CHICAGO — History was made in the first round of the 2022 Major League Baseball draft. For the first time in 30 years, nine Black players were drafted in the first round, including four of the top five selections.
The Arizona Diamondbacks drafted high school outfielder Druw Jones with the second pick. Pitcher Kumar Rocker (Texas Rangers), shortstop Termarr Johnson (Pittsburgh Pirates) and outfielder Elijah Green (Washington Nationals) rounded out the top five. All four were participants in MLB Develops programs.
“It’s a pipeline for sure,” Johnson told MLB.com on draft night. “It’s just amazing that we get to have those guys together, get to support them, get to cheer them on and just love each other. It’s special.”
Through programs such as the Breakthrough Series, Hank Aaron Invitational and DREAM Series, MLB has been working to reverse the much-discussed decline in Black American players. About 7% of current major-leaguers are Black American, and that number drops to 4% in NCAA Division I baseball.
“We’ve been kind of toiling in this area for the last six or seven years‚” Del Matthews, MLB’s vice president of baseball development, told the Tribune. “And we’re just now starting to see more consistent fruits of our labor, specifically with this year, and most kids that were drafted have had a chance to touch some of the MLB development programs.
“We really feel that we’ve played an important role in providing them the platform and also the exposure and continuing to encourage and push them and inspire. And whenever they would go back home, they continue to get better, they continue to work on their game. And you know, iron sharpens iron at the end of the day. It became kind of a competition among themselves and pushing each other to really be the best that they could be. The class this year was just a really talented draft class.”
According to MLB, more than 630 alumni of the Hank Aaron Invitational, DREAM Series and Breakthrough Series are playing college or junior college baseball.
Through the MLB Identification Tour, baseball works with coaches and scouts across the country to identify young ballplayers, particularly Black American and Latino ones, to invite to participate in future development programs. Matthews said many return summer after summer.
Both Chicago teams participate in MLB Develops programs. The White Sox ACE (Amateur City Elite) program recently won the RBI World Series in both the junior and senior divisions.
Matthews recognizes that MLB doesn’t want to miss anyone.
“That’s why it’s great that there are other programs like Minority Baseball Prospects and Future Stars that provide opportunities for minorities,” he said. “It’s not always the same players that are attending each of those events. That way, kids get exposure to lots of different platforms. And if they do well, that helps them get to the next level of the events.
“That’s one of the positives, we’re all seeing good numbers and results. It’s just tremendous for the community.”
Alexander Wyche, a former college baseball player and high school baseball coach, saw a need for a showcase for Black talent.
“I really wanted to be on the ground level,” he told the Tribune. “Working at a Title IX school in the Black baseball mecca of Atlanta, I felt like I had the best experience and opportunity to really make a change in the game of baseball, and that’s how Minority Baseball Prospects was started.”
He started by recording video of high schoolplayers and posting on social media to highlight them, and it took off from there. Using his Instagram and Twitter accounts, Wyche estimates he has helped more than 150 youth baseball players gain exposure.
But Wyche doesn’t stop at baseball; he also is incorporating education. MBP plans to incorporate monthly online tutoring and SAT prep in 2023.
“Our push now is just giving these kids the knowledge of understanding what it really takes to go to these next levels,” he said. “We’re just scratching the surface. Get into the educational part. A big reason why a lot of minority kids aren’t (playing at the college level) is because baseball doesn’t give out full scholarships. We’re still on the surface of understanding how the educational part ties into the baseball part.”
MBP travels the country hosting events and college tours at which scouts, coaches and other interested parties can see talent that may not have been on their radar previously and encouraging players to attend college. It has hosted showcases at Truist Park, where the Atlanta Braves play, giving kids an opportunity to experience a major-league ballpark.
The event, which Wyche said he tries to give an “HBCU homecoming feel,” has attracted about 900 kids. He is taking the show on the road and has events scheduled in Gastonia, N.C., Detroit and Palm Beach, Fla.
MBP’s reach extends to the Chicago area as well. Among Wyche’s growing Black baseball network is Earnest Horton, or “Coach E,” as he is known. A Chicago native, Horton attended University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff on a baseball scholarship. After earning his degree in physical education, he returned home and began teaching in Chicago Public Schools and was an assistant baseball coach at Morgan Park.
“I saw there was still a need and that need is equitable training on and off the field,” Horton told the Tribune. “We hear this a lot (that) Black kids can’t afford baseball, but that’s such a blanket statement. We’ve got to really chisel down and say, ‘What can they not afford?’ We’ve got a lot of organizations that are playing baseball, believe it or not. I hear people saying nobody is playing, but I beg to differ. We’re playing it at a great rate, it’s just not being publicized.”
So Horton decided to help fill that need. During the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when everything was shut down, he started a baseball instructional program called Black Baseball Matters that provides free coaching and fundamentals training to youth all across Chicago.
“A baseball lesson can be anywhere from $30 an hour to $150 an hour,” he said. “We don’t want kids and their families to feel they have to go broke to fit that feel.”
In July, Black Baseball Matters hosted an event with Jackie Robinson West Little League.
“We want to create a safe environment surrounding Black baseball,” Horton said. “Most little leagues survive off volunteers that might not have ever played baseball. To really create a boom in Black baseball, we’ve got to give them the tools that they need instructionally. We teach our kids we’re not making excuses or looking for a handout. We’re going to figure this thing out. You know, grassroots, blue collar — we are Chicago.”
There has been much discussion over the years about Black American participation in the sport, and many organizations have made efforts to help grow the game. From the looks of this year’s draft and the movement happening with local, grassroots organizations, there may be some momentum building.
“I feel like as the years go on, we’ll definitely have those numbers grow because of events like Dream Series, Breakthrough Series and Hank Aaron,” Johnson told WABE-FM in Atlanta last year. “You know, baseball is fun around here, and they definitely will love to play the game.”
