Build it and they will play. MLB is seeing a decline in Black baseball players. What is causing this?
In the middle of the Claremont Village lies a field. It was once a baseball field.
It is now a field of broken dreams. Every now and then you will find a group of children playing on the field but there is very little activity other than an occasional dog relieving himself on the thick unmaintained grounds. It is sad that you can no longer see the golden sand of the diamond or the wooden benches that at one time were filled with excited children.
I recently read an article discussing what is causing the decline in Black baseball players (https://www.overthemonster.com/2016/6/2/11806176/mlb-black-players-decline-red-sox-chuck-d). Although the article touches a great deal of the issues, we must truly understand what is happening here. For many of our children, baseball is a ticket to college and possibly a career. I grew up wanting to be a baseball player and it kept me focused in school. Today, most of the children I serve do not know about baseball. They are exposed to it when I provide them tickets to the Yankees games but they truly do not know the game. It is difficult for me to teach them about it when around the school there are no ball fields for them to be exposed to the sport.
This summer I heard someone speak on how there is no such thing as "gifted" children in the world. The speaker went on to explain that when one is considered gifted it is more about having access to resources rather than being born with a talent. All children are born with the tools to be successful in life, it is the access to resources that will determine how successful. A baseball field is one of those such resources. Where I live I can find many baseball fields sadly the community I serve has none.
From understanding the need to increase the number of Black baseball players in the major leagues, to the urgency to provide resources to our children, I am reaching out to see if I can gain support to revitalize the baseball field in the heart of the community I serve. I am willing to do whatever it takes to get it done. My dream is to one day develop the field into a replica of Yankees Stadium where our children will dream of one day playing in the majors.