CC is disturbed by lack of black players in baseball

The most important number across baseball on Saturday unquestionably and deservedly will be No. 42, as MLB celebrates the 70th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s historic breaking of the color barrier in his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

But there are other re- lated numbers that continue to set off alarms around the game — most notably, the continuing decline of African-Americans playing professional baseball, a downward trend Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia termed both “disturbing” and “disappointing” before Friday’s series against the Cardinals at the Stadium.

“There is still a lot of work to do, and we definitely need to do more,” Sabathia told the Daily News. “That’s very, very disappointing to me, but I’ve been saying this for a long time.

“People were saying I was crazy 10 years ago when I said it in 2007, that it was becoming an epidemic. Look at it now. The numbers just keep dwindling. It’s disturbing, but there are so many factors, and I get it.” Sabathia was one of just eight AfricanAmerican starting pitchers to be on the Opening Day rosters or disabled lists of major-league teams this season, and AfricanAmericans now comprise just 7.1 percent of the nearly 900 players in the majors, according to research revealed earlier this week by USA Today. That number is down from 17.2 percent as recently as 1994, but it represents the lowest such figure since 1958 — barely a decade after Jackie and the Dodgers finally began the integration of the sport. Eleven teams — more than one third of MLB — had no more than one African American player on its roster, while the San Diego Padres and the Colorado Rockies began the year with none. “It’s definitely very disappointing. More than disappointing,” Sabathia said. “Not in this clubhouse, but I’ve seen teams where there wasn’t any African-American players. That’s unbelievable in this day and age. Everybody wants to be on a team with someone who looks like you or you can relate to. “When I came up, I was

drafted in ’98, and there was a lot of us. It’s to the point now that I was shocked the other day when I saw (Jharel) Cotton pitching for the A’s, and I got excited. Or like (Long Island’s Marcus) Stroman starting for the USA (in the WBC), that was important and exciting to me.

“I think there’s a lot to be done, and behind the scenes, a lot is being done. I try to help as much as I can. But we obviously need to do better.”

CC noted that MLB’s “Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI)” initiative has “made some progress” in advancing the game “in some of the major cities” in America. But where he grew up in Vallejo, Calif., just outside Oakland, and in similarly smaller communities, outlets like the local Boys and Girls Clubs don’t have the means to provide sufficient equipment to compete with the more glamorous and better-marketed sports such as football and basketball.

“The basketball guys, from LeBron (James) to lesser NBA guys are all in national commercials. You don’t get that as much in baseball,” Sabathia said. “The number of scholarships available is a big deal, too. If you can only get a partial scholarship in college baseball, but can get a full ride in basketball or football, which sports do you think kids without the money are going to play to try to get their education paid for or to get to the pros?”

Yankees reserve outfielder Aaron Hicks, who belted two home runs Thursday night against Tampa Bay, was one of the first players to make it to the big leagues out of one of MLB’s urban baseball academies in Southern California.

Another slugging outfielder named Aaron from the West Coast — starting right fielder Aaron Judge — proudly sported a bright blue “Thank you, 42” T-shirt before Friday’s batting practice.

Robinson’s No. 42 was retired across baseball on the 50th anniversary of his debut, in 1997, with those already wearing it — like former Yanks closer Mariano Rivera — grandfathered in until retirement.

“I wouldn’t be here, a lot of us wouldn’t be here right now, if not for Jackie Robinson. Just to get the opportunity to be on the field wearing 42 for the first time will be something special,” Judge said. “I’m excited for (Saturday). We’re all blessed to play this game, and all the sacrifices and hardships this man went through, it’s such an honor.”

Judge beamed with a broad smile when shown a photo of his inclusion in Topps’ series of 2017 Jackie Robinson commemorative patch cards, saying: “Oh, no way. I had not seen that yet. That’s pretty amazing to be pictured on the same baseball card as Jackie Robinson. Never would have thought that in my life something like that would S happen.” abathia had heard stories about Robinson through his early life, relaying that his grandfather “made sure I knew about him” from the time he was around 5. “He’s meant everything to me. I wouldn’t be sitting here playing this game that I love to play without him, without what he did and what he sacrificed,” Sabathia said of Robinson. “Just so unbelievably strong, man. I think about trying to play this game at a high level and hearing about everything he had to go through, on and off the field, in the world, it’s incredible what he accomplished. It’s unreal. He had to be all of that, for us to be here today.”

As Sabathia noted, however, seven decades later, baseball still needs to do better.