For most of Lee Allen Jr.’s childhood. baseball seemed quite distant to him.

The Major League Baseball Royals played in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, but Allen – who is black and lives downtown – did not have much opportunity to play baseball until late highschool.

In January 2020, 17-year-old Allen was invited to 1 of MLB’s development programs, the DREAM Series, where he stood in front of scouts and coaches for the primary time to showcase his skills in a competitive environment.

Four years later, Allen took the sector on the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, Florida, wearing the purple, white and gold baseball uniform representing historically black college Prairie View A&M University, together with his eyes set on a skilled profession.

More than 200 HBCU standouts were available for the MLB Andre Dawson Classic, a collegiate tournament for players who hope to sooner or later break through the major leagues and maybe help usher in the following generation of African-American stars.

“The opportunity to be here and showcase my talents to scouts and other players that are looking at us at the next level,” said Allen, now a junior defenseman for the Panthers. “It feels great for me because I know these are goals I can achieve and they are there.”

That’s the goal of MLB, which has struggled with a historically low number of black players in the major leagues. A study by the Central Florida Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports found that African-American players made up just 6.2% of players on MLB Opening Day rosters in 2023, down from 7.2% in 2022. Both numbers were the bottom for the reason that study began in 2023 1991, when 18% of MLB players were black.

It’s also the bottom percentage of African-American participation among 4 of the five major skilled sports — the NBA, NFL, MLB and MLS — outside the National Hockey League, where greater than 90% of the players are white. MLB has tried to handle this problem through a series of grassroots diversity initiatives.

“We’re really doubling down on what we’ve done,” said Del Matthews, MLB’s vice chairman of baseball development, “because they’re raising kids who go to college and have internships in the sport. We’re seeing more kids playing in Division I college baseball leagues, and we’re seeing more kids getting called up to the minor leagues. So we just pass it on through the different programs we’ve had.”

There are signs of progress on the skilled level. From 2012 to 2021, 17.4% of first-round picks were African-American players. That number increased to 30% in 2022, when 4 of the primary five players chosen were Black players for the primary time ever, and all 4 were graduates of not less than one MLB diversity initiative. In 2023, Black players made up 10 of the primary 50 draft picks, or 20%.

These gains haven’t yet increased MLB’s player base, and even in the minors, Black participation is growing slowly. When MLB recently announced its Spring Breakout rosters featuring top minor league prospects, 9.5% of players were Black – including 31 graduates of MLB’s diversity programs.

MLB’s activities begin with an annual tour of skilled camps in various cities across the country to discover baseball potential among inner-city kids. The route has grown annually – from 12 stops when it launched in 2018 to 18 cities now – and is aimed toward children aged roughly 13-14, just before they begin secondary school.

The goal is to eventually send these players to more advanced development programs where they’ll gain significant reps in competitive baseball – mostly for gratis – and develop relationships with skilled scouts and former major league players that may help them further in their careers .

“Sports have become so expensive that they have eliminated many of our children,” said Jerry Manuel, former manager of the White Sox and Mets. “So we need to do everything we can to get them back into the pipeline.”

The shows are mostly funded by USA Baseball, the game’s governing body in the United States, which pays for equipment, meals and potential travel to shows that Matthews said would otherwise cost greater than $700 per event. Between 1,200 and 1,500 children are chosen annually to participate in MLB programs focused on diversity, including the DREAM Series, Breakthrough Series, Hank Aaron Invitational and girls’ baseball/softball events. Some players participate in several events a yr – a possibility that will otherwise not be possible for a lot of children from lower-income families.

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That’s why Sheila Moreno was grateful that her son Jadin was introduced to baseball through the Houston Astros’ free youth baseball league, one of greater than 180 organizations affiliated with MLB’s Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) outreach program to kids in the community about neglected needs.

Moreno said Jadin desired to play skilled baseball abroad, but knowing how expensive the game may very well be, she was frightened the expenses would prevent him from launching his profession. When Moreno stumbled upon Houston’s RBI program, Jadin gained the contacts he needed to earn invites to other development shows. He is currently a junior goalie at Prairie View.

“He didn’t have to pay anything,” Moreno said last month on the Andre Dawson Classic, “in order that was very helpful. All he wanted was to play football. He was just searching for someone who would help him learn basic skills and put in the trouble.

The league reported that just about 700 graduates of its development programs have played college baseball, with about 90% of them being black players.

According to the NCAA’s demographic database, 752 Division I baseball players – about 6% – are black. That’s the best number in 10 years and reflects a small but regular increase that Tony Reagins, MLB’s director of baseball development, said indicates improvement is coming.

Reagins added that the support of former black major league players like Manuel has been especially helpful in showing aspiring professionals what is possible.

One of the MLB prospects is Termarr Johnson, who selected baseball over basketball and football, sports he felt were more popular when he was growing up in Atlanta. He has been involved in almost every diversity initiative MLB has offered and has been exposed to mentors akin to Manuel, Ken Griffey Jr., Dave Winfield and Marquis Grissom – some of whom he can turn to for advice if he so desires.

Johnson was the fourth overall pick in the draft in 2022. Standing in the Pittsburgh Pirates clubhouse before a recent major league spring training game, Johnson credited those programs for his growth on and off the sector.

“The biggest help was that they dealt with the mental element of being a big leaguer, a big leaguer,” Johnson said. “They tell me little things like, ‘Put your shirt on once you exit on the pitch.’ Make sure you run away from the sector. A scout sees it, people see it.

Johnson has impressed to date with the second-ranked Pirates and began his own kids’ camp, hoping it might encourage more black kids to play the sport and keep on with it, similar to MLB programs did for him.

“I don’t know if I would be here right now if it wasn’t for this,” Johnson said.