At the All-Star Game, a Dimmer Stage for Black Players

“I think a lot of kids would like baseball, but they don’t even get an opportunity to try it out at a young age because of how expensive it is,” said Ke’Bryan Hayes, the Pirates’ rookie third baseman and the son of the longtime major leaguer Charlie Hayes.

“It all boils down to getting the game out there to those kids at a very young age,” Hayes, 24, continued. “By the time you get to middle school or high school, it’s too late to try to learn baseball, because it’s one of the hardest sports. Growing up, I played with a bunch of kids that were really, really good, but they couldn’t afford to be able to go to that D-1 college. At some of these schools, even if you get a 40 or 50 percent scholarship, your parents are still going to have to try to pay $20,000 or $30,000 a year to go.”

As his career goes on, Hayes said, he hopes to help create opportunities for underprivileged children to play the game. He said he was encouraged by some of baseball’s efforts, citing the Players’ Alliance and the Breakthrough Series, a prospect camp for players of color funded by M.L.B. and U.S.A. Baseball.

But for now, there is no telling how much the sport has lost, in on-field excitement and off-field appeal, by losing so much Black talent.

“It made it more competitive,” Parker said. “Playing against other Black players, we didn’t give ’em no slack. We went out, we didn’t compromise. I’d take Ozzie Smith out to left field with a slide, if I could get him. We just enjoyed competing and loved each other.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/sports/baseball/dave-parker-all-star-game.html