The Windy City Hip Hop Project

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Cubs fielded a team with three black future Hall of Famers – Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ferguson Jenkins. Today, you’d have to combine the rosters of both Chicago baseball teams just to find three black players total.

And, from looking around the league, that’s hardly an aberration. Major League Baseball has seen the number of black players among its ranks drop more than 50 percent since 1995. Since 1975, that number is down by two-thirds.

Ronzelle Fort, a hulking pitcher who recently graduated from Harlan High School in Roseland, said people are often surprised to learn that he plays baseball.

“When a lot of kids see me they be like, ‘You play baseball? Come on, man, you’re 6’7”. You should be on the football or basketball court.’”

In today’s sports landscape, Fort is unquestionably an anomaly .

The reasons for the precipitous decline in the number of African-American baseball players are numerous, and the tactics being used to reinvigorate the game with a black presence are ambitious but largely unproven.

More than just the oft-cited financial barriers to baseball, blacks face hurdles tied to the nature of the game itself and the systemic issues that people of color face in their everyday lives.

More so than football and basketball, baseball is a pedagogic sport grounded in tradition where skill trumps athleticism and subtle nuance can be the difference between success and failure.

In such a setting, individual instruction is paramount; relaying the skill set and history of the game from generation to generation a time-honored ritual.

But the two-parent family structure is becoming obsolete in African-American communities. More than 70 percent of African-American children are now born to unwed mothers and 65 percent grow up in single-parent households.

“You think of the game of baseball as a game that you play with your father – you’re playing catch in the backyard with your father,” said Kenny Fullman, a police officer and the head baseball coach at Harlan High School in Roseland. “A lot of times, these kids grow up without fathers in the household.”

Without the traditional parent/coach framework in place to aid the transmission of baseball knowledge, the game gets neglected.

For the top brass at Major League Baseball, the solution to this problem lies with engaging black youth, who have stopped playing the game at the levels they once did.

Since 1991, Major League Baseball has administered a program called Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities. Intended to provide disadvantaged youth a place to play baseball and learn teamwork free of charge, RBI programs exist in more than 200 cities nationwide.

Both Cubs and White Sox RBI programs exist in Chicago, funded directly by their respective namesakes and administered to participants ages 9 to 18 through the Chicago Park District. Park District spokeswoman Daphne Johnson said that the joint RBI programs serve over 500 kids across the city.

Dan Puente, coordinator of youth baseball initiatives for the White Sox, said that he can see the number of African-American kids who play baseball rising right before his eyes. He believes that the earlier kids start playing, the better.

“No matter what your racial demographic, [13] is really the age when kids start specializing or stop playing sports,” he said. “With programs like RBI introducing the game at a younger age, you’re really going to see the number of kids playing jump.”

He also credits RBI for keeping kids occupied during the summer months when many restless youth get into trouble.

“For a lot of kids in the areas that we’re working with, there aren’t a lot of opportunities for them to do something in the summer,” he said. “It’s very important for kids to have those options and the RBI program is something that keeps them engaged the entire summer.”

While few would disagree that RBI programs offer a positive recreational outlet for inner-city youth in Chicago, the program does not produce many highly-skilled players who can use the sport as a springboard to a better life through higher education.

Puente said this is largely due to a trend away from free or inexpensive community leagues and toward expensive travel baseball and pricy all-star showcases. Travel tournaments and showcases, where for a price kids can be evaluated by college and pro scouts, are now the primary means to obtain wide exposure and access to athletic scholarships. Not only do these new developments often outprice African-American families, but the consequence of this shift in scouting paradigm means that the best players and coaches move away from community leagues, making them less competitive and devoid of experienced instructors.

Without the proper level of instruction, many inner-city kids are at a distinct disadvantage by the time they reach high school and therefore choose to specialize in a sport other than baseball. Those that do continue to play often end up at less-competitive community colleges or small university programs because scouts no longer turn up at inner-city high school or summer community league games anymore.

“I’ve had a lot of kids go on to college and become draft picks out of college who didn’t even get looked at out of high school – and they were All-Area and All-State just like everybody else. It’s just not the sport they come in to look for guys at,” Fullman said.

