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How Blackness impacts baseball

Another season of baseball means that we have another Jackie Robinson Day, celebrated by all 30 teams across the league: On April 15, everyone wears the No. 42 to honor Jackie Robinson, the first African-American MLB player.

Of course, it is a wonderful reason for celebration, especially as this is the 75th anniversary of his MLB debut, but there is the issue of how Black MLB is currently. As of Opening Day 2022, African-American players represent 7% of the league. This is drastically different from the 1970s and 1980s, where African-American players made up as much as 18.