Race and Career Opportunities in Major League Baseball: 1960-1980

Abstract

The issue of racial discrimination in sport has generated a solid body of literature. In the professional baseball industry two forms of discrimination have been apparent: "marginality" - the tendency to exclude blacks of marginal ability in favor of whites, and "centrality"-the tendency to exclude qualified black players from positions which involve interaction with and control of the action of teammates. Data from 1960 to 1980 reveal a diminution of marginality, but an increase in centrality.That is, centralityas aform of racial discrimination has increased during the past twenty years. A methodological improvement over prior studies-the use of slugging percentage to measure offensive productivity-is also discussed.