10:15 PM ET  11.12 | There has been much bally-hoo on the lack of African-Americans in baseball. I have been one of the bally-hooers. Baseball has a deep presence where I live, halfway between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, about which has been said "no city is more synonymous with black baseball". Anyways, a couple of years ago, SI made an all-Latino baseball team, which is becoming growingly easier. A few friends and I went out to make a baseball team made up of those who are of the same race as ourselves. We barely got finished, only by putting Brewers utility man Bill Hall at catcher. Anyways, we had the worst time figuring out who to start in the outfield. (Torii Hunter, Carl Crawford and Curtis Granderson were the choices). We also had to decide if mixed race players such as Derek Jeter and Grady Sizemore counted. (they did not). At any rate, there were barely enough pitchers to fill a 5 man rotation (C.C. Sabathia, Dontrelle Willis, Ian Snell, Edwin Jackson, and LaTroy Hawkins) and only had one reliever (Tom Gordon). So this is what I am basically saying- Where the black people go? Most have said that it is because football and basketball are more interesting, and I would have to agree. One thing baseball could have done was convince Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey, Jr. to participate in the Home Run Derby. Imagine Bonds, Griffey, Prince Fielder and Ryan Howard smashing homers into McCovey Cove. That would have been huge for black interest in the Derby, and All-Star Game as a whole. MLB has to do a better job of marketing its black stars in baseball. I was in Brooklyn visiting my father in October, and saw Jose Reyes and A-Rod every where. I did not see Lastings Milledge. (I did not expect to see Lastings Milledge but I believe you get my point.) I live close to Cleveland. You would expect to go to the 'hood and see C.C. Sabathia posters, right? Baseball's RBI program would make sure that a city with as large a black population as Cleveland would market such a great player to them, right? Wrong. Baseball is doing a great job marketing in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Japan, but a horrible job in African American communities. It is not that black people don't like baseball. We do. We love it. But the MLB is making it increasingly obvious that they don't love us anymore.