On Monday, as the MLB celebrated Jackie Robinson Day, the Chicago Sun-Times singled out Chicago Cubs outfield Marlon Byrd as the only black American player on either of the city's MLB teams. Jackie Robinson Day celebrates the league's first black player, who began his MLB career in 1947. Since the 1970s, however, the population of black Americans in the league have decreased considerably.
Byrd took time to respond to the article and lodge his own to protest against the negativity surrounding league holiday:
"If you want to take polls, then take polls asking how many black lawyers do we have now, or how many black judges or black doctors there are now," Byrd said. "Just because we're black doesn't mean we have to play sports. You can go through other avenues. If the decrease (in baseball) is because they're going into academic fields, so be it. More power to them."
Kevin Kaduk of Big League Stew also noted that the population of black Americans (about 12 percent) is only slightly larger than the population of black MLB players (about 8 percent), which has a large population of foreigners.
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