ESPN Demands MLB Improves Its Diversity Report Card, Calls For More Black Players

Major League Baseball (MLB) earned a C+.

Apparently, a group called the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) grades the league each year on its dedication to inclusivity.

The 2023 MLB Racial and Gender Report Card, the official title of the score card, ruled that the league earned a B for racial hiring practices and a C for gender hiring practices, thus the overall grade of C+.

The grade drew the ire of ESPN. Particularly, some guy named Richard Lapchick, who ESPN bills as "a human rights activist, pioneer for racial equality, expert on sports issues, scholar and author."

Why does he write for ESPN?

That remains unclear. But his byline reveals he's a "contributing writer" and the lack of diversity in MLB has the white man quite displeased.

"MLB must continue improving racial, gender hiring practices," he headlined the column.

Lapchick highlights his complaints with the finding that African American players make up 6.2 percent of the league.

What he doesn't explain, however, is why that is a problem.

In the NBA, only 3.1 percent of players are Latino. Asian players make up only .04 percent. White people account for 16.8 percent. And 73.2 percent of the NBA is African American.

Is that a problem? No one has ever said it's a problem.

So, does ESPN plan to write another story complaining about the lack of Latinos, Asians, and whites in the NBA?

Or in the NFL, another predominantly black league?

The logic of the article is that it's an "issue" there aren't more black players in baseball, despite that one can make the same argument about other ethnicities in every other sport.

For the NBA, the argument is to put the best players on the rosters, and they happen to be black. For MLB, it's put black players on the rosters regardless, you racist bastards.

Selective diversity at its finest.

Furthermore, people of color make up 40.5 percent of Major League Baseball, a 2.5 percentage point increase from 2022. Latinos account for 30.2 percent of the league.

Latinos are a minority group. So, does ESPN consider them the wrong minority? If so, that'd be quite racist.

It's also probable.

Keep in mind the same network complaining about the lack of black players in MLB, employs Mark Jones and Kendrick Perkins, both of whom took issue with a minority player dominating the majority-black NBA.

Shout out Nikola Jokic.

ESPN was also aggravated by the breakdown of managers in baseball, writing:

"The most scrutinized positions in pro sports, including MLB, are manager and general manager or president of baseball operations. The 2023 MLB season began with six managers of color, representing 20% of all managers. This includes four Latino managers, one African American manager and one manager of two or more races (African American and Asian)."

It's unclear what percent of non-whites would appease the author.

Now, managers do overrepresent the white population at 80 percent. But by just 4 percent.

Cancel the season.

"There were four (13.3%) people of color holding the position of either general manager, president of baseball operations or the equivalent for an MLB club," the report adds.

Shut down the league.

TORONTO, ON - MAY 18: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees in the dugout during their MLB game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on May 18, 2023 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Cole Burston/Getty Images)

Ultimately, the report and subsequent ESPN write-up hardly hold weight.

Accusations of racism don't hold up. Teams want to win. They'd position a smurf on the field if it gave them a competitive advantage.

Are there some stereotypes at play when projecting a player's success? Perhaps some.

There was a time when teams dismissed black quarterbacks. Today, four out of the five highest-paid NFL QBs are black.

The NBA still overlooks white players by assuming they are unathletic white boys. It happens.

So, it's possible MLB clubs stereotype some players. Although there is no hard proof or any reason to suspect they negatively view a certain race.

If there were proof our pal Lapchick would have surely cited so.

In fact, the evidence suggests teams just reward the best ball players

Shohei Ohtani is Asian and the highest-paid player in baseball. Ohtani is the best player in baseball and he's paid like it. Period, end of story.

Aaron Judge is the most celebrated player in the game. He's bi-racial and a proud supporter of BLM. No one seems to mind that. He hits the long ball. Chicks -- and guys -- love that about him.

Finally, such a grading scale is eerie. It sounds like environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG).

ESG grades corporations based on their dedication to race and gender, which firms like Blackrock use to decide whether to invest in a company or not.

ESG is ruining corporate America by rewarding identity over competence. TIDES and ESPN appear to want to apply the same scale to sports leagues.

To contributing ESPN writer Richard Lapchick, diversity trumps box scores.