Baseball lacking black role models

Major League Baseball lacks black role models because blacks aren’t interested in America’s pastime, former Coach of Thornridge high school, Dwayne Mister said.

“These kids are seeking and looking for role models,” Mister said. He also said kids look for those role models in popular sports that blacks dominate, like basketball and football.

“Kids are going off what they see on television,” said Mister. Kids want to be like NBA superstar LeBron James and Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings, he said.

Mister, who this reporter knows through mutual friends, said one reason is that some African-American youth lack a male figure in the home. Another reason is that basketball and football are not
only popular but also glamorized, he said.

“Everybody in the neighborhood plays basketball, everybody wants to be a basketball player,” Mister said.

According to Mister, he played and coached baseball at Thornridge High School in Dolton, Ill., and won an athletic scholarship to Calumet College of St. Joseph. He said baseball provided him great opportunities and taught him lessons he’ll never forget.

“The camaraderie, being able to play a sport. … It’s the best thing. … It teaches you about more about values. … It teaches you about life -- period,” Mister said.

Mister agrees the number of blacks in baseball is decreasing and remembers back to his coaching days where it was a challenge to get kids to come out for the team, he said.

“It’s truly diminished and it’s going down hill, so I absolutely did have trouble … getting those kids to come out for baseball.”

Mister said it’s a mentality kids have: “If I’m athletic, I’m playing football or basketball.”

“It’s a mindset. … Baseball is more of a mental and skilled game,” Mister said. The only way to fix the problem is to expose kids to the game while they’re young,”  he said.

“You start with them young. You start with them at a early age," Mister said. “You develop clinics. You develop free camps. … You actively get the community actively involved. … You show them that it's still interested in baseball.”