Daily News | As MLB celebrates Jackie Robinson Day, Josh Harrison, Taijuan Walker reflect on declining number of Black players
“Am I surprised? No,” said Harrison, a 35-year-old utility player in his first season with theand 13th year overall in the majors. “I live it — and lived it, growing up being the only one or one of two, one of maybe three. We’ve always had this conversation, and we continue to have it. There’s a clear-cut disparity of not enough representation. What’s the solution? I don’t know. But I do know that it doesn’t surprise me.
It was different for Walker. Not only did he consider basketball to be his “first sport” — “I just happened to get drafted in the first round in baseball,” he said — but as one of only about a dozen Black students at his high school in Southern California, he didn’t play with anyone else who looked like him, regardless of the sport.
“I’ve heard stories of kids under the age of 13, their parents having to fork out $10,000 or $15,000 just for a summer,” Harrison said. “If we had to pay that kind of money for me to play summer ball, I wouldn’t be where I am right now. Not because I can’t play. Because my family didn’t have the resources to pay $10,000 or $15,000. It wasn’t like that back then.”
“You’ve got to go through the steps, go through all the levels, and if you’re not a top prospect, it might be five, six, seven, eight years,” Walker said. “whereas basketball, now you can go straight to the G League, to the NBA. You can go play overseas now. The talent’s really good over there. It’s easier paths than baseball is.
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