Baseball and controversy make as good a match as peanut butter and jelly.

Often the “it” topic of baseball debate is steroid use, but a more important problem is being neglected and thrown in the closet. The declining rate of black baseball players is being ignored and if it continues to be ignored, the black baseball player may turn into a fond memory.

For the past 30 years, the number of black baseball players have sunk faster than a sinkerball.

In 1974, 27 percent of big leaguers were black. On opening day in 2005, only a pitiful 9 percent of baseball players were black. There are only four black managers in Major League Baseball, including Dusty Baker of the Chicago Cubs, Lloyd McClendon of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Frank Robinson of the Washington Nationals and Willie Randolph of the New York Mets. The lone black general manager is Kenny Williams of the Chicago White Sox.

John Shea, who covers baseball for the San Francisco Chronicle, doesn’t know how much lower the number of blacks in baseball can get.

“African Americans have been in the nine to 10 percentile of baseball players for the past couple of years,” Shea said. “I hope it doesn’t get worse than it is now.”

If the number of blacks in baseball continues to decrease, baseball would need, as Shea said, “a revolution.”

The revolution might need to start outside of the Major Leagues, though. It might need to start in high school baseball.

Take, for instance, Mario Johnson, a first baseman with ferocious power that many coaches lust for and a defensive skill that can teach J.T. Snow a thing or to. Johnson, 17, is black.

Johnson has been playing baseball for eight years. He was excited to play high school ball as a 14-year-old freshman.

"I expected to be on the baseball team and bat either third or fourth," Johnson said.

Johnson's tryouts went well, but after an argument with a coach over his batting stance, Johnson's expectations of batting third or fourth in the lineup became more of a fantasy.

The prototypical first baseman most managers would love to have, got cut from the team.

“It sucked,” Johnson said. “I had a huge pit in my stomach and laid down with a towel over my head the whole afternoon.”

Johnson’s father, Gary, coaches North Beach, an at-large San Francisco baseball team.

Coach Johnson said he feels blacks are discouraged to get involved in baseball.

“If there is no money for new baseball fields and baseball equipment, how are inner-city African Americans going to play baseball?” Coach Johnson said. “If there is no place to play, how are African Americans going to
play?”

Shea has a similar view.

“There is a lack of baseball fields,” Shea said. He said that since baseball fields are likely to cost more money than any other type of athletic field or surface, they are not being constructed.

“Baseball lacks African American scouts,” Shea said, stating one example is the Oakland Athletics, who have no black scouts.

“African Americans are not being directed to the game,” Shea said. The lack of direction for blacks, Shea said, directly affects their comfort level with the sport.

“There’s no comfort level (in baseball) for African Americans,” Shea said.

“If you watch a baseball game on (television), you’ll mostly see white players, white fans and white owners. It’s an external and internal problem.”

In fact, viewers won't see many black owners either on television because there aren’t any. “The next step for Major League Baseball is to let a black ownership group buy a team,” Shea said.

Black ownership in baseball may not be far off. An ownership group with black owners is attempting to purchase the Washington Nationals, Shea said.

“That’s something we could look forward to,” Shea said.

Black players in the National Basketball Association and the National Football League may be facing different scenarios, Shea said.

“In the NFL and NBA, if you are high draft pick, you’re automatically going to be on the team,” Shea said. “In baseball, you have to go to the minors. (The NBA and NFL) is a quicker step to professionalism.”

The quicker step to professionalism can lead to players making millions quick.

“When I was growing up, kids idolized sports stars,” Coach Johnson said.

“Today, kids don’t want to be like anyone. All they want is money. It starts and ends with money.“

Major League Baseball has tried to bring baseball back to the inner city.

Major League Baseball is aware of the problem. Seventeen years ago, the league created a program called Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities in an effort to bring baseball to the inner city.

RBI takes place nationwide and internationally in over 200 cities and 95,000 players have taken part in the program, according to reports posted on www.MLB.com.

But RBI’s program does not take place the Bay Area.

“Major League Baseball never approached the Bay Area with the RBI program,” Shea said. “When I was at a luncheon this past February, someone asked why there aren’t any RBI programs in the Bay Area, and their response was that they didn’t know.”

Baseball is losing blacks, according to Johnson.

“As long as (Major League Baseball) says one thing and does another, and keeps making excuses, (African Americans) are going to end up being dinosaurs,” said Johnson.