Former All-Star Rips MLB for Alienating Black Athletes: ‘This Sport Is Not For Us’

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Since integrating in 1947, Major League Baseball remains a White dominated league. Less than 10 percent of the league is comprised of Black athletes, while White players make up nearly two-thirds of the sport.

According to six-time All-Star and former Cy Young Award winner C.C. Sabathia, the game isn’t doing itself any favors in trying to become more diverse. The Undefeated recently released an excerpt from Sabathia’s new memoir, where the former World Series champion writes about being a Black player in a White dominated league.

“Baseball is boring too much of the time,” Sabathia writes in his book titled Till The End. “The game needs to change, and I don’t mean using more data to shift guys on the infield. I’m talking about the way people say, ‘He played the game the right way’ when what they mean is ‘He played it the white way.’”

“The right way,” often coincides with fans, broadcasters and coaches who are against player celebrations. Bat flips, fist pumping after a strikeout, or dancing across the plate are actions met with criticism, despite creating great highlights for social media. Tempering those highlights will contribute to baseball’s fan base growing older, while younger sports enthusiasts flock to the NFL and NBA.

“What they mean is they don’t like the flair that Black and Hispanic guys bring to the field,” Sabathia added.

“You can play baseball a long time, have a lot of fun, and make a lot of money. But right now, this sport is not for us, and we know that,” Sabathia wrote. “If the game doesn’t change, it’s going to be in trouble, and not just with Black people.”

For nearly two decades, Sabathia was an elite Major League Baseball pitcher. As highly touted and respected as he was in the clubhouse, Sabathia still felt like an outcast.

“There were plenty of years in Cleveland when I was the only Black player on the roster; New York was better, but even with the Yankees, most seasons I was one of a maximum of four or five Black players on the 25-man roster,” Sabathia wrote. “That’s a lonely place to be at any point in your career”