Black colleges, white baseball players

USA Today’s Mike Lopresti reports on the continuing decline of African-Americans playing baseball.

I knew the numbers were down in the major leagues, primarly due to the continued surge of Latin ballplayers. But the decline is on the home front, too.

Lopresti says some historically black colleges are having to field lineups with as much as 50 percent white players just to fill out their rosters.

I agree that the inner-city surge of the NBA is part of it. Could it be that the NBA, which drafted high schoolers until this year, seemed a quicker, not just more glamorous, route to succees?

Sports Illustrated’s insightful Frank Deford says that the problem is in the eye of the beholder. Since sports are ultimately part of culture, this shouldn’t be made into such a big deal.

Now, at the MLB level, that’s certainly true. (On the other hand, will we hear shout-outs for the next “Great Black Hope”?) At the collegiate level, how “historically black” colleges square their tradition with this modern reality is another issue entirely. Of course, behind that is the yet-larger issue of integration vs. voluntary self-segregation.