Major League Baseball

How Reds pitcher Hunter Greene honors Jackie Robinson's legacy

Updated Apr. 18, 2022 1:34 p.m. ET

By Pedro Moura
FOX Sports MLB Writer

Hunter Greene made the long-awaited first start of his major-league career on Sunday in Atlanta against the reigning World Series champions. He'll make his second at Dodger Stadium, just 33 miles from where he grew up.

Life is great right now for the 22-year-old Cincinnati Reds right-hander. The only thing that could have been better, he indicated, is if his second start were scheduled for Friday, the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s MLB debut. He’s missing it by one day.

Greene, who identifies as Black, has been a lifelong disciple of the late barrier-breaker, whom he once called his "only baseball idol." At 13, Greene won an essay contest developed by Jackie Robinson’s daughter, Sharon. In high school, he chose to wear Robinson’s number for the Under Armour All-American Game.

On the anniversary’s eve, he choked up as he answered a question about what Robinson means to him.

"What he endured as a player, as a man, is unbelievable, the grace that he played with, everything on the field, the teammate he was," Greene said. "To be here at Dodger Stadium, to be here on the 75th anniversary, it’s pretty special. To be here as a Black player and a young man, to represent what he stood for, is super important, to shed that light on our community, to let these kids know that they can do it."

Greene understands that any honoring of Robinson requires continuing his efforts. Today, Black players make up not much more of Major League Baseball than when Robinson retired 66 years ago, down significantly since the mid-1990s. Greene, born in 1999, said he has a number of thoughts about why that is.

"I can touch on a lot of different topics and ideas," he said, "but I’d be here for another 20 or 30 minutes talking about it."

He had only 12 minutes, so he summarized what must change for more Black athletes to follow him into baseball: opportunities.

"The most important thing is giving those kids the opportunity," Greene said. "There’s a lot of kids out there. That’s all they need to take off and succeed. The more opportunities we can give to Black kids, we’ll increase the number of them in the game."

As evidence of the lack of opportunity at one stage in amateur development, Greene cited the limited college baseball scholarships available — fewer than in basketball and far fewer than in football. That pushes high-achieving high schoolers toward the sports that provide more educational funding.

Even Greene, he noted, did not receive a full scholarship offer from UCLA, where he had committed before the Reds drafted him No. 2 overall in 2017. And MLB teams are increasingly selecting college players in the annual draft. According to the Wall Street Journal, only 19% of players taken in the first 10 rounds of the 2019 draft were high schoolers, down from 46% in 1999.

The burden of bridging the gap between partial scholarships and the full cost of college attendance is increasing every year, and it falls disproportionately on Black families. According to the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances, the median white American household held 7.8 times the wealth of the typical Black household.

"There’s a cloud or stigma that there’s no Black kids who want to play baseball," Greene said. "That’s not the case. There’s a lot of Black kids who like to play baseball. I just came from Atlanta. There’s a lot of Black baseball players in Atlanta. Chicago as well. Those kids are out there. They just need to be given the opportunity."

This month, MLB began an effort to attract more Black and Latino players to the game with what it is calling its ID Tour. The league held the first two of 12 scheduled stops last weekend in Sacramento and Oakland. Dallas; Houston; a town outside Jackson, Mississippi; Montgomery, Alabama; Charleston, South Carolina; Charlotte; Washington, D.C.; Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania; and two New York City boroughs will follow. Eighth and ninth graders reportedly participated in the California stops.

The goal, the league said, is to funnel "the best athletes" into future baseball development programs it will put on for older children, often at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, California.

Greene is erecting similar structures himself. He has for years held an annual camp in his name at the MLB Youth Academy in Compton, where he learned the game, helped by the coaches and former players who taught him. He started training there at age 7, one year after he picked up the game. A decade later, he was one of the greatest amateur prospects the sport had ever seen.

He understands that Robinson started paving the way for his success, and he has voluntarily shouldered some of the burden to pave the next generation’s way.

Pedro Moura is the national baseball writer for FOX Sports. He most recently covered the Dodgers for three seasons for The Athletic. Previously, he spent five years covering the Angels and Dodgers for the Orange County Register and L.A. Times. More previously, he covered his alma mater, USC, for ESPNLosAngeles.com. The son of Brazilian immigrants, he grew up in the Southern California suburbs. Follow him on Twitter @pedromoura.