Baseball first excited Savion Price at age 3.
His favorite player is Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees, who shares his position of shortstop.
His favorite aspect of the sport?
“The sound of the bat and the sound of the glove,” said Price, now a seven-year veteran.
While Price shares his love for America”s pastime with the dozens of youth playing this week in the 2011 Dizzy Dean 10-and-under South state baseball tournament at Propst Park, his ethnic background makes him a rare site on many of the nation”s diamonds.
As an African-American, Price is embracing a sport in which millions of blacks have abandoned. For much of the past three decades, the number of blacks in Major League Baseball has decreased annually. In April, they made up just 8.5 percent of Opening Day rosters, the third-lowest figure in decades.
While Price plays for the Macon All-Stars, a 10-and-under squad made up of all blacks, most teams playing Thursday night averaged less than three blacks on their rosters, further signaling decreased interest in this state.
This from a sport whose Cooperstown legends are filled with African-Americans from Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron to Satchel Paige and Cool Papa Bell.
That”s why Macon natives Troy King, Tim Ivy, and Keandre Harris volunteered to coach.
“We made an oath we”re going to do whatever it takes to get these kids where they need to be,” said King, who played baseball at Noxubee County High School before graduating in 1983. “We have to make the first step as parents to coach these kids. If we don”t show the kids we”re interested in coaching them, they wont be interested.”
To do this, they picked up kids from the area and drove the team to Columbus. A handful of parents were on site for the game, which also disappointed King, but didn”t curb his efforts.
In Noxubee County, football is king. Basketball is queen. Baseball, though, is the jester that nobody pays attention to.
It”s not that parents don”t care, King said, but rather they don”t care about baseball and encourage their children to try the game. King said if you ask his players who is their favorite basketball player — Kobe Bryant or LeBron James — they will have an answer.
If you ask them who is their favorite baseball player? They probably won”t have one, but there have been improvements.
Eleven of Price”s 16 teammates are playing baseball for the first time. Many of the players they will face this week have played organized baseball for at least five years.
One of Price”s teammates is Toren King. After declining his father”s attempts for several years to put him on a Little League roster, he finally asked him to play this summer. Toren played second base Thursday in a 20-3 loss to Tupelo. Macon will play Pontotoc at 6 tonight in a losers” bracket game in the double-elimination tournament.
Ivy recently asked one of his players who his favorite baseball player was. He said the catcher from the Atlanta Braves (Brian McCann). A year earlier, the player might not have known that.
“That”s a positive,” Ivy said. “He was watching the game.”
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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