During the days leading up to and immediately following Major League Baseball’s Jackie Robinson Day celebration, much speculation centered on why, 57 years after the great Brooklyn Dodgers player broke the so-called color line, blacks number fewer in baseball. In 1981, African-Americans represented 19 percent of all roster players. Today, only 8.7 percent are black.
The primary reason cited for the steep decline in African-American players is that most black kids would rather play basketball. But few analysts are willing to state the obvious:foreign-born players, mostly from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, have replaced black players. The evolution from black to Caribbean players isn’t as casual as owners would have fans believe, that it’s an extension of improved global scouting or a greater skill level among players from warm-weather climates who play baseball year around.
Instead, black players, and to a lesser degree white players, have been systematically displaced because of the little-known P-1 visa. Here’s how it works.
