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Black MLB players, executives strive to diversify baseball

FILE - In this Friday, March 1, 2019 file photo, Miami Marlins center fielder Lewis Brinson dives to catch a fly ball by Washington Nationals' Adam Eaton for an out during the third inning of an exhibition spring training baseball game in Jupiter, Fla. A five-person panel of Major League Baseball players, coaches and executives discussed ways to get more Black people involved at all levels of the sport. Lewis Brinson was on the panel.(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)
FILE - In this Friday, March 1, 2019 file photo, Miami Marlins center fielder Lewis Brinson dives to catch a fly ball by Washington Nationals' Adam Eaton for an out during the third inning of an exhibition spring training baseball game in Jupiter, Fla. A five-person panel of Major League Baseball players, coaches and executives discussed ways to get more Black people involved at all levels of the sport. Lewis Brinson was on the panel.(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File) FILE - In this Friday, March 1, 2019 file photo, Miami Marlins center fielder Lewis Brinson dives to catch a fly ball by Washington Nationals' Adam Eaton for an out during the third inning of an exhibition spring training baseball game in Jupiter, Fla. A five-person panel of Major League Baseball players, coaches and executives discussed ways to get more Black people involved at all levels of the sport. Lewis Brinson was on the panel.(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

By DAVID BRANDT / AP Sports Writer 4 min read

Michele Meyer-Shipp doesn’t have to travel far to realize the challenge of growing the sport of baseball in the Black community.

She just sits down at the dinner table.

Meyer-Shipp, who is Major League Baseball’s chief people and culture officer, has three sons who love sports. They know all about some of baseball’s Black legends like Hank Aaron, the sport’s one-time home run king who recently died at age 86.

But today’s Black baseball stars? Not so much.

“When I listen to my boys talk about sports, they’re always talking about the Black football player. Always,” Meyer-Shipp said. “And I’m like, ‘You know, there are Black baseball players.’ They talk about Black basketball players as well. But those are the guys you always see on commercials, on TV.