--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Welcome to Today Explained. I'm Sean Rameswaram.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Shohei Otani made his Dodger debut this week. His record-setting contract solidifies an international era for Major League Baseball, which hasn't yet overcome a diversity problem at home.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Ben Lindbergh from The Ringer is here to make the case for why you might want to take an interest in baseball right now.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Well, there's a lot of interest in baseball these days stemming from the rules changes that were implemented last season. A pitch clock in particular, which really sped up the games.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So if baseball was too slow for you before, it's a little bit faster now.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Spring is always a time of renewal and hope and faith in sports. And we have a lot of interesting storylines to follow. So foremost among them, maybe Shohei Otani in a new uniform.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Breaking news from Major League Baseball, where Shohei Otani is signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Every MLB player is in a new uniform right now, which has become kind of a controversial subject.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Major League Baseball is striking out with its new uniforms. The latest complaint hits below the belt. The pants are see-through.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: So that's one reason why you might want to watch baseball now.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Ben, you buried the lead. If you weren't interested in baseball before, maybe you will be now that the pants are see-through.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: But the players are as good as ever, even if the uniforms are not. And maybe one player more important than all the rest.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Hey, Shohei's the greatest baseball player of all time.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: He's the fastest. He hits the ball the hardest. He throws the ball the hardest. Like, he's playing Little League out there.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Is Shohei Otani the best show in sports right now? Yes, he is.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Shohei Otani has been the story of baseball probably for the past few years, really the past several seasons since he came over from Japan because he has pioneered a new way to play baseball or at least brought back a way to play baseball that we haven't seen for a century.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Imagine if Tom Brady led the league in touchdowns thrown and sacks.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Shohei Otani, the first two-way star in a hundred years, goes against everything we thought we knew about baseball, and yet he is making it look easy.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: He is a singular player because he is a two-way player.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: He is among the best batters in baseball. Oh, he got another one! Get going! Otani has done it again! Two homers in the nightcap.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: He is also among the best pitchers in baseball.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: This would be the first complete game shutout, And there it is. Shohei Otani goes all nine.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And we have not seen anyone pull off that high wire act at the highest level of the sport for about a century.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Since Babe Ruth and some Negro Leagues legends like Bullet Rogan were able to do that, that was a much lower level of competition a century ago than we see in Major League Baseball today.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And so it was more feasible for one person to be the best at both aspects of the sport.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: We have not seen anyone pull that off of late. And it was thought to be impossible, frankly, before he showed that it could be done.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So he has been the best player in baseball over the past few years.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: He has won two unanimous MVP awards in the American League.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Shohei Otani is your unanimous 2023 AL MVP, another historic season by the Unicorn.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: And it has turned him into a global superstar and an icon of the sort that baseball doesn't manufacture much these days.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And because of that, he has to get paid.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: How much are the Dodgers going to pay him? The top line number is $700 million.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Big news in the sports world this weekend. Shohei Otani signed a record contract with the L.A. Dodgers.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: $700 million for 10 years. The largest contract in U.S. team sports history.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: The $700 million number is arguably the biggest contract that any athlete in any sport has received. Ever, ever in the history of sports.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Yes, absolutely.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And it is a 10-year contract technically. However, it's really more like a 20-year contract because the vast majority of that $700 million is deferred.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: People are absolutely flabbergasted and trying to figure out what the reason behind this deal is.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: There are a number of reasons why he and the Dodgers chose to use this structure, which Otani himself actually suggested.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: The way it breaks down is he will make a mere $20 million over the next 10 years.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So $680 million.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: I know, right? How will he make ends meet?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But $680 million of this will be deferred, and he will then receive annual $68 million payouts from 2034 to 2043.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: So if you factor in inflation which most Americans have become pretty familiar with over the past few years, if you factor in the fact that a dollar today doesn't have the same buying power that a dollar will have in 10 or 20 years, it's really more like 460 million.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Which would still be the biggest in baseball history, but maybe not the biggest if you compare to, say, some soccer superstars' windfalls.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: However, it's 700 million partly for bragging rights so that he or his agent can claim that it is the biggest sports contract ever.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Not that he is someone who typically brags about his performance.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: He seems to be very humble, at least in public.