There's been a lot of press about the falling numbers of black Americans in professional baseball. On Stereohyped, we've alternately asked "Why?" and "Who cares?" I suppose it's because die-hard baseball fans, a group to which I do not belong, would hate to see all of the hardships players like Jackie Robinson went through to be in vain. Below, check out photos of five black players — Josh Gibson (from the Negro Leagues), Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron — who represent the not-so-strong anymore tradition of African Americans in baseball.

A new report shows that the number of African American professional baseball players continues to decline. According to the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports (UCFIDES), in 2006, 8.4 percent of MLB athletes were black. Last year, that percentage fell to just 8.2, the lowest it's been in 20 years. "African Americans just aren't playing it at this point," says Richard Lapchick, the director of the UCFIDES. "They're going to have to increase their efforts." My question: why?

CONTINUED »

A new study on physicians in California shows a glaring gap between the number of doctors of color compared with the state's ethnically diverse population, especially among African Americans and Latinos. At the same time, the state has a disproportionate number of Asian and white doctors, according to the UCSF study …

The disparity is particularly alarming because minority physicians are far more likely to practice primary care medicine and work with poor or uninsured patients in rural areas, inner cities or other communities with a chronic shortage of physicians.
…
In a state with more than 35 million people, fewer than 3,300 Latino and only about 2,000 African American physicians are in "active patient care" …

This is almost as bad as DC's African American baseball player shortage!

It's been over 60 years since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier of Major League Baseball, and yet the sport is still almost completely void of African Americans. In 1995, the MLB was 19 percent black. Now, that statistic has dropped to just nine percent. Experts theorize that a demand for cheap labor is a major cause of this decline. Professional baseball clubs can hire three or four foreign players for the price of one American. On top of that, many inner city high schools don't even offer baseball programs to their student athletes, so there aren't fresh black stars to replace the aging pros.

The nation's capital hopes to reverse this trend. The Washington Nationals and DC's RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) are establishing programs intended to revitalize black youth's interest in the sport. RBI provides baseball training, education and mentoring to roughly 500 kids in some of the most economically depressed neighborhoods in DC. For their part, the Nationals have "adopted" several public schools in the city, and each team member is required to visit at least once a month with the students.

"It's important to have minority players involved in the community," says an executive with the Nationals. "The more players they see, the more it moves the ball forward."

We've got one question before a lot of valuable time and money goes into this effort: Why the hell does anyone care how many black kids are playing baseball? For years now, football and basketball have been dominated by black athletes, and yet still this: "Across a range of economic indicators including measures of employment, poverty, housing, income and wealth, blacks were much worse off than whites. If whites scored 100 percent on such measures, blacks scored just 56.8 percent, a figure unchanged from last year … " Is baseball going to get that percentage to 80? 70?

Sorry if we're less than concerned that a few dozen black teenagers can't become blingy millionaires for swinging a stick, we're a bit engaged with trying to understand why an entire race of people is languishing.

A daily Black History Month fact that has nothing to do with George Washington Carver, MLK, Jr., or Harriet Tubman. Promise!

“It’s not that I don’t like Babe Ruth, I just don’t think he was the best of his time. Satchel Paige was striking people out from his wheel chair at age 63! And he was tenth best. There were nine Negro players better than him! It’s almost like saying, 'I won the New York City Marathon this year, but no Kenyans ran.' It’s not a sport until brothers show up. It’s just a game.” — Chris Rock

Josh Gibson was probably smiling from the grave when Chris Rock made that statement recently. Gibson never had the "fortune" of playing baseball alongside Babe Ruth in the Major Leagues, but in the Negro Leagues, the 6'1 catcher was a force to be reckoned with and was known, incidentally, as the "Black Babe Ruth." Gibson, who was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972, is considered by baseball historians to be one of the best catchers and power hitters to play in any league. Ever. Just three months before Jackie Robinson made history by joining the major leagues in 1947, Gibson died of a stroke at the age of 35.

• Some (white) Southern Democrats "wish there was someone worth voting for." Hmmm. [NYT]

• I love it when Fox Newsies get all sappy about the Democratic race. [FOX]

• Racism is alive in El Paso, TX. Just so you know. [EPT]

• Nooses on a baseball field! America's pastime… [WP]

• Happy Black-History-Month-Although-Every-Month-Should-Be-Black-History-Month!

• As you settle down for Thanksgiving dinner, think of Malinda Russell, who wrote the oldest-known cookbook by a black author in 1866. Incidentally, she didn't include any recipes for fried chicken. [NYT]

• If you're black and Hispanic and even thinking about majoring in computer science, do it. Bill Gates wants you to. [IW]

• New Orleans shifting racial population plays out in the new, majority-white City Council. [NYT]

• Ian Smith, the last white ruler of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), is dead. [LAT]

• Critics are saying that Barry Bonds should have an askerisk next to his home run record because of his steroid use. But where are all the asterisks on the records won by the white old-timers when blacks were surpassing them in the Negro Leagues? [USAT]

I know there are thousands of people who are fond of Barry Bonds. And millions more are fond of baseball. I am not one of those people. So when I heard the news that Bonds had been indicted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, I was kind of like, "eh."

If Marion Jones had her medals taken away for taking steroids, it seems unfair for Barry Bonds (and others, yes, I know) to get away with both taking steroids and lying about it and being really obnoxious and surly. The latter two aren't criminal offenses, I just thought I'd add them. So. I guess there goes Barry's career? I wish he had gotten arrested so I could make some sort of "Barry's out on Bond" joke, but, as it is, I've got nothing. These baseball posts kill me.[ESPN]

Barry Bonds took Hank Aaron's home run record last night against the Washington Nationals. Woohoo! Hip Hip Hooray!

Eh. I tried to drum up enthusiasm. The truth is, I'm not a fan of baseball, and I'm not a fan of Barry Bonds, who, as pop culture and sports icon, leaves much to be desired in the way of personality and moral fiber.

Still, even I am not so insulated from the sporting world that I don't get that the home run record is kind of a big deal.

Well, that's that. No more baseball talk until people want to resurrect the "where are all the black players" dialogue again.