Labels of African American Ballers (Comeaux & Harrison 2001)

Labels of African American Ballers:

A Historical and Contemporary

Investigation of African American

Male Youth’s Depletion from

America’s Favorite Pastime,

1885–2000Eddie Comeaux and C. Keith Harrison

‘‘I wish I was a baller, I wish I was a littletaller. I wish I was like 609 so I could get withLeoishi, yo she’s really fine.’’ (Skee-Lo 1996)

To Be Equal, Be Better

The position of Negroes in professional base-ball is much better today than it was ageneration ago when—by gentleman’s agree-ment—they were totally excluded. Todaysome of the game’s superstars are Negroes.Nevertheless, the Negro ballplayers, to betreated equally, must be better. The distribu-tion of both player and nonplayer positions inthe baseball hierarchy is different for the tworaces. Discrimination appears to operate for

managerial jobs on the field and in the frontoffice as well as for player positions below thestar level. Thus, as organizations becomeintegrated, Negroes appear to be more read-ily accepted in follower rather than leader-ship positions, where integration appears totake much longer. How much longer is notknown. (Rosenblatt 53)

Introduction

Over the past decade, little scholarly attentionhas been given to African Americans in organized

Earlier versions of this article were presented at the 2001 North American Society for Sport History Annual Meeting at the Universityof Western Ontario in London, Ontario, and the 2002 Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association Meeting inToronto, Ontario. We would like to thank Manque Winters, Jim Coates, Michelle Plecha, Mercedes Rubio, Larry Gerlach, SteveGeitscher, Amy S. Herskowitz, Steven Riess, and Charles Korr for their assistance with this research. This article is dedicated to all ofthe African American fathers and mothers who coached little league baseball. The Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Kinesiology,Sport Management and Communication, and the Paul Robeson Research Center for Academic and Athletic Prowess supportedresearch for this article, all at the University of Michigan. Both authors contributed equally.Eddie Comeaux holds an MA from the University of California and is a Robeson Doctoral affiliate at the University of California, LosAngeles. Author may be contacted at [email protected]. Keith Harrison, EdD, is assistant professor and director of the Paul Robeson Research Center for Academic and Athletic Prowess,Division of Kinesiology, Department of Sports Management and Communication, at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Authormay be contacted at [email protected].

67Labels of African American Ballers � Eddie Comeaux and C. Keith Harrison

baseball (Gerlach; Harrison, ‘‘Life’’; Korr;Nathan). Through various research perspectives,attempts have been made to understand the virtualinvisibility of African American baseball playersin youth leagues, high schools, and at inter-collegiate and professional levels. Studies havehighlighted how ‘‘racial stacking’’ has maintainedthe low numbers of African Americans on teamsports like baseball and football (Edwards, Sociol-ogy; Martin; Nightengale; Smith and Harrison;Smith and Henderson; Wiggins). Patterns of racialstacking were evident through the mid-1980s,when African Americans were relegated to play-ing positions based on their race/ethnicity insteadof their playing abilities (Smith and Henderson).Plaschke suggests that there are greater numbersof African Americans who play basketball andfootball because these sports have an abundanceof role models, youth leagues, and cultural appeal.This increased interest in basketball and footballcontributes to fewer African Americans who playorganized baseball. Rhoden suggests that a lack ofyouth baseball programs and scarcity of fullscholarships in college baseball are reasons forthe decline of African American participation inorganized baseball. Early contends that ever sincethe establishment of the Negro Leagues, blackinterest in the game has not been intense. Further,he states that ‘‘African Americans experienced thegame through flawed Americanism, imposed onthem by whites, and this is why they aresomewhat alienated and distant from the gametoday’’ (41).

Despite these authors’ viewpoints, our under-standing of the underrepresentation of AfricanAmericans in organized baseball remains limited.There is a tendency to overtheorize the core andcrux of this issue and ignore widespread percep-tions and beliefs among African American maleyouth. It is essential to understand the complexelements that shape and influence the socializa-tion process of African American youth(Edwards, ‘‘Crisis’’; Harrison; Sailes; Sellers,Kuperminc, and Waddell). Specifically, racialdemographic differences among football, basket-ball, and baseball require investigation into theenvironmental conditions that impact the selec-