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It also, though, enables the Dodgers to have more short-term payroll flexibility because they will only be paying him $2 million per year, at least for the next couple of years.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Which enables them to spend a lot more money on other superstars.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And in fact, they have signed some other superstars, including fellow Japanese player Yoshinobu Yamamoto, since they signed Shohei Otani.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: So it gives them a little more flexibility, which he was in favor of because he wants to win.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And in theory, at least, this helps the Dodgers surround him with other stars.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: And how much success has Otani had with the World Series? He has no experience with the World Series.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: In fact, he has not experienced the playoffs yet in the majors.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Now, in Japan, he was a playoff player and got to play in the final series over there.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But he's been with the Angels ever since he came to MLB in 2018.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: And the Angels famously have been hapless.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But there were Angels in the outfield and in the infield.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Yeah, I know. Tell us about Otani's success outside of Major League Baseball.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Well, he was successful, competitively speaking, in Japan.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: He was a star in NPP before he came to MLB.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And we should say that is no small accomplishment because the Japanese Major League is the highest level league in the world in terms of caliber of competition next to Major League Baseball.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: So he became a superstar there and not just on the field, but also a celebrity.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: He inspires a sort of fan fervor that we typically don't see surrounding baseball players these days.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: In fact, that's one reason why he was willing to accept or even suggest this contract structure.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: He makes tens of millions of dollars a year in endorsement deals.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: And that is very unusual for baseball players these days, where if you ask someone, name a baseball player, they might name Babe Ruth or Derek Jeter, right?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Someone who's not even active in the sport.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: You keep telling me that.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: What? What? Otani is the exception in that even people who don't care about baseball sometimes care about Shohei Otani.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Does a Japanese player getting the biggest contract in the history of Major League Baseball and arguably the history of professional sports mean that diversity is kicking butts and taking names in baseball?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: We've certainly seen a trend towards international players in MLB who make up about 30% of the player pool these days.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Some of the most compelling, productive players in the game today were not born in the U.S.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: We've seen Japanese superstars before. Of course, Ichiro, who will be entering the National Baseball Hall of Fame soon.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: But Shohei Otani has, I think, been the best player from the country that we've ever seen.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And you have had concerns from people who've expressed the ideas because of the language barrier, because he was a Japanese player.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: If you are a star and you need an interpreter, that might have something to do with your inability to ingratiate yourself with that young demographic to attract them to the sport.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And we've seen how wrong that has turned out to be.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: He is a player whose charisma transcends any cultural differences or language barriers.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Of course, he's a big, handsome guy.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: He's easy on the eyes.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: A lot of people who might not be interested in his baseball prowess might be interested in him as a fashion model, which he has been professionally.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: But also because he's funny.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: He's always smiling and laughing.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: He's a good role model, and so he's about the best ambassador for the sport that you could imagine on any number of levels.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Ben Lindbergh is a senior editor at The Ringer, where he's made the case that Shohei Otani isn't just an MVP, but that he might be the GOAT.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Read it at TheRinger.com.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: His GOAT status might make it seem like diversity in baseball has never looked better, but the sport's got a bit of a problem back at home.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: We'll tell you all about it when we're back on Today Explained.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Support for today's show comes from Adio.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: What is Adio?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Adio is an AI-native customer relationship management system built specifically for the next era of companies.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: They say it's extremely powerful, adapts to your unique data structures and scales with any business model.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: According to Adio, Adio takes less than a minute to set up.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: And within seconds, you will have your email and calendars synced.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You'll see all your relationships in a fully fledged platform, they say, all enriched with that actionable data.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: And they say you can build AI-powered automations and use its research agent to tackle some of your most complex processes to seize so that you can focus on what matters, building your company.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You can join industry leaders such as Flatfile, Replicate, Modal, and so much more.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: You can go to adio.com slash todayexplained to get 15% off your first year.