Photos: YouTube
Dario Otero Jr., affectionately known as DJ, admires Jackie Robinson for making history as the first Black American to play Major League Baseball.
DJ, 13, said Robinson proved that Black players too could excel in professional baseball. But 75 years after the league was desegregated, DJ said he is the only Black baseball player on his youth travel team.
And that reality hits the hardest during tryouts and games, said DJ’s father, Dario Otero Sr.
“He knows he’s the only one there,” Otero said. “Whatever he does, however he’s getting looked at, he sticks out like a sore thumb … He’s known for being the one player in our area that is the Black player.”
DJ, who lives in Rosemount, Minnesota, said he would love to see more Black youth playing baseball in his age group. Being the only Black player on his team makes him feel “worried” for the future, DJ said.
And he’s not the only one.
Recent news of there being no US-born Black players competing in the World Series for the first time since 1950 underscores what advocates for racial equity in sports say is the MLB’s decades-long struggle with diversity.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/02/us/world-series-mlb-black-players-youth-league-reaj/index.html
