March 25, 2004
Grant and Oliver
Bruce Markusen, the manager of museum programs for the Baseball Hall of Fame recently sat down to interview Mudcat Grand and Al Oliver about the decline of African Americans playing the game today. He saw this post and thought I would be interested in a copy of the interview. He's allowed me to reprint the transcript here. It's a great read, full of history and humor. I love this passage:
Markusen: Mudcat, your thoughts on RBI?
Grant: I’m really disappointed in the RBI program. The intention of it was to promote baseball in the inner city. It hasn’t gotten very much promotion. And on top of that, for some reason, they will not use ex-African American ballplayers. We beg to be used. We’re not called for certain events; we’re not called for certain tournaments. I think if they use us more, the program will improve. I think right now it may be a semi-political thing. As long as baseball promotes the word ‘RBI,’ it would seem [in their minds] to be OK, but nothing is really happening in the inner city communities when it comes to RBI. We have to get the cities involved where the ballfields are, where the RBI players play. Take care of the field a little bit. You know, run that machine over there. Don’t let [the field] get so bad that the kids don’t want to play. So we have to get the cities involved; they’ve been ignoring where the inner city kids play.
But I’m more disappointed in the head of the RBI program because we don’t make a point [of getting former black players involved]. I think we are afraid to say that this is definitely an inner city program. Say it. And then do it. And then when you do the program, bring white kids in, too. Let them mix. Let them do things. But first do the job that the RBI program is supposed to do. It’s an inner city program; get these kids playing baseball. Call us, so we can motivate parents to be managers and so forth.
Oliver: Mudcat just hit on one key point when he said ‘inner city,’ but let’s bring in whites. Today’s society, in the inner city, you see whites as well. And what better way can we learn about each other. See, that’s where we need to be at in 2004. This is not 1804. We should be like this now. What better way to bring people together to learn about each other, and find out that, hey, we are all in this together.
"We're all in this together." These are two men who have a great grasp on the reality of the situation.
One other comment I'd like to make on this issue, and a tip of the hat to my wife Marilyn for suggesting it. Baseball has always been a game of shifting demographics. In the Bill James Historical Abstract (First Edition), James talks about who played the game in each decade. Different ethnic groups dominate various eras, then fade away. It could be that is what is happening to US blacks in baseball. Like other groups before them, as they grow more affluent, a risky career in sports becomes less of a draw.
The problem, of course, is that baseball has a history of segregation that makes people very wary of these types of trends. To his credit, Bud Selig does recognize this particular problem and at least makes an effort to confront it. I hope he will take the advice of these two veterans to improve the system.
For years, I wanted to volunteer for or contribute to RBI in Los Angeles. But try finding it. There's no website as far as I've ever found. I called around and finally spoke to the man in charge - John Young, I believe - offering help. Gave him my contact information. Never heard back. Occasionally, someone will write a story about them, but it is an almost invisible organization as far as I can tell.
Fascinating interview. I could read stories like that all day.
I don't see the problem here.