tion of sport by participants (Sellers). A lack ofempirical studies that examine the decline ofAfrican Americans in organized baseball and theuse of anecdotal evidence provide only a minimal,exploratory understanding of this issue. There-fore, drawing from various sociohistorical refer-ences to African Americans in organized baseballat the intercollegiate and professional levels, thisarticle details the empirical patterns and trends ofAfrican American participation from 1885 to itssteady decline in the late 1990s. In addition, thisarticle seeks to extend labeling theory (Becker,Raalte, and Linder; Goffman), which has beenused occasionally in sport scholarship to frameand analyze symbolic interaction (see Coakley,Sport). In this article, traditional labeling theory isbuttressed with empirical findings of urban blackmale youth that document their participationchoices and perceptions of value in sport selec-tion. Empirical results are based on an originalinventory developed specifically for this study,which will be explained later. Finally, this articleanalyzes a study conducted on male high schoolstudent-athletes regarding their perceptions ofand beliefs about team sports to further under-stand the decline of African Americans inorganized baseball.

Background: Time Patterns andTrends

Sociohistorical references and statistical dataconvey valuable information about the contem-porary faces of African Americans in organizedbaseball. Although such data may be limiting intheir ability to explain the minimal number ofAfrican Americans in organized baseball, they doprovide current insights into the broad patternsand trends of African Americans at the profes-sional level.

As early as 1885, there were several attempts toorganize professional African American baseballleagues, but the lack of financial backing became amajor obstacle toward their establishment (Ashe).

68 The Journal of American Culture � Volume 27, Number 1 � March 2004

Moreover, an exclusionary policy in professionalbaseball officially banned African Americansfrom participating in the first national baseballorganization, which was formed by whites (TheJourney of the African American Athlete). Theexclusion of blacks from baseball was largely anattempt by southern whites to gain legal powerthrough segregation and negate an African Amer-ican presence in the sport (Early 5). As a result ofthis discrimination, African American interest inorganized baseball did not grow until after theCivil War. By 1920, the Negro National League(NNL) created by Rube Foster became one of thebiggest African American businesses in America,and baseball was the number one spectator sportamong African Americans as the New NegroRenaissance began (Nathan 2). Interestingly, theNNL posed an economic threat to Major LeagueBaseball (MLB). This is documented by theinverse relationship between attendance per teamper capita at MLB cities with NNL competitionand the level of NNL competition. The NNLbrought increased stability and organization toAfrican American baseball. A growing number ofprofessional African American baseball playerswould travel throughout different cities andinspire generations of future players at allorganized levels. This trend became known as‘‘barnstorming’’ (The Journey).

Along with shifts in attitudes and behaviors ofboth whites and African Americans came im-portant changes in the trends of baseball. By 1930,pressures from notable African American civilrights organizations and others like WendellSmith, an editor of the Pittsburgh CourierJournal, helped to convince the baseball establish-ment that African American athletes possessed theskills to play in the Major Leagues (Wiggins,Glory Bound 80).

In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the firstAfrican American to break the perennial colorbarrier in Major League Baseball (Rampersad;Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment; Tygiel, PastTime). Robinson’s entrance to the Major Leagueseventually led to the demise of the NNL. Thiswas largely due to MLB’s ‘‘talent raiding’’ of theNNL without much compensation to the NNL

owners. At least 54 Major League-caliber playerswere left behind during integration, and over 200African American players were left with ‘‘reducedcareers’’ at best (Black Diamonds, Blues City).

At the Major League level, the trend towardgreater African American participation in baseballgrew between 1947 and 1953. Six of the sevenNational League Rookies of the Year were formerNegro Leaguers: Jackie Robinson, Don New-combe, Sam Jethroe, Willie Mays, Joe Black, andJim Gilliam. During this seven-year stretch, theNational League added African American playersat a rate of three every two years, while theAmerican League added one African Americanplayer every two years (Wiggins, Glory Bound 91;Figures 1–4).

In 1959, the first year that baseball becameintegrated, 69 African Americans played in the 16major league teams and represented 17 percent ofall players (Nightengale 23). According to a studyby Curtis and Loy (cited in Lapchick, FiveMinutes 287), the percentage of African Amer-icans in baseball grew from 18 percent in 1968 toan all-time high of 27 percent in 1975. The steadyincrease in players’ salaries by the advent of freeagency may have contributed to the increaseddraw of African American players to the game. Inaddition, traditional baseball relationships duringthe Jim Crow period would shift as more playerslike Curt Flood began to assert themselves andpioneer for players’ rights and free agency.

