Decline of African Americans in Major League Baseball

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Jackie Robinson broke into Major League Baseball in 1947. By 1975, 27 percent of all major league players were African American. But this year, as the number of players born in Latin America has dramatically increased, the number of African American baseball players has fallen from 27 percent to just 10 percent, and there-s good reason to think the decline will continue. We hear more about this "vanishing breed" from the senior baseball writer for Sports Illustrated, a former major league baseball scout, a sports sociologist, and an author who's written on the rise of Latinos in America's favorite sport.
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    As holiday drivers get on the road this Labor Day weekend, gas prices are sky-high. In California, prices have risen 36 cents in just fourteen days, three times the average jump around the rest of the nation. Elizabeth Douglass, who-s following the story for the Los Angeles Times, says the supply-and-demand disparity is being fueled by the blackout in the Northeast and pipeline shutdown in the Southwest.
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    Forget soccer moms. This year, it's NASCAR dads. Once faithful Democrats, these rural working-class family men have gone over to the Republicans. So, says Liz Clarke of the Washington Post, savvy political pros are spending big bucks on speedway billboards, hoping that this devoted audience of 75 million will transfer its loyalty to candidates, just as its does to other advertisers.

Douglass- article on gas-price volatility

Douglass- article on record gas prices

Jackie Robinson

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

National Association for Stock Car Racing (NASCAR)

Clarke-s article on NASCAR Dads

Credits

Host:

Warren Olney