Percentage of black MLB players drops to 8.5%

NEW YORK - The percentage of black players in the major leagues dropped again on opening day this year even as the sport again received a top overall grade for racial diversity.

Baseball's grade for gender hiring declined slightly, according to the annual study released Thursday by Richard Lapchick's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of Central Florida.

Baseball received an A for racial diversity in hiring, the same grade as last year, and a B-minus for gender, down from a B. Its overall grade remained a B-plus.

"Jackie Robinson's dream was to see more African-Americans playing, coaching and in the front office," Lapchick said. "While this year there has been a slight decrease in the grade for racial and gender hiring practices, there has been a long-term consistent and dramatic increase in the role of people of color and women regarding who runs the game."

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The percentage of black players dropped to 8.5 percent on opening day this year, down from 10 percent at the start of last season and its lowest level since 2007. The percentage of Latino players dropped from 28.4 percent to 27 percent — baseball's lowest since 1999's 26 percent.

"This has been a concern of Major League Baseball and leaders in the African-American community," Lapchick said. "However, the 38.3 percent of players who are people of color also make the playing fields look more like America with its large Latino population."

While Major League Baseball's central office received an A-plus for racial diversity and an A-minus for gender diversity, the 30 clubs fared more poorly.

The number of black and Latino managers dropped from 10 at the start of the 2010 season to six, and the percentage of black and Latino coaches dropped from 31 to 29 percent. No blacks were team chief executives or presidents and only Houston Astros president of business Pam Gardner fell into that category.

Black and Latino general managers dropped from five to four, and at the team vice president level percentages declined for blacks (9.8 percent last year) and women (18.2 percent). For the VP level, teams received a C-to-C-plus for racial diversity and an F for gender diversity.

"MLB has made great strides with diversity in who runs the game, and today is one of the best in sports." Lapchick said. "However, there is clearly room for improvement, especially regarding hiring more women into professional positions."