The MLB a Place for Racial and Gender Equality

    Gender and Racial inequality have been prevalent in the United States since Christopher Columbus first set foot in America. The Native Americans were pushed out of their own land by the colonialists and African were taken from their own homes in Africa, packed in a small vessel and sold as slaves to the colonialists. Japanese Americans were also taken from their own homes and put into internment camps during World War II due to racial profiling. And women used to have no say in government and were denied jobs because of stereotypes. However, all of these inequalities were recognized by the US government and changes were made. On January 1, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation permanently freeing the slaves and in 1964 the Civil Rights Act took effect outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. In 1920, the 19th Amendment was added to the US Constitution giving women the right to vote and in 1946, the Japanese Americans were released from their internment camps and in 1968, the Indian Civil Rights Act was signed into law guaranteeing Indian tribes their natural human rights granted by the Bill of Rights. With all these changes for the better, the United States of America became known as a big melting pot, where immigrants are allowed and granted their natural human rights. Since America became more accepting of all races and genders, it comes no one’s surprise the America’s pastime, baseball, also accept these changes.

    One fateful on April 15, 1947, an African American man named Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier making him the first colored man to do so in any professional sport forever changing both the game of baseball as well as other sports. Since that day, the Major League Baseball (MLB) have been integrating people of color and women into their workforce. In 2015, the MLB received an A on the issue of racial hiring practices, a C+ for gender hiring practices and an overall grade of a B in the MLB Racial and Gender Report Card (MLB RGCR). On Opening Day 2015, the number of players from the 25-Man League rosters who identified themselves as African American or Black was approximately 8.3% which is a .1% increase from an all time low in 2014. The percentage of Latino players increased from 28.4 percent in 2014 to 29.3 percent on 2015 opening day rosters. However, the percentage of Asian players decreased from two percent in 2014 to 1.2 percent in 2015. The MLB have made great strides from only having just 1 colored person in the game to nearly 41.2% of the all total players are colored. The MLB have taken huge strides in improving racial inequality among players. Although the percentage of Asian players have fallen, teams have been taking interest in players playing overseas in Japan and in Korea. Most notably, the New York Yankees signed the reigning Pacific League MVP of the Nippon League, RHP Masahiro Tanaka to a seven-year contract worth $155 million in 2014 and the Texas Rangers signed ace Yu Darvish to a six-year contract worth $60 million in 2012. The success of these two players have encouraged other teams to take interest in players oversea. Most recently, the Minnesota Twins signed Korean slugger Byung Ho Park to a 4 year deal worth $12 million and the Los Angeles Dodgers signed Japanese ace Kenta Maeda to an 8 year deal worth $25 million. So there shouldn’t be too much concern about the decrease of Asian players.

    Unfortunately for women they can’t be employed as a player, but they do make up roughly 30% of the total workforce in the MLB. In fact 4 MLB franchises, New York Yankees, Washington Nationals, Colorado Rockies and the Chicago Cubs, have female owners. Jessica, Joan and Jennifer Steinbrenner all serve as Vice Chairperson’s with the New York Yankees. The Washington Nationals have four female Principal Owners who include Annette Lerner, Judy Lerner, Debra Lerner Cohen and Marla Tanenbaum. Laura Ricketts is a co-owner of the Chicago Cubs, and Linda Alvarado is a member of the Rockies ownership group. Women are starting to gradually be included in the male dominated MLB, which is huge progress considering not too long ago they were unable to vote.

    The MLB is very diverse organization as almost half of all players have identified themselves as of colored descent. They are also doing a great job including women in their workforce as some women are owners of MLB franchises.

Work Cited

"Sports Business News." 2015 Major League Baseball Racial and Gender Report Card.Sbn, 15 Apr. 2015. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.