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
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."
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.