Figure 1.


Despite changes within the structure of MajorLeague Baseball, which produced more AfricanAmerican coaches and players during the 1970s,the percentage of African American participantsdropped in 1983 to 19 percent (Lapchick, BrokenPromises 223). By 1999, the percentage of AfricanAmericans in Major League Baseball had declinedto 13 percent (Lapchick and Matthews). AlthoughAfrican American players continued to rankamong the game’s highest paid superstars, Amer-ica’s pastime remained unappealing to them at thegrassroots level (Ashe).

Accompanying many changes at the MajorLeague level were substantial changes to theprofessional Minor League. According to a studyon the Minor League system, African Americans

made up 30 to 40 percent of the players in 1970,while 1975 showed a sizable drop to 15 percent(Lapchick, Broken Promises 225). Currently, thenumber of African Americans in the MinorLeague system is lower than ever due to anincrease in foreign talent being recruited to play inthe United States (Morgan). This ‘‘global age’’ ofsports may have influenced the decline in AfricanAmerican participation at the Minor League level.Because baseball players can be imported fromcountries like the Dominican Republic and PuertoRico to play for minimum wage or for less moneythan what an average player from the UnitedStates would earn, the selection pool becomesincreasingly competitive, unlike boxing, football,or track and field.

In 1996, African Americans made up only 6.9percent of all Division I baseball players at the

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

Figure 4. The representation of African Americanyouth in little leagues was higher in the 1970s.We hypothesize that tangible empirical images andhigher percentages of African Americans in MajorLeague Baseball, along with resourceful blackinstitutional forces (i.e., parks, camps, events,and cultural identity), cultivated earlier sportingidentities in America’s pastime. Author’s collection.


level of intercollegiate baseball, which functionsprimarily as a minor league system. Aftereliminating the misleading element of predomi-nately African American schools in Division I, theparticipation figures dropped to 2.6 percent(Williams 18). When comparing these numberswith the percentage of African Americans whoparticipate in Division I college football (37percent) and basketball (56 percent), as well asthe percentage of African Americans in the NFL(65 percent) and NBA (77 percent), the participa-tion trends found in baseball are particularlyalarming (Lapchick and Matthews). The latterfigures represent a disproportionately high num-ber of African American participation in teamsports other than organized baseball.

The picture conveyed by this overview is oneof constant change in terms of African Americanparticipation in organized baseball. AfricanAmericans experienced their most significantgrowth and stability in 1920 with the formationof the Negro National League. The interest in thegame changed and ultimately influenced a grow-ing number of African Americans to playorganized baseball. However, the demise of theNNL was impacted by the integration of NNLtalent into Major League Baseball. The statisticsand sociohistorical references indicate that theintegration of African American players intobaseball in 1947 precipitated a rise in theirparticipation rates at the Major League level. Agradual decline followed after 1970, when struc-tural mechanisms were not in place to maintainathletic identities specific to baseball (discussed ingreater detail later).

These statistical data and sociohistorical refer-ences show patterns that provide new insight onthe issue of African American participation inorganized baseball. Essentially the referencesprovide a broad overview examining the declineof African American participation at the Minorand Major League levels. Thus, it is important torecognize and examine factors that contribute tothe decrease in African Americans playing orga-nized baseball at various levels. We now turn ourattention to a theoretical framework and con-ceptual model of labeling that shed light on our

central questions and concerns on environmentalconditions that impact the selection of sport.

LabelingTheory,Urban SpaceRealities, and Sport Identities

In popular culture, the ‘‘baller’’ is an image thatresonates with sports like football and basketball.It is a term that can be used as a noun, adjective,or verb, signifying aspects of achievement orsuccess. Both the sports and the ‘‘baller’’ labelhave deep visual and personal investments inidentity (sport choices) by many African Amer-ican and white male youth. For example, visualinvestments are made through the global con-sumption of sporting attire, and personal invest-ments are made in sports selected forparticipation. The ‘‘baller’’ label has, for the mostpart, been excluded from the space of organizedbaseball and is only one of the few positiveidentities that develop in urban spaces that dealwith visual and existential stresses such asunemployment, violence, poverty, and hopeless-ness (Kelley 44). Although this label receivescommitment from the ‘‘hoop dreamers’’ and thenext football stars, the dream through baseballappears to have decreased. Sport becomes theopiate in football and basketball, but not baseball(Edwards, ‘‘Crisis’’ 11–12).