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: That's A-T-T-I-O dot com slash todayexplained.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Having a night out with your friends is awesome. Dealing with hangovers sucks.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Meet Senorita, the THC-infused margarita that lets you skip the booze but keep the vibe.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Made with real fruit, organic agave, and Himalayan pink salt, every sip is like a mini getaway.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: No fillers, no hangovers, just full flavor and a better buzz.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Find your flavor at senoritadrinks.com.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Use code VOX20 for 20% off.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Must be 21 and over.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: This product may cause intoxication.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: This product has not been evaluated or approved by the FDA.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: This product may contain up to 0.3% THC.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's showtime.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Today Explains, Sean Ramos from Yes, we're going to do a show about baseball today.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And yes, we understand it's not for everyone.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: But we asked Ben Lindbergh from The Ringer to make the case as to why you might want to take interest in the sport right now.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Well, there's a lot of interest in baseball these days stemming from the rules changes that were implemented last season.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: A pitch clock in particular, which really sped up the games.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So if baseball was too slow for you before, it's a little bit faster now.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Spring is always a time of renewal and hope and faith in sports.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And we have a lot of interesting storylines to follow.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: So foremost among them, maybe Shohei Otani in a new uniform.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Breaking news from Major League Baseball, where Shohei Otani is signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Every MLB player is in a new uniform right now, which has become kind of a controversial subject.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Major League Baseball is striking out with its new uniforms.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: The latest complaint hits below the belt. The pants are see-through.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So that's one reason why you might want to watch baseball now.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: But the players are as good as ever, even if the uniforms are not.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And maybe one player more important than all the rest.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Hey, Shohei's the greatest baseball player of all time.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: He's the fastest. He hits the ball the hardest. He throws the ball the hardest. Like, he's playing Little League out there.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Is Shohei Otani the best show in sports right now? Yes, he is.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Shohei Otani has been the story of baseball probably for the past few years, really the past several seasons since he came over from Japan.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Because he has pioneered a new way to play baseball or at least brought back a way to play baseball that we haven't seen for a century.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Imagine if Tom Brady led the league in touchdowns thrown and sacks.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Shohei Otani, the first two-way star in a hundred years, goes against everything we thought we knew about baseball, and yet he is making it look easy.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: He is a singular player because he is a two-way player.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: He is among the best batters in baseball.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: He is also among the best pitchers in baseball.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: This would be the first complete game shutout, And there it is. Shohei Otani goes all nine.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And we have not seen anyone pull off that high wire act at the highest level of the sport for about a century.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Since Babe Ruth and some Negro Leagues legends like Bullet Rogan were able to do that, that was a much lower level of competition a century ago than we see in Major League Baseball today.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And so it was more feasible for one person to be the best at both aspects of the sport.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: We have not seen anyone pull that off of late. And it was thought to be impossible, frankly, before he showed that it could be done.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So he has been the best player in baseball over the past few years.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: He has won two unanimous MVP awards in the American League.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Shohei Otani is your unanimous 2023 AL MVP, another historic season by the Unicorn.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: And it has turned him into a global superstar and an icon of the sort that baseball doesn't manufacture much these days.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And because of that, he has to get paid.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: How much are the Dodgers going to pay him? The top line number is $700 million.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Big news in the sports world this weekend. Shohei Otani signed a record contract with the L.A. Dodgers.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: $700 million for 10 years. The largest contract in U.S. team sports history.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: The $700 million number is arguably the biggest contract that any athlete in any sport has received. Ever, ever in the history of sports.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Yes, absolutely.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And it is a 10-year contract technically. However, it's really more like a 20-year contract because the vast majority of that $700 million is deferred.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: People are absolutely flabbergasted and trying to figure out what the reason behind this deal is.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: There are a number of reasons why he and the Dodgers chose to use this structure, which Otani himself actually suggested.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: The way it breaks down is he will make a mere $20 million over the next 10 years.