Right: A TEAM EFFORT — Los Angeles Dodger Orlando Hudson is joined by Ken Griffey Jr. of the Seattle Mariners and Dodgers teammate Juan Pierre during the "Around the Mound" program at the Van Ness Recreation Center June 27.
More than 60 years ago, Jackie Robinson faced ridicule, received death threats, was spit on and cursed at for helping integrate Major League Baseball and making it possible for African Americans to participate in the sport on a professional level.
Before Robinson's arrival, black players formed their own Negro leagues and barnstormed across the country.
From the 1920s to the '70s, baseball was popular in the African-American community, with black youngsters wanting to be like Willie Mays, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock and others.
In 1959, the ratio of African Americans in Major League Baseball was about 1-in-5 and, as late as 1983, 1-in-4, according to a 2007 news report by Phoenix's East Valley Tribune.
But more than a decade ago, baseball begin to lose its luster in the black community. In 2006, blacks made up only 8.4 percent of players on major league rosters compared to 59.5 percent whites and 29.4 percent Hispanics, according to a report from the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.
While Major League Baseball has begun initiatives to improve the number of African Americans in baseball over the last few years, Orlando Hudson, second baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers, has taken it upon himself to use his name, contacts and influence to bring attention to the issue and do something about it.
On April 15, the day Robinson officially integrated baseball, Hudson launched the Around the Mound Tour, a new program designed to get more African-American youths interested in baseball.
"It (the program) is to help inner-city kids in the community ... get me more involved in the community and getting more African Americans involved in baseball," Hudson said during the tour's stop at the Van Ness Recreation Center in Los Angeles on June 27. "That's something I always wanted to do: get more African Americans involved in baseball because we're losing them. Mr. Robinson did a lot for this game of baseball and for the numbers to be declining every year, it's sad; it's a hurting feeling."
The tour stops in every city where the Dodgers play where there is an African-American player on that city's team, Hudson said.
Hudson has galvanized other black major leaguers — Torii Hunter, Juan Pierre, Justin Upton and Jermaine Dye, to name a few — to help him with the effort.
Joining Hudson at the June 27 event were Pierre and the Seattle Mariners' star Ken Griffey Jr.
Griffey said "O Dog," as Hudson is called, is a close friend and he will do anything he can to help him in the effort to promote the tour and the sport to the black community.
"He (Hudson) said 'I need you,' so I'm here. It's always good to give back and he's very passionate about doing this, and anything I can do to help support that man, I'm doing it," Griffey said, as kids and parents alike surrounded the slugger for autographs and pictures.
Griffey said the Around the Mound program is badly needed and that part of the reason baseball has lost its African American following is due to the way the game is marketed.
"They don't market it. With basketball and football, they show the excitement of the sport on and off the field," Griffey said. "You come to baseball and you look at the ... (All)-Star game commercial that just came out ... and there's no excitement, so kids see that. I have two boys and they want to play football because they see the excitement that they show on and off the field more than in baseball. The marketing has to show that this game is fun, and I think if they show its fun, kids will want to play it and get involved and ... the numbers will slowly increase," Griffey said.
Hudson agrees that marketing is a major factor.
"In football, there (used) to be a lot of Michael Vick commercials, a lot of LaDainian Tomlinson commercials. LeBron (James) and Kobe (Bryant) have the series of commercials going on," Hudson said. "Ken Griffey Jr. is the Michael Jordan of baseball and he doesn't have a commercial at all. So we're just losing them. Baseball is really not publicized the way it should be."
While the Around the Mound Tour pushes baseball, Hudson and his buddies also focus on the importance of education, doing homework and doing well in school, respect (especially for women), and the ability to succeed on and off the field.
Responding to one youngster who said he came from a single-family home, Hudson, who comes from a two-parent home, told the youth: "Don't let that get to you. You can be just as successful with one parent in the house as with two parents."
The tour is similar to MLB's Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI), which seeks to also increase the number of African Americans in baseball.
John T. Young, founder of RBI, says the organization uses lessons learned in baseball, such as teamwork, working with people and sportsmanship, to help youngsters become successful in life.
He praised for Hudson and the tour.
"Anytime the kids can see Major League Ball players playing with them, touching them, they are learning from their experiences," Young said. "It's something you can't get from just going to a ball game because you're in the stands, you're thousands of feet away from them. But the chance to interact with them, to actually touch them, to see that they actually care by coming down to your community, really means a lot to these kids."
Young added that everyone is talking about the decline of blacks in baseball and are concerned, "but Orlando and his buddies are doing something about it. They've been proactive. They got out there and said, 'What can we do?' and they are out there doing it."
Chico C. Norwood is a writer for the L.A. Watts Times.
Photos by Marty Cotwright
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