Longtime Major League Baseball player BrianHunter articulates, ‘‘Brothers don’t play baseballbecause they feel they can’t get as many girls,unlike football and basketball’’ (personal inter-view). Beyond Hunter’s remarks, there are othertheories and formal scholarship that help explainthe depletion of the African American baseballplayer. Becker and Goffman are two majorcontributors to the sociological and psychologicalliterature who relate labeling theory with socialreactions and identity. For our purposes, themajor threads of their theory are the basicconcepts of individual identity, group relations,the impact of environment, and the movementand interactive meanings of information. Both


scholars refer to the individual as an actor orperformer shaped by his or her environment. Theimplication of an ‘‘audience’’ is implicitly con-structed to provide others with ‘‘impressions’’ thatare consonant with the desired goals of the actor(Goffman 4).

The concepts of social actors and performancesbear relevance to our central research questionand investigation. First, athletics have become avisible and attainable identity for many AfricanAmerican males in terms of being football andbasketball players, track athletes, and boxers,primarily. Second, peer group relations for youthacross ethnic and gender lines are a strongindicator of commonality and bonding (Comerand Poussaint 8). Third, the environment of the‘‘inner-city’’ and urban landscape both enablesand inhibits the development of African Americanpotential through expression in the arts andsports. These cultural expressions by urban youthhave been prevalent in sport and entertainment(Gilroy 269). Fourth, the movement of logos,cultural images, and representations related to the‘‘baller’’ encourages the creation and promotion ofinformation that bears micro and macro signifi-cance. Goffman suggests that social identityis closely allied with the concept of ‘‘front,’’described at length as

That part of the individual’s performancewhich regularly functions in a general andfixed fashion to define the situation for thosewho observe the performance. The front actsas a vehicle of standardization, allowing forothers to understand the individual on thebasis of projected character traits that havenormative meanings. As a ‘‘collective repre-sentation,’’ the front establishes proper ‘‘set-ting,’’ ‘‘appearance,’’ and ‘‘manner’’ for thesocial role assumed by the actor, unitinginteractive behavior with the personal front.The actor, in order to present a compellingfront, is forced to both fill the duties of thesocial role and communicate the activitiesand characteristics of the role to other peoplein a consistent manner. (22, 27)

The actual term ‘‘frontin’’ is a common sound bythe ‘‘in’’ hip-hop discourse, emphasizing the

importance of maintaining an external image of‘‘cool’’ (Majors and Billison 12). Similarly, theterm ‘‘outsider’’ coincides with the idea of‘‘frontin’’ in that these performed identities mayhave labels attached to them that cause socialactors to view themselves as being different from‘‘mainstream’’ society. For example, Becker re-searched the lives of Chicago dance musiciansthrough participant observation to illustrate thesocial life of a ‘‘deviant’’ subculture. Althoughlaw-abiding, the dance musicians’ unconventionallifestyles led them to feel like outsiders. Thiscompares to black male athletes in the same waysthat their social privileges may be founded onexceptional psychomotor abilities, and theircharacters demonized by an affiliation to anurban upbringing that has its own social pathol-ogies.

Becker concludes that the culture of the dancemusician is rich in its own language and gesturesthat mirror that of African American maleathletes, ‘‘ballers,’’ performers, and artists. Exu-berant expressions that are either vocalized orproduced through the body are more culturallyaccepted and prevalent in football and basketball,as opposed to baseball. This phenomenon illus-trates one of our research hypotheses in which wepostulate that vocal or bodily self-expression inthe sporting arena is highly influenced by mediainteraction and feedback.

Becker’s labeling theory is commonly appliedin the realm of mental health, which parallels ourconcerns for athletic mindsets, identity politics,and sport choice perception. In general, ourmeasures of urban perception at the micro levelcoincide with the macro-level influence of massmedia and representation. In other words, there isa relationship between the consumer/athleticparticipant and the product being promoted bythe institution of television (sports). This, weargue, will have some impact on the variablesinfluencing the depletion of African Americanbaseball players and the glorification of footballand basketball players.

Conceptually, we hope to extend both Goff-man’s and Becker’s theories by incorporatinggreater empirical support for social actors in the


athletic environment. Our research design andconceptual framework extends their scholarshipto the area of sport, which is seldom linked withlabeling theory.

