Chuck Harmon, the first African-American to play for the Reds, came off the bench April 17, 1954 and stepped through the door of exclusion that Jackie Robinson and the Dodgers had swung open in 1947.

But 57 years after Robinson integrated the game - and 50 since Harmon popped out in his first major-league at-bat - baseball faces a renewed concern.

Fewer and fewer African-Americans, a valued demographic from the ticket windows to the fields, are adopting baseball as their game of choice.

"It just worries me when I go through the city and see all these youngsters standing out on the street doing nothing," Harmon said last month. "They won't go out and play ball."

The trend is evident at many major-league ballparks.

Reds center fielder Ken Griffey Jr. and shortstop Barry Larkin were two of only 83 African-American players on major-league rosters and disabled lists when the 2004 season began, according to a recent New York Times report.

"You don't have to look around to notice it," said Griffey, who with Larkin represented 7 percent of the Reds' Opening Day roster this year. "You just know it for a fact."

Factors contributing to the decline of African-American major-leaguers - from 27 percent in 1975 to 10 percent this season - range from a waning passion for the game at grass-roots levels to the influx of foreign-born players to the booming popularity and marketing pizazz of the NBA and NFL.

"Baseball doesn't appeal to kids that don't have a TV, kids that don't live by a ballpark or kids that don't have the means to go out and aggressively engulf the game," said Larkin, a Cincinnati native who is in his 19th season with the Reds. "Everything is hip-hop this, hip-hop that (in the NBA and NFL). Why doesn't baseball pick up on that?

"Baseball has this old, stoic, clean-cut, build-it-and-they-will-come type of mentality. Well, guess what? They ain't coming."

Major League Baseball and its teams are aware of the trend and have instituted several programs at the local level in an attempt to resuscitate interest among African-Americans.

The Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program is probably the most widely known. Administered by MLB, it has grown to serve more than 120,000 children worldwide, including 250 last year in Cincinnati.

The first MLB youth baseball academy in the United States, similar to those teams use to foster the development of young players in Latin America, is set to open next spring.

"When you think of the heritage of Jackie Robinson and (Larry) Doby and (Roy) Campanella and (Hank) Aaron and Willie Mays, it's stunning that it's fallen off like it has," MLB commissioner Bud Selig told the St. Paul Pioneer Press earlier this year. "We've gotten away from promoting baseball in the inner cities.

"Now we're trying to make up for time. We're trying to do as much as we can to stimulate the game."

THE NUMBERS GAME

The 83 African-Americans, of which just four were starting pitchers, represented a small fraction of the 827 players on active rosters and disabled lists when this season began, according to the New York Times. But even at 10 percent, it's a slight increase from the 9.3 percent last season.

"Baseball has to decide what its priorities are," said Dr. Richard Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida.

"If its priorities are to increase the number of fans in the stands as well as players in the field who are African-American, they have to prioritize how they're going to use their resources."

The number of Latino players - defined by Lapchick in the 2003 Racial and Gender Report Card as people from Central and South America, as well as the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and those of Spanish-speaking heritage from North America - has risen as the percentages of African-Americans declined since 1990.

Latino players comprised 13 percent of roster spots in 1990 and accounted for 23 percent this year, according to the New York Times.

"Young people today need to see young African-American stars," Lapchick said. "Stars they can identify with who are closer to their age group and who will add to the luster of the legendary figures like Larkin, Griffey and Barry Bonds."

IDENTIFYING THE CAUSE

Baseball players, if they're fortunate enough to be drafted or signed out of high school, typically spend years in the minors before being afforded a shot in the major leagues.

Some of their basketball counterparts, a la LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, are jumping from high school to the NBA with increasing regularity. Football players, despite Maurice Clarett's best attempts, must wait three years after high school before they can declare for the NFL draft.

"It's cool to be an NBA player," Larkin said. "Everybody who wanted to be 'Like Mike' now wants to be like LeBron James. So they market that guy. And it's cool to wear your Randy Moss or Dante Hall jersey.

"The marketing of those two sports is more geared toward the people who are probably going to be athletes in these areas that they're trying to market. When is the last time you've seen a baseball commercial with the same kind of marketing scheme? You see A-Rod, (Derek) Jeter and Josh Beckett."

Added Griffey: "If you're a kid, would you want to go play baseball? What's so appealing about baseball?

"You've got the NBA and NFL football showing the excitement."

Lapchick, whose data shows three of every four NBA roster spots (78 percent) and two of every three NFL roster spots (65 percent) were filled by African-Americans in 2002, concurs with Larkin and Griffey but acknowledges baseball is improving.

"In communities of color, they have to do different types of innovative marketing strategies than the general strategy of just marketing the team," he said.

"I think baseball has attempted to start to do that. But starts need finishes."

While it's correct that young African-American athletes are being drawn to basketball and football, there are other factors at play, factors that apply to children of all races.

