Dani Colon, Staff Writer

Baseball is already considered a “luxury sport,” with gear costing hundreds of dollars and some little league clubs even charging over $2,000 per child, not even guaranteeing a spot in the MLB. These clubs clearly just want to make a profit off of children and their families and claim that their club is the “best” because one child went to Division I. 

According to MLB.com, by 1981, there were over 177 African American players in the MLB, and in 1990 there were 156 players. The number of African American players continued to plummet, while in 2023 there were only 59 African American players in the MLB. Black kids who live in urban settings, only 6% of them have access to baseball fields, while Black kids who live in rural and suburban settings have between 11-13% access to fields. Whereas white kids who live in rural, suburban and urban settings have between 10-13% access to them.

The MLB wasn’t integrated until 1947, with racism being so high in the sport that it took years for Black players to even have the same opportunity to play. Even today, racism can still be seen in baseball through the lack of African American players and the unequal access that some Black children have to baseball. With children wanting to go pro, they always have a chance to do so through college offers and recruitment, but even the college application process can create barriers for students. This can make it harder for students who already have less access to resources to continue playing baseball at a higher level.

On September 5th, 2026, the St. Louis Cardinals faced the Colorado Rockies. Rookie Hancel Rincon from the Dominican Republic came in to pitch, and it was his first major league debut. However, when the pitch was released, the Rockies scored an inside-the-park home run in the bottom of the sixth inning. When the runner was coming home, the St. Louis’ third baseman came in and tried to tag the runner; this was ruled safe. St. Louis manager Oli Marmol, who is also of Dominican descent, decided to challenge the call. When the play was under review, home plate umpire Doug Eddings made the final decision that the call was safe. When he ruled the call, Eddings was very enthusiastic about the decision, almost like he was happy to prove Marmol wrong, and glanced at him.

While the next pitch was released, Rincon was visibly nervous and hit Eddings in the foot. It could be understandable that Eddings might think it was on purpose after that. Rincon winds up to pitch, but Eddings stops the game and tells the St. Louis catcher to communicate to Rincon to fix his hat, saying that it “won’t slide on his field.” Now, Marmol becomes visibly upset because this all had a common theme. The St. Louis catcher laughs and thinks this cannot be serious because when the footage is played back, there is no difference in the hat from before he was asked to fix it and after it was fixed.

This did not make sense to anyone in the St. Louis dugout, and players were visibly confused. Some people thought it was just the way Doug Eddings is because he has been known to make strict or unusual rules. But to Marmol, he had to defend his player. He told Eddings to “be a big boy,” and things ultimately started to get heated between the two, with them exchanging explicit words and Marmol ending up being ejected from the game.

This situation shows how racism and bias can appear in baseball. Eddings’ treatment of Rincon seemed different from how a player should normally be treated, especially over something as small as the way his hat was being worn. Rincon was already visibly nervous during his first major league appearance, and instead of helping calm the situation down, Eddings continued to confront him. This is a prime example of racism, because Rincon is a player of color who was being singled out and treated differently. Even though Eddings did not directly say anything racist, racism does not always happen through comments. By the end of the game, Eddings blamed a Rockies batter for saying that the hat was distracting, but when footage was played back, the batter never spoke to Eddings. 

The next day, Eddings was reprimanded by the MLB front office, and St. Louis players came to the game standing in unison with their teammate, having their hats on backwards and in many different ways. The situation affected the entire team and brought more attention to the way Rincon was treated.