Black Baseball Impact

The Impact Black Baseball Players Had on the Major Leagues.
There has been a great impact on the Major Leagues before African Americans players. African American players have added speed, athleticism, and style to the game of baseball. Ever since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier on Aril 15, 1947 the game has never been the same. Since the early days of the Negro Leagues, Blacks and baseball have enjoyed a special and unique romance a romance that burst into full bloom when Robinson signed with Brooklyn Dodgers. (ebony). The Cleveland Indians followed the Dodgers and signed first baseman/ outfielder Larry Doby on July 6, 1947, making him the first Black player in the American League. But even though there was an abundance of topnotch
players who could have been signed, the infusion of Black players didn't proceed as quickly as many had hoped. In fact, it took 12 years for the Major Leagues to fully integrate, and it wasn't until the Boston Red Sox signed Elijah (Pumpise) Green in July 1959 that each major league team had at least one black. (ebony). By the time the 50's rolled around the Negro League had started to suffer financial problems and the fans who had been supportive of the blacks in the Negro leagues could just as simply go watch the African Americans play in the Majors now.
The Major Leagues was thriving like never before and from there on it was official baseball had a new look and blacks had redefined the limits of what could be accomplished in the sport. Blacks brought a whole new approach to the game because of there speed. (Ebony)
"What Black players did was take Black baseball [Negro League Baseball] to the majors.
Before Blacks players arrived, major league baseball was base to base; you got on first base and waited for someone to hit the ball again, In Black baseball, when you got on base, you tried to steal second; they would bunt you over to third and you were in position to score runs without a hit."
(Ebony) Blacks have contributed more to the game then just strategy.
Blacks used there tremendous speed for base stealing. Maury Wills, Lou Brock and Rickey Henderson three of the best base runners of all-time also African American shattered the stolen base record previously set by a white player. Wills of the L.A. Dodgers set the new single season record in 1962 by taking 104 bases, but in 1974 Brock of the Cardinals surpassed that by gaining 118 thefts, and in 1982 the record that still stands today130 stolen bases was set by Rickey Henderson of the Oakland A's, he later broke Brock's all-time stolen base record when he swiped his 939th base on May 1, 1991. (Ebony) Most fans thought it stopped at just base running but oh no the black players carried there speed out with them on defense as well. Curtis Flood, and Paul Blair new how to showcase there skills on the field but the best at showcasing this skill was the great Willie Mays. Mays, who still is the standard by which most players are judged, who was the first major leaguer to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in the same season, is considered by many to be the best all-around player in major league baseball history.
(Ebony) It doesn't stop there African American players have also raised the hitting bar in major league baseball from the legendary Hank Aaron to Barry Bonds who will go down in the history books as one of the best hitters of all time. Hank Aaron the Atlanta Braves outfielder, triumphed over racism and odds to break Babe Ruth's long-standing home run record when he hit his 715th homer against the L.A. Dodgers. (Ebony) Also Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants broke into the history books when he hit his 73rd home run surpassing Mark McGuire's record set in 1999 of 70 home runs. The most dramatic and controversial player of the 70's era was "Mr. October" Reggie Jackson who hit three consecutive home runs in the last game, tying a record set by Babe Ruth in 1926 for most home runs hit in a World Series game. (Ebony) But now and days black players in the league has declined greatly. Last season African Americans represented roughly only 8 percent of the major leagues players and all-time low.( Ebony p.177) And in college baseball Blacks account for less than 7 percent of Division I scholarship baseball players.( Ebony p.174) Has the impact died down have black players stopped caring about how there baseball ancestors broke into major league baseball and changed the game from what it was to what it is now? I haven't and I am trying to make "Americas Pastime" even better than what it already is.