The Return of African-American Baseball Players: Baseball has come a long way since Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947. Robinson's courageous desegregation of the game now serves as an inspiration to all Americans. And those ballplayers who followed in Robinson's large footsteps -- all-time greats like Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson and Bob Gibson -- provided evidence of the greatness that African Americans could accomplish if given a fair shot. Baseball now celebrates the anniversary of Robinson's breakthrough every season on April 15, when every player wears Jackie's number 42.
The occasion has usually also been a time for head scratching, however. African-American participation in baseball has been on the decline for years, recently reaching a figure of just over 8 percent. And although it has increased marginally since then, this year just 9.5 percent of players on opening-day rosters were of African-American descent.
