Racial Integration In Professional Sports

Our nation has invested itself, economically and socially, in sports for more than a century. To the athletic elite, there is the opportunity to turn their childhood passion into their livelihood. From the four most recognized professional sports in America - Baseball (MLB) , Football (NFL) , Basketball (NFL), and Hockey (NHL) - only a select handful of athletes reach the professional level, and even fewer remain at that level and see long-term success. Our nation as seen a continuous evolution in professional sports when regarding the integration of race and gender into the games. It provides a unique experience to view sporting events, one being performed by female athletes and the other by male athletes, from a sociological mindset and take
One of the historically oldest sports established in America was Major League Baseball, founded in 1869 in Ohio. Both Jerry Crasnick and Justice Hill from ESPN.com and MLB.com, respectively, explain how baseball was the pioneer in racial integration and continues to make strides for further integration. Crasnick explains how the MLB is actively furthering integration efforts. “Commissioner Rob Manfred said Monday that Major League Baseball is committed to making strides in minority hiring amid the possibility that the 2016 season could begin without an African-American manager. Lloyd McClendon, baseball's only black manager, was fired by the Seattle Mariners after the regular season and has been replaced by Scott Servais. Atlanta's Fredi Gonzalez, who is of Hispanic origin, is now the only manager minority among the 30 big-league clubs. "There's a certain cyclical nature to this,'' Manfred said. "Field managers are high turnover jobs, and you're going to have peaks and valleys in terms of representation. Having said that, we are focused on the need to promote diversity -- not just African-Americans, but Latinos, as well -- in
Pioneers, like MLB’s Jackie Robinson, led movements that created opportunities for athletes of all backgrounds to have an equal opportunity to turn a passion into a career in both professional and collegiate sports. Nearly every year in America there is a breakthrough story of how new opportunities have arose for players that were never before possible - and I personally believe this evolution of sorts will only