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Ringolsby: Diversity, for one, is thriving

Published April 13, 2007 at midnight

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On Sunday, baseball will honor the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers, an event that not only marked the breaking of the color barrier in baseball but began to open doors in society in general.

The question is where is baseball six decades later?

Is there reason for concern that on Opening Day, only 9.2 percent of the players on active rosters were black?

That is less than the general population of the United States, which is 12.25 percent black and is nearly one-third less than the 27 percent of the major league rosters on Opening Day in 1975, the largest percentage ever.

From a diversity standpoint, baseball is a bigger melting pot than ever.

There were a record 246 players born outside the United States on major league rosters on Opening Day.

That's 29 percent of the players. And a sizable share of Latin players owe their opportunity to Robinson.

The Rockies, as an example, have only one black, reliever LaTroy Hawkins, but have players from seven foreign countries (South Korea, Japan, Canada, Panama, Mexico, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic), more than any other team.

While there were Latin players in the big leagues before Robinson, they were light-skinned.

Blacks have gained opportunities in other sports, particularly the NBA and NFL, in recent decades, which has impacted the numbers going into baseball.

Blacks represented 66 percent of the players on NFL rosters the past season, more than double the 30 percent rate common in the 1970s.

Baseball also has become reliant on college programs to produce young players, and there is a definite imbalance with blacks in college baseball.

NCAA Division I rosters included only 6.5 percent blacks last year, according to ESPN.

But then college baseball provides few opportunities for any financially challenged students in light of being limited to fewer than 12 scholarships by the NCAA.

Even a predominantly black school such as Bethune-Cookman had only seven black players on its baseball team, according to ESPN.

Road woes

The move of Cleveland's home series against the Angels to Milwaukee because of weather conditions in Cleveland was the first weather-related move of a series since Florida had to move its Sept. 13-14, 2004, games against Montreal to U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago because of Hurricane Ivan.

Other bizarre incidents included the June 15, 1976, rainout of a Houston game at the Astrodome because of flooding that prevented players, fans and umpires from getting to the stadium, and the April 14, 1983, postponement of a Minnesota game because the Metrodome roof collapsed under 2 feet of snow.

Oakland opened its 1996 season in Las Vegas because renovations to meet the demands of the Raiders were not completed enough to allow baseball to be played at the Oakland Coliseum.

Seattle had to finish its season on the road after four tiles fell from the roof on the Kingdome on July 16, 1994.

It involved only 15 road games because of a strike that ended the season Aug. 11.

Then there were the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who were so bad and drew so few fans that other teams refused to travel to Cleveland, forcing the Spiders to play their final 34 games on the road.

The Spiders were 20-134, including 11-109 on the road.

Overheard

• San Diego has a contingency fund that will permit general manager Kevin Towers to make a deal for Ichiro Suzuki, Andruw Jones or Torii Hunter if the Padres are in the National League West race and one of the three potential free agents is available in a trade.

• Boston, Florida and Cleveland have interest in right-handed closer Akinori Otsuka if Texas becomes convinced Eric Gagne is healthy enough to handle the job.

• Minnesota closer Joe Nathan says his agents have had positive initial talks with the Twins about a contract extension.

Two cents' worth

The idea of wearing No. 42 on Sunday to honor Jackie Robinson was a great idea, but when entire teams start wearing the number, the tribute begins to become watered down.

The original idea - one player from each team, who was greatly affected by Robinson's sacrifices, wearing No. 42 - would have had a much greater impact.

MILE HIGH WATCH

• Houston reliever Brad Lidge, a Cherry Creek High School graduate, appears to be caught in a power struggle between Astros manager Phil Garner and general manager Tim Purpura.

Three times last season, Garner removed Lidge from the role of closer. Purpura never wavered in his support of the reliever and would not seriously consider trade proposals.

During the offseason, the Astros recommitted to Lidge as the closer, then, after two appearances and one blown save, he was jerked from the role again and told he would be used in the early innings to see if he could straighten things out.

The next day, when the new closer, Dan Wheeler, goes into a nonsave situation and pitches the game into jeopardy, guess who Garner had warming in the bullpen? . . . That's right, Lidge.

Purpura, whose loyalty to Lidge stems from when Purpura ran the Astros farm system, should do his team and Lidge a favor and give Lidge a chance to go somewhere else and start over. Lidge is a quality person with a quality arm who deserves better than what is happening in Houston.

Florida, Boston and Cleveland would have interest. The Rockies inquired about him during the winter and would seem a possibility, too. Lidge still lives in the Denver area and has said in the past he would like to pitch for the Rockies at some point.