Mookie Betts has an important message during tonight’s All-Star Game: we need more more African-American representation in and around the game of baseball.
During batting practice before tonight’s game, Betts was rocking a t-shirt with the message,”we need more black people at the stadium.”
Check it out:
Mookie Betts with a message today. pic.twitter.com/1r5dtAqV1C
— Jorge Castillo (@jorgecastillo) July 19, 2022
To Mookie Betts’ point, the game of baseball currently feels like it has less black people than its had in a very long time, and the data would back that up.
According to a report released by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida, the MLB currently has the lowest percentage of black players since the early 1990s. At Opening Day this year, African-Americans made up just 7.2 % of MLB rosters, a number that was up near 18% in the late 80s and early 90s.
Now, Mookie Betts finds himself as one of the only black stars in our game, and good for him for using his platform to try to reach the younger generation.
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