http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/jackie/news/story?id=2828584
This is a fascinating update on black baseball players. It is 60 years since Jackie Robinson and yet, for all sorts of reasons, only 9% of MLB players are black. Any sharedness of baseball that DeLillo may have been suggesting (Cotter and Waterson or Nick and Sims) is vastly diminished in today's version of the game. Not only are there few black players, there are only 2 black managers, few front office types, and a dwindling fan base. Two teams, the Houston Astros and the Atlanta Braves, have 0 black players. There are more players from the Dominican (81) than African Americans (68) and the MLB invests 5 or 6 times more money in player/youth development programs in Latin America than in the urban U.S. It's hard to believe now that once upon a time there were entire Negro Leagues that would consistently produce a better product and draw more fans than the MLB.
In my opinion these sorts of statistics are kinda bogus, especially when you look at all those people from the Dominican Republic and other former Spanish possessions many of whom are actually of partially African ancestry which basically makes them just as "African American" as the rest of the players.
Though they do make a valid point about the managers and office suits.
Just my two cents