Deion Sanders recently joined the “How it Goes Down” Podcast with comedian and host Desi Banks to discuss a broad range of topics. One of them included why major league baseball is not big in the black community.
“I had the choice to play baseball or football,” Sanders explained.
In the late 1980’s and early 90’s, Sanders was a lockdown defender in the NFL but he also succeeded on the MLB diamond as well.
“This is the problem with baseball,” Deion Sanders began. “Black fathers never played baseball so black fathers are not pushing their kids towards baseball. So when the black father wants to play with his son, he puts in his hands what he is accustomed to. Baseball is not the option.”
“Back when I was coming up, we had a lot of African Americans in major league baseball,” Deion Sanders continued. “Now that is not a thing because they priced us out as well. Back when we played baseball in the little leagues it was cool, maybe about a hundred or a hundred fifty dollars to register. To play on a select team now it’s at least two thousand. So kids are not playing it. They can not afford it. They priced us out.”
“It is a problem and MLB needs to have a resolution,” Sanders concluded. “That is the reason we don’t play along with African American fathers not playing so they are not pushing us to the sport. And that is the best sport when we are talking benefits, salary, and longevity. That is the best sport.”
In total, 85 black players began the 2022 MLB on rosters, but that’s out of roughly 780 players.
In June 2021, MLB did commit $150 million to help increase Black participation and representation in the sport. The financial commitment is slated to begin in 2023.
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Sanders had a batting average of .263 with 558 hits, 39 home runs, 168 RBIs, and 308 runs scored in 641 games in his career.