ConceptualModel

Studies have highlighted how the decline ofAfrican Americans in baseball can be attributed tointegration, racial discrimination, and stereotyp-ing—in addition to the popular interest in otherteam sports—as stated earlier (Stone 2). Byassuming that these factors hold constant withoutfurther investigation, there is a possibility oflimiting our knowledge base and understandingin this area. Thus, our approach is to determineother factors relative to the depletion of AfricanAmericans in baseball by focusing on the beliefs,social identities, and perceptions of AfricanAmerican athletic participants themselves. Beliefsabout baseball as a sport, summer sports programsand camps, parental or main authority contribu-tions and encouragement, and role model influ-ences and past heroes’ influence (among others)are analyzed. We assert that issues of integration,racism, economics, and the interest in other teamsports factor into the decrease of African Amer-ican baseball players; however, we also maintainthat other influencing variables exist.

Instrument (Urban Identity SportScale)

There are no available empirical studies thatsurvey African American high school student-athletes’ perceptions and beliefs about certainteam sports, especially with regard to baseball.Therefore, it became necessary to develop anoriginal questionnaire with a team of experts andscholars that interrogates student-athletes’ per-ceptions about team sports. The development anddesign of this study piloted informal interviewswith student-athletes, college, high school, and

youth league coaches, professional players andscouts, and trained sport scholars.

The questionnaire is designed to reveal sub-jects’ perceptions and beliefs about the game ofbaseball. The questionnaire contains forty-fiveitems and employs a 5-point Likert scale that iscoded as follows: 55 strongly agree, 45 agree,35undecided, 25disagree, 15 strongly disagree.Some of the questions included in the instrumentare: ‘‘Baseball is of interest to me,’’ ‘‘Baseball is aboring sport to play,’’ ‘‘Sport figures or rolemodels have an influence in the selection of mysport,’’ and ‘‘The availability of summer sportsprograms/camps are a major factor in my selec-tion of a sport.’’

The conceptual mode of the Urban IdentitySport Scale is conceived by collapsing the forty-five items in the instrument, which producesseveral dependent variables. Subjects eitherchoose baseball as their main participatory sportor basketball and football as their primary sports.The dependent variables that result from thisgrouping are: media influences, professionalathletes’ influence, popularity of sport(s), andavailability of resources that include summercamps and youth leagues.

Methods and Subjects

Urban-area high schools are ideal sites inwhich to conduct this study because of thedisproportionately higher number of AfricanAmericans who are channeled particularly towardteam sports (Edwards, ‘‘Crisis’’ 10). Based on thesample population, these subjects would not differfrom the characteristics being measured andwould ensure immediate relevance to the study.

African American male student-athletes whowere involved in at least two sports were recruitedfor the study and participated on a voluntarybasis. The subjects were selected from schoolmedia guides that listed current student-athletesin each sport. Selection took place from tenSouthern California urban-area high schools(grades 9–12) where the Urban Identity Sport


Scale questionnaire was administered to 300 malestudent-athletes and equally distributed amongbaseball, basketball, and football participants. Itshould be noted that dual sport athletes wereselected based on their participation in baseball,basketball, and/or football only. Each student-athlete completed the UISS in approximatelytwenty minutes. All subjects were debriefed andthanked for their participation in the study. Allquestionnaires were self-administered by the firstauthor in groups of approximately twenty persession.

Subjects participating in the study are identi-fied in the following categories: African Americanmales whose main sport is baseball5 100, foot-ball5 100, and basketball5 100. Using an inde-pendent t test, the authors determined differencesin perceptions and/or beliefs about baseballbetween baseball and nonbaseball participants.

Findings and Results

When the ‘‘agree’’ and ‘‘strongly agree’’ cate-gories are combined, the data reveal that approxi-mately ninety-six percent of all subjects (bothbaseball and nonbaseball participants) felt thattheir main sport was an important part of theirlives. Forty-six percent of all subjects selectedsports based on the number of their friends(peers) who participated in them. Sixty-sixpercent of participants in this study felt that theirparent(s) had an influence on their participationin a specific sport. Eighty-nine percent of theparticipants report spending a great deal of timewatching sport highlights, and approximatelyforty-five percent felt that the availability of sportcamps and summer leagues were major factors intheir selection of sport (see Table 1). In addition,according to subjects whose main sport wasbaseball, almost forty-two percent stated thatthe main authority figure in their lives played andpreferred baseball. Sixty-five percent of partici-pants whose main sport was basketball, andninety-six percent of participants whose mainsport was football stated that the main authority

figure (representative or image) in their lives playedand preferred basketball and football, respectively.This is strong evidence to support that representa-tion, imagery, and possibly style are strongpredictors of sport identification for participants.

