He was UCLA educated, multi-sport athlete, military background, very smart and very capable of handling what was going on at that time, and all the obstacles he was handling with.”
It took nearly two decades later before MLB was fully integrated. However, for most of this century, the number of U.S.-born Black players in the majors has hovered around 7%.
What would Jackie see today, almost 80 years after his MLB debut, on the day that since 2009 is dedicated to his memory and historic feat?
MLB Opening Day 2026, approximately 52 U.S.-born Black players were on team rosters. 28 in the National League and 24 in the American League. It’s been more than a minute that Blacks make between 6-7% of the total number of MLB players.
Minnesota, which has the most Blacks (5) on one team, this week hosts Boston, which was the last major league club to integrate, 12 years after Robinson joined the Dodgers, and this season the Red Sox have zero Blacks on their roster.
Along with Woods Richardson, Byron Buxton, Josh Bell, Royce Lewis and Taj Bradley are with the Twins this season. Woods Richardson and Bradley are two of 11 Black pitchers, and there is only one Black catcher: Atlanta’s Drake Baldwin.
“You say we have the most Black people on the team,” Woods Richardson said proudly. “It’s really cool and refreshing to see someone that looks like you in the same clubhouse.”
This is my 26th year of covering both the Twins and the minor league St. Paul Saints. I’ve lost count how long I’ve been a baseball fan, beginning in my formative days growing up in Detroit. But according to Statista, the average baseball fan is around 57 years old and remains predominately male (almost 70%).
From my press box seat, I constantly look for Black fans, young and old, in the stands. Too often it’s a rare sight as present generations rather watch basketball and football.
Dr. Josie Johnson is one of 12 Legacy Community Champions the Twins are recognizing this year, each honored on the field prior to Saturday home games this season and featured on the team’s Community Champions Wall inside the ballpark.
The “First Lady of Civil Rights” for her fierce advocacy for voting rights, housing and education, Johnson graciously spoke on what both the Twins and MLB could do to attract more Black fans, especially Black youth.
“Many of our people have experienced isolation for so long that you have to create an environment in which make us feel comfortable to come to the games … and I think to recognize that, to talk about what’s going on in the community,” she said.
Matt Hodson, the Twins’ business communications director, and I have had many conversations on this subject over the years.
“That is the hope of us,” Hodson said. “We’ve all done a very good job of increasing youth participation in the sport.”
This includes several youth-designed initiatives, such as Learning Through Baseball, which started in 2012 to provide educational experiences both in the classroom and in the ballpark. The focus is on connecting baseball with math and science, environment, sustainability, stadium architecture, social studies and the language of baseball.
“T.C.’s Strike Out Plan” is for Twin Cities elementary grades K-6 with emphasis on mental health, and Reading Is Powerful offers young people baseball-themed books.
“We’re always looking at different ways,” Hodson continued.
Finally, Johnson stressed that it is not solely up to the Twins and/or MLB to get more Blacks watching baseball on television or attending games in person, but upon all of us.
“We must return our young people to scholarship,” she concluded. “That’s where we came from, and they don’t really know it, so we have to tell them, bring them up… and people like you, writing and identifying and introducing scholars to our children so they make a connection. Because we have to do that.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses at challman@spokesman-recorder.com.