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So $680 million.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: I know, right? How will he make ends meet?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But $680 million of this will be deferred, and he will then receive annual $68 million payouts from 2034 to 2043.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: So if you factor in inflation which most Americans have become pretty familiar with over the past few years, if you factor in the fact that a dollar today doesn't have the same buying power that a dollar will have in 10 or 20 years, it's really more like 460 million.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Which would still be the biggest in baseball history, but maybe not the biggest if you compare to, say, some soccer superstars' windfalls.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: However, it's 700 million partly for bragging rights so that he or his agent can claim that it is the biggest sports contract ever.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Not that he is someone who typically brags about his performance.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: He seems to be very humble, at least in public.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It also, though, enables the Dodgers to have more short-term payroll flexibility because they will only be paying him $2 million per year, at least for the next couple of years.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Which enables them to spend a lot more money on other superstars.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And in fact, they have signed some other superstars, including fellow Japanese player Yoshinobu Yamamoto, since they signed Shohei Otani.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: So it gives them a little more flexibility, which he was in favor of because he wants to win.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And in theory, at least, this helps the Dodgers surround him with other stars.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: And how much success has Otani had with the World Series? He has no experience with the World Series.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: In fact, he has not experienced the playoffs yet in the majors.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Now, in Japan, he was a playoff player and got to play in the final series over there.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But he's been with the Angels ever since he came to MLB in 2018.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: And the Angels famously have been hapless.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But there were Angels in the outfield and in the infield.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Yeah, I know. Tell us about Otani's success outside of Major League Baseball.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Well, he was successful, competitively speaking, in Japan.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: He was a star in NPP before he came to MLB.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And we should say that is no small accomplishment because the Japanese Major League is the highest level league in the world in terms of caliber of competition next to Major League Baseball.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: So he became a superstar there and not just on the field, but also a celebrity.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: He inspires a sort of fan fervor that we typically don't see surrounding baseball players these days.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: In fact, that's one reason why he was willing to accept or even suggest this contract structure.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: He makes tens of millions of dollars a year in endorsement deals.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: And that is very unusual for baseball players these days, where if you ask someone, name a baseball player, they might name Babe Ruth or Derek Jeter, right?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Someone who's not even active in the sport.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: You keep telling me that.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: What? What? Otani is the exception in that even people who don't care about baseball sometimes care about Shohei Otani.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Does a Japanese player getting the biggest contract in the history of Major League Baseball and arguably the history of professional sports mean that diversity is kicking butts and taking names in baseball?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: We've certainly seen a trend towards international players in MLB who make up about 30% of the player pool these days.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Some of the most compelling, productive players in the game today were not born in the U.S.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: We've seen Japanese superstars before. Of course, Ichiro, who will be entering the National Baseball Hall of Fame soon.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: But Shohei Otani has, I think, been the best player from the country that we've ever seen.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And you have had concerns from people who've expressed the ideas because of the language barrier, because he was a Japanese player.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: If you are a star and you need an interpreter, that might have something to do with your inability to ingratiate yourself with that young demographic to attract them to the sport.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And we've seen how wrong that has turned out to be.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: He is a player whose charisma transcends any cultural differences or language barriers.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Of course, he's a big, handsome guy.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: He's easy on the eyes.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: A lot of people who might not be interested in his baseball prowess might be interested in him as a fashion model, which he has been professionally.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: But also because he's funny.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: He's always smiling and laughing.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: He's a good role model, and so he's about the best ambassador for the sport that you could imagine on any number of levels.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Ben Lindbergh is a senior editor at The Ringer, where he's made the case that Shohei Otani isn't just an MVP, but that he might be the GOAT.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Read it at TheRinger.com.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: His GOAT status might make it seem like diversity in baseball has never looked better, but the sport's got a bit of a problem back at home.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: We'll tell you all about it when we're back on Today Explained.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Support for today's show comes from Adio.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: What is Adio?