Nonbaseball Participants’ BeliefsAbout Baseball

Significant differences were evident in all fiveof the dependent variables: baseball interest,media influence in baseball, professional baseballplayers’ influence, popularity of baseball, andavailability of resources for nonbaseball partici-pants (see alphas in Table 3). Specifically, non-baseball participants agreed more strongly thattheir baseball interests in general (M5 2.11,SD5 1.3, po.05) and professional baseballplayers’ influence (M5 1.99, SD5 .84, po.05)were not important (see Table 2). These data lendmore conceptual and ideological support to the‘‘baller’’ identity by explaining that images and/orcontexts of baseball athleticism do not resonate asstrongly with African American males as much asfootball and basketball do (Figure 5).

Baseball Participants Beliefs’AboutBasketball and Football

Significant differences were evident in four ofthe five dependent variables when basketball and

Table 1Beliefs Held About the Influences on the Selection ofTeam Sports Among African American Participants(N5 300)

Dependent variableAgree Undecided Disagree(%) (%) (%)

Peer Influence 46 5 49Parental Influence 66 9 25Media Influence 89 2 9Sport Camp Availability 45 19 36


Figure 5. Division I varsity baseball poster of marquee players. It is peculiar that in Division I football andbasketball, fifty percent of the participants on athletic scholarship are African American, but less than fivepercent of Division I baseball players are African American, all in the same American higher educationsystem. Are these primarily institutional or individual ideologies in terms of sports participation? Author’scollection.


football were combined: interest, media influence,professional players’ influence, and popularity oncampus. Specifically, baseball participants agreedstrongly with their interest in basketball andfootball (M5 4.41, SD5 .75, po.05), the popu-larity of football and basketball on their highschool campuses (M5 4.55, SD5 .86, po.05),and the influence of professional players(M5 4.11, SD5 .84, po.05) in both basketballand football (see Table 2). These findings suggestthat there are multiple variables that impactAfrican American male interests in football,basketball, and baseball. Some of the most visualillustrations that support the findings are theurban landscape, marketing texts, and culturalattire worn by numerous urban black males.

Discussion and Summary

Results of this study indicate that nonbaseballparticipants (those who choose basketball orfootball as their main sport) have little interestin the game of baseball. These participants alsostrongly believe that professional baseball playersdo not have much influence on their interest toplay organized baseball, nor do they believe that

baseball is a popular sport in their communities.Moreover, the lack of summer sport camps andavailability of youth leagues for baseball com-pared with other team sports impact the sportselection by African American males (‘‘There’sNo Business’’). In other words, because moreresources in the form of summer leagues, camps,or all-star teams are available for basketballand football participants, these sports tend toexert greater influence over African Americanyouth’s selection practices. Although this studyprovides substantial evidence to suggest thatmultiple factors impact African Americans’ selec-tion of a team sport, it also supports the literaturepertaining to the decrease in African Americanparticipation in organized baseball (Plaschke;Rhoden).

Another noteworthy finding of this study isthat participants whose main sport was baseballalso exhibited strong interests in basketball andfootball. Professional basketball and footballplayers seem to have a substantial impact on theappeal of each sport to baseball participantsbecause subjects strongly believe that these arepopular sports in their communities. Moreover,the data reveal that participants whose main sportis baseball tend to have greater interest in basket-ball and football than nonbaseball participants’interest in the game of baseball. In other words,African American youth who participate in teamsports tend to gravitate toward basketball andfootball over baseball, regardless of whether theyare directly involved with baseball themselves.The representation of African American males inthe NFL (sixty-five percent), NBA (seventy-seven percent), and MLB (twelve percent) appear

Table 2Nonbaseball Participants’ Beliefs Held About Baseballand Baseball Participants’ Beliefs about Nonbaseball(Basketball and Football)

Dependent Variable

MeanMean

BaseballBasketball& Football

(n5 200) (n5 100)

Interest 2.11 4.41Media Influence 2.21 4.06Pro Athlete Influence 1.99 4.11Popularity 2.37 4.55Availability of Resources 2.58 2.96n

np5 .05 (This was the only finding not significant asindicated in this table.)