In Chicago, the Amateur City Elite program, brainchild of Fullman and White Sox Crosschecking scout Nathan Durst — was launched in 2007 to correct this problem. ACE’s goal is to expose Chicago’s most talented inner-city ballplayers to competitive travel baseball and professional-level instruction with the hope of attracting interest from college and professional scouts.

Through ACE, which fields one team per age bracket from 13 to 17, Chicago’s top minority baseball players travel the country playing against elite competition, participating in regional showcases and receiving individualized instruction from current and former professional ballplayers while the White Sox fit the bill.

Durst estimates that 85 to 90 percent of ACE players go on to play in college. At this point, most end up at historically black universities or junior colleges, but the hope is to build pipelines to larger, more prestigious academic and athletic universities.

“We’re hoping to get more kids in major D-1 schools,” Fullman said. “But if they don’t, as long as they’re going to school that’s our goal, because a lot of times with the kids we’re dealing with, a lot of them would possibly have not went to college if we did not have this program around. “

The program currently boasts some of the top-rated players in the state of Illinois, especially at the younger age levels, and is starting to gain quite a reputation for stressing both baseball and academic excellence.

Marco Pickett, whose son Devin is an infielder and aspiring chemist on the 15-year-old ACE team, moved Devin to the program from another travel team because he thought it would afford him a better future, both athletically and academically.

“It teaches those guys to have some very strong values,” Pickett said. “Not just playing the game of baseball, but it sets them up for the game of life.”

The only black major league baseball players from Chicago who’ve made their debut since 1980

Kirby Puckett

March 14, 1960 – March 6, 2006
Education: Grew up in the Robert Taylor Homes housing project in Bronzeville and attended Calumet High School. After high school, Puckett attended Bradley University and Triton Community College in River Grove, Ill.
Career Highlights: Puckett, a stocky center fielder, played his entire career with the Minnesota Twins and holds franchise records for career hits, runs, doubles and total bases. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2001 and his number 34 was retired by the Twins in 1997. Puckett died after suffering a stroke at the age of 45.

Marvell Wynne

December 17, 1959
Education: Attended Hirsch High School in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood
Career Highlights: A speedy outfielder, Wynne played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres and Chicago Cubs during the course of his career. Wynne’s son of the same name, a professional soccer player for the Colorado Rapids, was the first overall pick in the 2006 MLS draft.

Wes Chamberlain

April 13, 1966
Education: Attended Simeon High School in Auburn Gresham and Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss.
Career Highlights: Highly-touted outfielder who played for the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox. As a rookie in 1991, Chamberlain finished fifth in the National League Rookie of the Year Award vote.

Emil Brown

December 29, 1974
Education: Attended Harlan High School in Roseland and then Indian River Community College in Fort Pierce, Fla.
Career Highlights: Considered a five-tool outfield prospect coming up through the minor leagues, Brown has played for five major league teams, most notably the Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals. He was the Royals top run producer each of his three years with the team.

Lou Collier

August 21, 1973
Education: Grew up playing baseball in Roseland and attended Chicago Vocational Career Academy or CVS. After high school, Collier attended Kishwaukee Junior College in Malta, Ill., and Triton Community College in River Grove, Ill.
Career Highlights: Collier was a utility infielder for five major league teams throughout his career. He had his best season in 1998 as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Ernie Young

July 8, 1969
Education: Young attended Mendel Catholic in the Roseland Pullman community and later went to Lewis University, a small Catholic school in Romeoville, Ill.
Career Highlights: An outfielder, Young spent parts of eight seasons in the major leagues with four different teams. Most of his professional baseball career, however, was spent in the minor leagues. He retired in 2008 as the active minor league career leader in home runs, RBIs and runs scored. In 2009, he was named the manager of the Kannapolis Intimidators, a minor-league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox located in Kannapolis, N.C.

Marvin Freeman

April 10, 1963
Education: After attending CVS for high school, Freeman went to Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss.
Career Highlights: Freeman, a lanky right-handed pitcher, played for four teams over the course of his 10-year career. His best season came in 1994 when he finished fourth in the Cy Young Award voting as a member of the Colorado Rockies. Freeman is currently the bench coach for the Joliet Jackhammers of the Northern league and the assistant baseball coach at Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Flossmoor, Ill.