Video games can mesmerize a child for hours. Single-parent households are increasingly more common. Baseball equipment can prove costly. And many urban facilities are in disrepair and in need of the volunteer coaches and parents that youth baseball survives upon.

"I would probably have to say the passion to play the game has waned in the (African-American) community," said Chris Nelms, director of Cincinnati's RBI program. "I don't think they'll get it back because of the popularity of basketball and other sports, and because kids now have so many other opportunities and distractions and are so preoccupied.

"It's really hard to find a ballplayer that's really inspired and motivated to play baseball, that really loved the game like my generation and maybe a generation after me loved the game."

WORKING FOR A SOLUTION

Many of baseball's efforts are focused on luring inner-city youths to the game at a grass-roots level.

Major League Baseball has administered the RBI program since 1991. Founded by former player John Young in 1989 in South Central Los Angeles to help disadvantaged youth, the RBI program operates in 190 cities worldwide.

"If kids are not getting the opportunity because of economics, that's something we certainly want to overcome," said Tom Brasuell, MLB vice president of community affairs.

"I think we are trying, and we're going to keep trying, to expose kids to the game on the field, in the stands and through the history of the game itself."

Cincinnati's RBI program began with Nelms' help in 1999.

"Overall the RBI program is a good program," Nelms said.

But the RBI program also has witnessed a decline in the number of African-American participants the past 10 years.

When Brasuell began overseeing the program in 1994, 65 percent of its participants were African-American. That number now ranges from 51 to 55 percent, he said.

"As that number has dropped 10 percentage points, the number of Latinos has gone up a like number," Brasuell said. "We've got a slight increase on some of the (Native American) reservations and we've started programs in three different areas of Hawaii.

"Those kids are just as needy as the African-American kids. We want to have an inclusive program, not an exclusive one."

Major League Baseball and its clubs have contributed in excess of $15 million in money and resources to the RBI program since 1991, according to Brasuell. Last year it also gave Little League Baseball a $250,000 grant for the Urban Initiative baseball and softball program.

More than 100 players who participated in the RBI program were later drafted. At least three RBI alums - Carl Crawford (Devil Rays), Coco Crisp (Indians) and Luis Matos (Orioles) - are on major-league 25-man rosters this season.

Brasuell also points to the recent amateur drafts as an encouraging sign. The top two picks last June - Delmon Young and Rickie Weeks - are African-American. And Lapchick's most recent report card showed a slight increase in the number of African-Americans playing collegiately in 2001, from 2.8 percent in 1999 to 6.7 percent.

"We thought it was significant that it happened," Lapchick said. "But whether or not it's a trend or not is something that is going to take longer than that to see."

Preparations are under way to open MLB's first U.S.-based youth baseball academy in early 2005 on the campus of Compton (Calif.) Community College at a cost of $3-million. There are plans to open similar academies in other cities as well.

The Compton academy will serve boys and girls ages 11 to 17 years old, providing baseball and softball instruction, clinics and education about other baseball-related careers. Instruction will be provided in part by MLB's scouting bureau.

"Kids think everybody is going to be a Griffey or A-Rod or that type of player," said Shannon Williams, who started coaching in the RBI program and is now head coach at Compton College. "They all forget about the public relations, the media outlets and all the different things that are involved."

LATINO FACTOR

The numbers show that African-American participation in the major leagues has decreased over the past 15 years at the expense of a burst in Latino participation. An increased investment in scouting and player development in foreign countries is a major factor in this change.

Domestically, there are more Latinos in the United States than ever. According to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau in January 2003, Latinos have surpassed African-American as the largest minority group in the country.

A LOOK AHEAD

The past tells us there is no quick fix.

Twelve years after Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier, the Boston Red Sox became the last team to integrate when Pumpsie Green made his debut on July 21, 1959.

It took another 12 years before a team - the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sept. 1, 1971 - fielded an all-minority lineup, and nearly four more before an African-American was hired as a manager (Frank Robinson in April 1975).

Baseball hopes its Urban Youth Initiative, via the RBI program and its community ventures, will teach kids an appreciation of the game so they may follow in the footsteps of men like Jackie Robinson and Chuck Harmon.

"You'll have a better appreciation of any sport if you get a chance, an opportunity to play it," Brasuell said. "We want them to get the opportunity to play it while creating an interest in the sport, should they later on want to continue through high school and college.

"We want to prepare them as best we can, but also hope they'll appreciate the game and become fans of the game."

Glossary

The 2003 Racial and Gender Report Card defines African-Americans and Latinos as follows.

AFRICAN-AMERICAN: Refers to people of African descent. The authors recognize that citizens coming from other lands do not consider themselves as "African-American" in the current meaning of the term.

LATINO: Refers to people from Central and South America, as well as the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and those of Spanish-speaking heritage from North America.

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