Through the research I have learned a great deal about the shifting demographics of the MLB. The number of African-American players has been steadily declining since the peak of African-American involvement in 1975, when 27% of all players were African-American. That number dropped to 17% by 1990, 13% in 2000, and all the way down to 9.1% in 2010. There are several factors that have caused this shift. The main factor has been a lack of available roster spots due to the recent influx of Latino born players, particularly from the Dominican Republic. These players are exempt from the MLB draft, thus lowering the cost of signing of them and putting a premium on acquiring them. Another way in which the draft has hindered African-American participation is the rising value of drafting college players. In the first year of the draft, 56% of all players were selected straight out of high school. In 2005, that number dropped to 35%. This harms African-American players because they are even less likely to play college baseball than professional ball, as is evidenced by the fact that just 6.0% of all college baseball players were African-American (as of 2007-2008).
For another part of the research, I have been looking up which Major League Baseball players are from urban areas, based on where they went to high school. I have also been tracking how many urban players have played college baseball (based on birth year), and keeping track of how many players from the most recent draft are from urban areas. This part of the research has taken a long time so far, but it is nearing conclusion so it will be very exciting to see what the results are.
I have also been working on tabulating and analyzing the results of Sport in Society's training with the National Football League. Sport in Society recently worked with the NFL to develop and implement a league-wide workplace-conduct program. As part of this process Sport in Society conducted a train the trainer program with player development and human resource representatives from all 32 teams, and these people than conducted training with their individual teams. To get an idea of the effectiveness of the training, Sport in Society had the players fill out anonymous evaluations both before and after the training. The evaluations consisted of questions related to sexual harassment in the workplace. Each question had three options to choose from, with one being the correct response. I have been formulating how much teams improved from before training to after the training on each question. This helps us understand which training techniques were effective, and in which areas the players' understanding of the issue can still be improved.
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