As we were wrapping up our HBCU Sports Roundtable show Friday, word got out that the CIAA board of directors voted to reinstate baseball as a conference-sponsored sport.
As someone who started watching baseball on his grandmother’s black-and-white TV in the summer of 1989, I was excited to learn that an HBCU conference was bringing back the national pastime.
The CIAA discontinued baseball after the 2018 season due to a lack of interest and, of course, the costs associated with running a baseball program for member schools. Only three CIAA schools currently field baseball teams: Lincoln (PA), Virginia State, and Claflin. So, the question for the CIAA is, what does a return to baseball look like?
The obvious answer is to have more member schools reinstate baseball. But baseball has quickly become a very pricey game, regardless of level.
And because America is America, communities where money and resources aren’t easily accessible are usually the most vulnerable.
The most recent findings from the National Library of Medicine show that only 5.4 percent of Major League Baseball players identify as Black or African American.
In my youth, Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds, Frank Thomas and many other Black players were role models for me, so seeing that decline is discouraging.
The history of baseball can’t be told without Black players. Jackie Robinson broke the modern color barrier, followed by Larry Doby, Monte Irvin, Joe Black, Roy Campanella and so on. Frank Robinson, Joe Morgan, Dick Allen, Willie Stargell and many others became superstars after them.
So yes, the CIAA has an uphill battle in making baseball an important sport for the conference, but if there’s one person you should feel confident in overseeing this process, it’s conference commissioner Jacqie McWilliams Parker. She has established herself as a first-class leader mixing an old-school work ethic with a modern view of athletics and student-athletes.
With the CIAA’s ability to market itself, don’t be surprised if a larger plan doesn’t emerge to ensure that at least 75 percent of the conference’s active members (St. Augustine’s, unfortunately, won’t return for the 2025-26 school year, side note) field baseball teams.
It would be a dream to have four NCAA HBCU baseball conferences once again. The SWAC and SIAC have held it down for the last few years, while the CIAA has been absent. The MEAC just recently discontinued baseball due to a drop in membership and programs.
Having strong sports outside of what’s considered the front porch (basketball and football) is an important ingredient to a conference’s recipe for survival. Baseball is a game with Black roots and Black legends throughout. As the CIAA was the first HBCU sports conference, hopefully, this is another instance of them leading the way to another great run of athletic success for HBCUs.
It will be great to see more HBCU schools have a baseball program.