This weekend, Boston Red Sox starter David Price decided to blast MLB for their poor marketing of black players. Why the southpaw is absolutely right.
We’ve all seen the most recent “Let Kid’s Play” commercial, right? Watch closely and you’ll notice that one of baseball’s best players, the 2018 AL MVP, from the Boston Red Sox, Mookie Betts is missing.
Let me get this out of the way, baseball does not have a diversity problem. If we look closely at the most comprehensive data we could find, Baseball Prospectus’ “Baseball Demographics, 1947-2016,” baseball’s diversity has gotten better since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier back in 1947.
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There’s no question, however, that the lack of African American player representation in MLB’s marketing campaigns is a problem, which is why David Price decided to draw attention to it. Per Mark Townshend of Yahoo Sports, Price had this to say about baseball’s marketing problem:
"“We’re trying to grow this game in the African American community. Put that guy [Betts] on commercials. That’s how this game grows. MLB is probably the worst at marketing their players. They need to do a better job of that. We’ve talked about that to the union and [MLB commissioner] Mr. [Rob] Manfred many times.”"
Price is right. Not only is baseball bad at marketing their players in general, but they’re also particularly terrible at marketing black players.
As a result, since 1981, when the population of African American MLB players was at its best at 18.7%, the number of African American players has dropped 12%. In fact, in 2016, only 6.7% of MLB players are black. That’s the lowest mark in 60 years, since 1957.
Some might retort by using Latin-American players as an example of how baseball excels in diversity. You wouldn’t be wrong in saying that either. The population of Latino players has remained steadily at 27%+ since 2013. It was 0.7% at it’s lowest in 1947, that’s 0.2% lower than African American players.
This, however, highlights Price’s point. Look back at that “Let the Kids Play” commercial, and you’ll see Ronald Acuna Jr., Francisco Lindor, and Carlos Correa. All players born in Latin-America. Betts, however, the “B” to Mike Trouts “A”, is missing.
As Red Sox pitcher David Price reiterated in that interview,
"“Mookie Betts doesn’t have a single commercial… He plays for the Red Sox and he’s African American. Zero commercials. A very likable person. He could be the face of baseball. And zero commercials. He just won MVP. MLB just needs to step up.”"
MLB does indeed need to step up.