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Adio is an AI-native customer relationship management system built specifically for the next era of companies.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: They say it's extremely powerful, adapts to your unique data structures and scales with any business model.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: According to Adio, Adio takes less than a minute to set up.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: And within seconds, you will have your email and calendars synced.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You'll see all your relationships in a fully fledged platform, they say, all enriched with that actionable data.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: And they say you can build AI-powered automations and use its research agent to tackle some of your most complex processes to seize so that you can focus on what matters, building your company.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You can join industry leaders such as Flatfile, Replicate, Modal, and so much more.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: You can go to adio.com slash todayexplained to get 15% off your first year.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: That's A-T-T-I-O dot com slash todayexplained.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Having a night out with your friends is awesome. Dealing with hangovers sucks.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Meet Senorita, the THC-infused margarita that lets you skip the booze but keep the vibe.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Made with real fruit, organic agave, and Himalayan pink salt, every sip is like a mini getaway.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: No fillers, no hangovers, just full flavor and a better buzz.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Find your flavor at senoritadrinks.com.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: Use code VOX20 for 20% off.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Must be 21 and over.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: This product may cause intoxication.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: This product has not been evaluated or approved by the FDA.
--:-- Ben Lindbergh: This product may contain up to 0.3% THC.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's showtime.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: I love baseball. I think all of the things that people hate about it are the things that I enjoy.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: She also writes about it for the Chicago Tribune.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: I think the game being a little bit slower allows for it to become sort of a character in the background, and you can have a conversation with the person next to you.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I feel like you can kind of come in and out of the game and engage.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: And it's perfect for a sunny day for something to be slow. We're always in a hurry.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: She's also written about the game's history, particularly Black history in baseball.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: As I feel like it's a pretty undercovered part of the game.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Black players, particularly Black Americans, because I want to be clear, you know, you can be Black from anywhere, have been involved in baseball since at least the Civil War.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: And throughout history, Black players have made tremendous contributions to the game.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: The Negro Leagues are one of the greatest achievements in Black American history.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: There's sort of a dramatic style and flair that comes from Black American players in the game that is unique to them.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: They bring a lot of the swagger to the game.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: What he made just brought this draw to his feet with a catch would cost him an optical illusion to a lot of people.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But despite that history, Black representation in Major League Baseball sort of peaked in the 90s.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: The last time Black representation in Major League Baseball was above 10% was 2004.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: If we look back into the 90s, like 1994, 1995, 1996, we're looking at 16% or better.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: And if you look back at that, you know, 95, 94 era, that would be the Ken Griffey Jr. era.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: The game was more fun, the backwards caps and, you know, hip-hop hooray.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: And the home run derby was a big, big deal at that point.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Swung on the line, that'll be a line for a base hit.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: Here comes Joy. Here is Junior to third base.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: They're going to wave him in.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: The throw to the plate will be late.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: The Mariners are going to play for the American League Championship.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: Do we hit like a low point?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: When does this problem become super noticeable for fans?
--:-- Shakia Taylor: I really believe that while numerically the number has hovered around 6 or 7 percent for a few years now, that it felt at its lowest in 2020.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: There was the uprisings around the George Floyd killing around the country, and there was already a lot of issues regarding race within the sport.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: And just as Baldwin was calling for change, a controversial rant was posted to injured Mariners catcher Steve Clevenger's Twitter account.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: The tweets talking about the unrest in Charlotte used racially charged words like animal and thug.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: It called Black Lives Matter pathetic and mockingly said, keep kneeling for the anthem.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And there were protests.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: And I remember seeing some of the players talk about how they would sneak off and join a protest.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And they weren't sure how their teams would feel about it.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: There was this idea that the players would protest on opening day.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And it turned into an approved protest.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: Well, anyone who knows the definition of the word protest knows that an approved protest is kind of an oxymoron.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Is it really a protest if the people you're protesting are comfortable with it?
