Deion Sanders was one of the few multi-sport athletes to ever compete at the highest level in two sports. He often described football as his wife and baseball as his mistress. Recently, he opened up on a podcast about why the Black community doesn’t engage with baseball as much as other communities — surprisingly citing parenting and a desire for women as the biggest reasons.
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Sanders joined the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast to discuss his stance. While reflecting on his professional playing career, one co-host asked why MLB isn’t “popping” anymore. Deion responded that it is “popping,” just not in the Black community.
“Baseball ain’t cool in the hood,” Deion claimed. “Because baseball takes a lot of work, training, rigorous hours, and time. And girls don’t dig baseball players. Girls come inside the gym to watch the hoopers… Girls like the physicality of a football player and the dominance that he portrays.”
These are excellent points that Deion made. He also mentioned how African American heritage doesn’t have roots in baseball, which so often leads to fathers leading their sons down the same path. While he commended those excelling in MLB, he acknowledged that it remains uncommon.
As for the women aspect, it may ring true for some but not for others. Not every woman likes the physicality of a football player — some may even find it scary. But Sanders did make a good point about cheerleaders in each sport.
“Girls are cheerleaders in the sport as well as basketball. Ain’t nobody out there for baseball. I played. I went all through youth looking over in the stands — ain’t nobody there for me. Not even a parent. There was nobody there.”
As a former youth baseball player myself, this is the sad reality of the sport at that level. Some parents who understand the game will attend, but most can’t be bothered to learn the rules and find it boring. And good luck getting your friends to come along. Better yet, good luck getting them to come and then want to return for another.
However, this isn’t the first time Deion has spoken on the issue. Back in 2022, he had a similar discussion about youth baseball in the black community with the How It Goes Down podcast. He talked about when he was growing up, noting that there were once many African American players in the MLB, but over time, the cost of the game priced the community out.
“Back when we played baseball in the little leagues it was cool, maybe about a hundred or a hundred fifty dollars to register. To play on a select team now it’s at least two thousand. So kids are not playing it. They can not afford it. They priced us out.”
It’s the unfortunate aspect of youth sports that doesn’t get brought up as much. Now if you want to keep up with the rigorous training that other youth athletes are doing, you need to pay for little league, summer travel ball, fall showcases, winter indoor facilities. And the list goes on. The ease of entry into baseball and other youth sports is not as financially affordable as it once was.
This is exactly why Sanders became Coach Prime in the first place. He wanted to offer people who didn’t have as much financial stability a chance to showcase their athletic potential and allowed them to at the workouts he would host before becoming a full-time coach.
It’s great to see that Sanders hasn’t taken his eye off the ball of his real quest in sports. Which seems to be making them more accessible to everyone who wants to try.
