Major League Baseball announced Wednesday that it will be creating a task force called The On-Field Diversity Task Force to draw in more African-American players, according to USA Today.
The league started its regular season with 7.7 percent African-American players on opening day rosters.
This is a record-low for the league and highlights a trend that has been occurring for the past 20 years.
"As a social institution, Major League Baseball has an enormous social responsibility to provide equal opportunities for all people, both on and off the field,” MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement. "I am proud of the work we have done thus far with the RBI program and the MLB Urban Youth Academies, but there is more that we must accomplish.
"We have seen a number of successful efforts with existing MLB task forces, and I believe we have selected the right people to effectively address the many factors associated with diversity in baseball," Selig said.
The number is the lowest it’s been since 1959. The end of the 1950s is when the Boston Red Sox became the last team to have an African American player on its roster, according to a study done by USA Today.
The MLB peaked at 27 percent of its players being African American in 1975. In 1995 the percentage was at 15.
The focus on the decline of the African American presence in baseball comes at a time when the league is celebrating the life of Jackie Robinson, a pioneer for African Americans in baseball.
"Until we get this remedied, the Jackie Robinsons of the world aren't going to come to college to play baseball,'' said prominent agent Scott Boras.
Boras previously mentioned the league should fund scholarships for college baseball. He runs the Boras Baseball Classic to draw exposure to high school baseball players.
"If you're a high school athlete coming from a single-parent home that doesn't have the money to go to college,'' Boras said, "you're going to go to the sport where you can get a full scholarship. This needs to change if we want to get the best athletes in baseball.''
The MLB has produced many great African-American players, such as Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, and Joe Morgan.
While Morgan wants to see more African-American Players, he also wants to see more African American managers, general managers, and executives for MLB teams.
"There has to be more involvement to attract athletes to come to baseball,'' Morgan told USA TODAY. "I thought the NFL was worse, with the way they handled all of their jobs, and that none were given to African-American coaches. Truthfully, we can't go in that direction and hope this things turns around.''