Note: Nonbaseball participants consist of those who chosebasketball or football as their main sport. Baseball partici-pants consist of those who chose baseball as their main sport.

Table 3Reliability and Alpha Results

Dependent Variable BaseballBasketball/

Football

Interest .93 .84Media Influence .83 .90Pro Athlete Influence .62 .64Popularity .74 .72Availability of Resources .77 .82


to correlate on some level with this finding(Lapchick and Matthews).

As hypothesized, the depletion of AfricanAmerican participants from the game of organizedbaseball is influenced by several factors, namely:lack of interest in the game; lack of media influence;professional baseball players’ lack of impact onAfrican American youth; lack of appeal on urbanhigh school campuses; and a dearth of baseballresources in their communities. These factorsemphasize the importance of youths’ socializationprocess and the elements that appeal directly orindirectly to their interests (Coakley 128).

These aforementioned findings are also con-nected to Brewer, Raalte, and Linder, whoanalyzed the degree to which individuals identifywith the athletic role. Interestingly, althoughseveral articles have been published that indicatea greater career longevity for playing baseball incomparison to other team sports, the majority ofAfrican American male youth prefer to partici-pate in team sports like basketball and football.We infer that the African American males in thisstudy still strongly identify with the ‘‘baller’’label, an identity that tends to exist outside ofbaseball. The ‘‘baller’’ label suggests that they alsoperceive football and basketball as avenues withgreater opportunity and merit for what we mightdeem ‘‘cultural mobility.’’ Revisiting Goffman’sand Becker’s notions of labeling theory, oncebaseball can (re)construct a cultural label thatyoung African American males identify andassociate with, there may be a surge in theparticipation rates of the African American base-ball player.

Limitations, Conclusions, and FutureResearch

Although this study has improved uponseveral methodological shortcomings in previousresearch, it is not without its own limitations.First, this analysis provides empirical patterns andtrends of African Americans in organized base-

ball; it does not provide substantial informationon African American youth leagues and pro-grams. This study relies mainly on sociohistoricalreferences—high school, intercollegiate, and pro-fessional league data—but because there is em-pirical evidence to suggest a decline in AfricanAmerican participation at the intercollegiate andprofessional levels of baseball, it is reasonable toinfer that there are not many African Americanyouth currently entering the pipeline and partici-pating in youth leagues. Second, our study lacks amixed methodological approach that could illu-minate greater social and political contexts fromqualitative and descriptive data. Narrative andopen-ended responses interrogating the deepermeaning(s) of association and identification withcertain sports may construct a more comprehen-sive picture to the research community. Never-theless, the method used in the present studyprovides a useful framework for conductingfurther research on African Americans in orga-nized baseball, particularly as a pipeline toDivision I baseball, educational and occupationalvenues, and levels of participation in the en-tertainment industry.

Additionally, the present study focuses onAfrican American youths’ perceptions and/orbeliefs about team sports, yet there may be othercomponents that contribute to the decline ofAfrican American participation in baseball, suchas the pervasiveness of professional scouts onhigh school and college campuses (Ralston 9).Although the participants of this study answerseveral questions relating to this issue, futureresearch on professional baseball scouts should beaddressed because they too play a major role indetermining the numbers of African Americanplayers. To date, there are few African Americanscouts for Major League Baseball. In fact, a studyconducted in 1998 on the prevalence of AfricanAmerican scouts for MLB revealed that only 16 ofthe 90 scouts in California were African American(Baseball Scout). This study was replicatedrecently and confirmed the exact same results(Baseball Scout).

Additional research questions that requireinvestigation include whether non-African Amer-


ican scouts attend baseball games in the innercities. Are young African American baseballplayers afforded the same opportunities forprofessional baseball careers as non-AfricanAmericans are? Along a broader scope, whatabout professional opportunities for young Afri-can Americans in other sport and societal venues?

Future research on the use of vocal or bodilyself-expression in the game of baseball wouldenhance the body of knowledge in sport sociol-ogy. Historically, blacks have shown a propensityto celebrate more so than their white counterparts(Andrews; Hitchcock). This includes dancing inthe end zone in football, performing stylish dunksin basketball, and a range of other entertaininggestures. In baseball, however, the lack oftolerance for individual gestures that can be usedto score ‘‘cool points’’ (Majors and Billison) isconsidered necessary to preserve the team psyche.For example, a team may retaliate if they feel thatan opponent has ‘‘disrespected’’ them by celebrat-ing. The substantive work of Andrews furtherarticulates this issue by contrasting AfricanAmerican codes of behavior against the whitenormative construction of sportsmanlike conductin organized football.

