On Juneteenth, our Cubs 360 Daily panel discussed the lack of diversity among African American baseball players with Bruce Levine, Doug Glanville and Shawon Dunston joined host Cole Wright. 

Back in 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier and played in Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 2019, only 7.7-percent of the major league players are African American. 

Dunston played for 18 seasons in the big league. He enjoyed his time in the majors and was thankful for those older players who guided him throughout his career.

“When I played, I had the veterans. I had Lee Smith, Andre Dawson and other players on other teams who were helping African Americans like Gary Templeton who I really loved and liked as a player at shortstop,” Dunston said. “It was nice to see a familiar face because they know what you go through in baseball; but now, it’s kind of hard to see it, but hopefully baseball will come back with it.”

When Glanville came up to the majors, Dunston became a mentor to Glanville helping him navigate through Major League Baseball. 

“I saw the culture and the way that major league players who had this experience of being black in America, shared the knowledge. They passed it down and they helped us understand the pitfalls and the challenges of navigating Major League Baseball,” Glanville said. “Because the game tends to have this passing information down and traditions, it was very important as a black player to know that there’s support and you weren’t alone in confronting a lot of these issues that may have happened off the field that.”

For more information and resources on diversity and inclusion in baseball, click here to learn more.