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Posted By: davidcycle

Why is it the standard 'test' to compare the percentage of African Americans (Black United States citizens) of the US population to the percentage of African Americans in MLB baseball, instead of comparing the percentage of African Americans in the US to the percentage of African Americans amongst Americans in baseball? It is commonly quoted that the percentage of African Americans in baseball is less than the percentage of African Americans in the US population-- which is a dubious one-to-one comparison as less than 70 percent of MLB players are American. As an example demonstrating why this comparison is dubious, the percentage of whites in the US is 74.67. If every MLB player was white (100 percent white), the percentage of white American players would be less than the percentage of whites in the US population, as less than 70 percent of MLB players are American.

In fact, for EACH major American racial group (white-Americans, black-Americans, aboriginal-Americans, Asian-Americans, hispanic-Americans, other), its percentage of the MLB population is less than its percentage of the US population. Again, the across-the-board difference is caused by the the American population being 100% percent American while the MLB population being less than 70% American.

This post is not a comment on race in baseball, and should no way be interpreted as expressing my opinion on race on baseball. Rather, it's a comment on statistical methodology.