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The relationship between the Racial Composition of NBA, NFL, and MLB teams and the racial composition of franchise cities were examined in this research. Theoretically, Blalock had proposed two types of compensatory resources-a) competitive resources, and (b) pressure resources-that influence the hiring of minorities. Pressure resources seem particular applicable in the present context. For 1983 and 1989 data on the percentage of African-Americans in the city in which the franchise was located and the percentage of African-Americans on the team were collected. The statistical analyses of the data revealed no systematic correlations between the racial composition of players in these sports and the racial composition of the cities in which the franchises were located.
La relation entre la composition racial des equipes dans le NBA, NFL, MLB et la composition racial des villes ont *tb examiner dans cette recherche.Thtoriquement Blalock a impliqu6 deux ressources (a) des ressources competitives, et (b) des ressources sous pression, pour influencer d'engager des minorit(s. Les ressources sous pression semblent avoir et8 appliquer en particulier dans le context present. Pour 1983 et 1989 I'information du pourcentage des "Africain-AmBricain" a :te collecter dans la ville ou la franchise est localiser ainsi que le pourcentage des "Africain-Americain" dans 1'equipe. L'analyse des statistiques de la date donne ne donne pas de d'association systimatique entre la composition racial des joueurs dans ces sports et la composition racial des villes ou les franchises sont localiser.
The founding of the major professional sport leagues of baseball, football, and basketball occupy centrally significant portions of the U. S. sports history. Although their ages vary-baseball is the eldest at nearly 125 years old, basketball is the youngest at 50, and football is 75-they all commenced as all-white enclaves. From being lily white in player composition at their conception, today African-Americans comprise approximately 79% of NBA rosters, 65% of NFL line ups, and 18% of MLB teams (about 18 % of MLB players are Hispanic). Obviously there has been a skyrocketing in African-American participation (Lapchick & Benedict, 1994).
There are both social and non-social forces contributing to this increase, e.g., federal legislation, racial climate, athletic prowess, opportunities, etc. However, since sports are a business guided by the profit motive, the role of economics, broadly speaking, cannot be eschewed. While media...