--:-- Shakia Taylor: And the Cleveland Indians and Major League Baseball also stand united with Black Lives Matter and all of those who seek social justice and equality.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And it felt obvious that Major League Baseball was lacking in a lot of ways as it pertained to race.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: We could even identify that there were teams who didn't have a black player at all on their roster, which seems kind of impossible.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And all of the issues that I think people have been sitting on came to a head in 2020.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: So black representation in the MLB hits a record low in 2022, and then 2023 beats that record.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So we are now at an all-time low.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: What does baseball lose when there aren't black players in the league?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I think what the league loses without black players is, first of all, a lot of the things that we enjoy about baseball, base stealing, things like that, those things were perfected and made a thing in black baseball.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: A lot of the flair, a lot of the excitement of the game, that came from Black players.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But I also think without Black players or Black American players, you're losing a significant portion of history.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: When Major League Baseball reintegrated, it marked the beginning of the end for the Negro Leagues.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So once there are no black American players in Major League Baseball, what happens to that history?
--:-- Shakia Taylor: Who is bringing that forward?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: When you turn on the TV and you see a baseball commercial or you see an endorsement or whatever, you never see nobody that look like you that you can relate to.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: When you turn on basketball, you can see a LeBron James.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Like I said, 74%?
--:-- Shakia Taylor: You can see a Steph Curry or whatever.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Somebody, oh, that's me right there.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: You know what I'm saying?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But when you see baseball, black kids look at it, they don't see them nowhere.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: Do we know why there are fewer black players now?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I've heard from parents all over the country, really, that they're paying now for private coaching.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: They're paying thousands of dollars for trainers to train their kids.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: They're paying for travel ball.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: And it's just becoming a middle class game, regardless of race.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It is becoming a middle class game.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: Baseball is not the option.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Back when I was coming up, we had a lot of African-Americans in Major League Baseball.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: Now that's not the thing because they priced us out as well.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Because like when you played baseball in the Little was cool probably about 150 to register 100
--:-- Shakia Taylor: Yeah yeah To play on a select team now is at least two grand 2
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So kids ain't playing.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: They can't afford it.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: They priced us out.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: But then there was also a thing with baseball and these unwritten rules and how non-white fans would feel in the ballpark.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You know, there's people saying if you hit a home run off a pitcher and you celebrate it, then you can get hit on your next at bat.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: It's things like that that deterred young black kids from wanting to participate because it was no fun.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Does Major League Baseball notice this problem in 2020 or before or after or have they even noticed it now?
--:-- Shakia Taylor: Major League Baseball has noticed this problem.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I feel like even as far back as 2017 is when I really started paying attention to what Major League Baseball was doing with regard to this.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: And they have things like the Baseball Breakthrough Series, the Dream Series, which occurs every MLK weekend where they bring out the top Black high school baseball players.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: They have the Hank Aaron Invitational.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: And I think we're seeing some results from it.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Because many of the young black men who are in Major League Baseball today, who are relatively new, came through those programs.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: So you're saying it's working.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I would probably need a little bit more data.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: You know, baseball people are big data people.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But on the surface, it looks to be working, but not just because of them, but because of other people on a grassroots level who are also helping participate, who are also helping get these kids seen by the Major League Baseball programs.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: Yeah, tell me more about that, because this isn't just about, you know, turning great athletes into Major League ballplayers.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: This is about turning kids onto baseball in the first place, right?
--:-- Shakia Taylor: Absolutely.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's about turning kids on to baseball and introducing kids to baseball in all sorts of communities at a younger age is important to gaining that interest in not just being a fan, but in watching and in playing the game.
--:-- Shakia Taylor: There's an organization where I'm located in Chicago called Lost Boys Inc.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: There's another organization called Minority Baseball Prospects who also have a minority softball prospects.
