i dont see y this is a problem. to me it shows that blacks dont see this as the only way they can earn a living and other things are more important to them. Blacks arent limited to this one area they just have a wide scope to chose from

@Jerine

I would question the width of the array of sports available to blacks, if so many American blacks are playing two sports and are underrepresented in sports that aren't cheap to play. Read the other thread. Dwindling participation of blacks in baseball is a bellwether, sort of like judging the strength of the economy by how much money people are spending on lattes at Starbucks or using the price of a slice of pizza to gage inflation. Baseball (like golf, swimming, hockey,tennis, gymnastics, etc.) has entered the realm of sports that are the perveyance of the solidly middle class or richer. So, it's not just a matter of black American kids losing interest and making money in other ways. Yes, that has something to do with it, because football and basketball have better marketing, but that's only a fraction of the story.

After little league, there really isn't much in terms of mentoring or coaching for kids, unless they play on travel teams in AAU, and the reason why those AAU teams are dominated by white kids is because their parents can afford it. So, the AAU kids train harder, get better coaching, and usually win spots on the most competitive high school teams, while playing AAU in the summer. The best under 12 prospects aren't even in little league. That's townie baseball. So by the time the kids get scouted for college, the minors, or MLB,the ones who get ahead are usually the ones with the most sound mechanics and the best technique, and that's going to eliminate a lot of black kids if they weren't privy to the type of advanced coaching and playing opportunities that other kids from the AAU ranks have. So, it really does come down to economics. Instead of blacks not being limited to this one area and having a large scope to chose from, as you suggest Jerine, economics is cheating them out of an opportunity because on average, the average MLB player's career is actually longer than the average NFL/NBA player's career.