John Donovan, SI, on the Beat with Charley Steiner

Discussing the loss of African Americans in baseball:

• It's been a decline over about 20 years, & will take that long to get them back, if ever.
• The young people would have to be convinced to play baseball instead of doing something else, programs like RBI notwithstanding. The game is passed from person to person.
• It takes the availability of bats, gloves, and a somewhat playable field (although some of today's current pro stars used cardboard milk cartons as gloves).
• The growing number of Latin players has created more competition.

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