Study: MLB broadcast booths lack diversity

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At SB Nation’s Phillies blog The Good Phight, David S. Cohen compiled the demographics of the broadcast booths across baseball and found that it does not reflect the population of baseball nor of the United States.

Of 164 announcers in 30 teams’ booths, 148 (90.2 percent) are white men. Only nine are African-American men (5.5 percent), five are Latino men (3.0 percent), one is an Asian man (0.6 percent), and one is a white woman (0.6 percent).

There are only two broadcast teams with multiple persons of color: the Twins (Torii Hunter and LaTroy Hawkins) and Angels (Victor Rojas and Jose Mota). 17 broadcast teams are comprised of only white people.

The broadcast booths do, however, reflect viewership. Cohen, citing Nielsen stats, notes that 83 percent of those who watch baseball on television are white and 70 percent are men.

While Craig has debunked the “baseball is dying” myth countless times here, I am pessimistic about baseball’s future with its reluctance to cater to a younger, more diverse audience. MLB was, until only very recently, behind the times in technology and social media and still is in some ways. It has made no effort to curb culture policing by white players past and present.

If MLB wants to remain a mainstay in the sporting realm, it will have to bridge the demographic divide as much as it has recently bridged the technological divide.