Further, future studies on the marketingscheme of baseball that reveal differences incommercializing African American baseballplayers compared to basketball and footballplayers should be addressed. The disproportion-ate number of African American basketball andfootball players represented in the media com-pared to baseball players is a fascinating researchissue considering that many of the highest paidplayers in professional baseball are AfricanAmerican. Further research also needs to questionthe various ways in which African Americanathletes are marketed across the sporting spec-trum. Do the marketing images differ betweensports like bowling, golf, and tennis? We mightinfer that the more mainstream (white) the sportstays, the less representation, participation, andaccess African Americans will have (Edwards,‘‘Crisis’’ 9). This theorized phenomenon haseducational implications that will be explained atlength in the remainder of this article.

Finally, future studies that investigate the rolesand relationships between African Americancoaches and players in both high school andcollege baseball are imperative. In addition, thestate of Historically Black Colleges and Univer-sities’ (HBCU) baseball programs, where manyfield teams have greater numbers of non-AfricanAmericans, needs to be addressed and system-atically investigated.

Clearly, there are several untapped and crucialissues to further understand the depletion ofAfrican Americans from the game of organizedbaseball. This study suggests that more concertedefforts are needed to address the participation ofAfrican Americans in organized baseball. Forinstance, this study investigates only one aspect ofsocial class. There are approximately eighteenmillion middle-class African Americans out ofthirty-five million in the United States (PeopleLike Us). The question of class status as it pertainsto African American participation in baseballdemands investigation into whether baseball ismore popular in middle-class African Americancommunities versus urban African Americancommunities. Empirical data that combine quali-tative and quantitative design would be veryhelpful in answering this research question.Although this study reveals considerable ‘‘light’’and empirical underpinnings on the depletion ofAfrican American youth from America’s favoritepastime, the attempt should be to produce studiesthat illuminate how African American youth arechanneled into certain sports, and equally whybaseball is predominantly white at certain levelsof participation (Lipsitz 233). From such researchwill come valuable information for understandingthe virtual invisibility of African Americans fromall organized levels of baseball. The application ofresearch into policy and program implementationrepresents tangible solutions to these types ofsocial issues.

If athletic and social schemas exist in theinternal structure and space of sport, researchersmust examine the external barriers that precludeAfrican American males from being labeled‘‘intellectuals’’ or ‘‘scholars’’ as frequently asthey are branded with athletic or entertainment


labels. Presently, our findings suggest thatmedia influence is the most salient of all of thevariables.

Focusing on our major finding at the surface, astudy of current intercollegiate football andbasketball players who played baseball in highschool would be most informative in terms ofdiscerning the reasons they left baseball. Inaddition, studies that focus on professionalathletes who are oftentimes active in multiplesports during college—such as Brian Jordan of theAtlanta Braves, who was a standout basketballplayer in college; Michael Vick of the AtlantaFalcons, who was drafted as a baseball player; andDeion Sanders, who was a star of several footballand baseball teams simultaneously—might helpilluminate the social impact of being labeled afootball, basketball, or baseball player. Although alongitudinal design would be more reliable forevidence of this sport and role-exit from one sportto another, reflection and recall of why AfricanAmerican athletes select the sports they do addseven more color to the picture. This type ofresearch will increase the awareness of what each‘‘ball’’ means for every ‘‘baller’’; what factors ledsome athletes to exit sport while others chose todevelop within it from the early Negro Leagues,the Jackie Robinson Era, and the plentiful 1970s.Teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates, which usepopular music like ‘‘We are family’’ from thegroup Sister Sledge, fuse baseball, African Amer-ican culture, and the American pastime. This typeof fusion is healthy for the social and culturaldevelopment of African American male youth. Inthe meantime, ball, baller, and ‘‘ballin’’ should belabeled, cultivated, and nurtured to imply ‘‘suc-cess’’ in any sport or societal task that AfricanAmerican male youth set their minds to.

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Labels of African American Ballers (Comeaux & Harrison 2001)

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Transcript of Labels of African American Ballers (Comeaux & Harrison 2001)