Derby Winner Jordan Walker To Inspire Black Kids To Play Baseball

MLB’s All-Star Week is officially over, but the hype coming off the Home Run Derby isn’t budging.

St. Louis Cardinals’ outfielder Jordan Walker had a nail-biting win over Kyle Schwarber, whom the crowd was favoring, leading to a wave of boos as Walker hit five homers in a row to eke out a 12-11 win.

But bigger than hoisting that trophy is the message Walker wants to send to Black kids, urging them to see that baseball is a viable athletic option and that they don’t always have to gravitate toward the NBA and the NFL.

In the post-game press conference with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, he explained he has no problem being a mentor to young Black athletes on the come up.

“I want to be a role model for the Black kids, you know, and I want more Black kids in baseball,” said Walker. “Hopefully this raises some awareness.”

The 24-year-old continued, “I know a lot of them are playing basketball, football route, but I want them to know the baseball route is open to them, too,” he continued. “And there are a lot of kids that are athletic enough and mentally strong enough — Black kids that can play this game — and I want to see them do it.”

Walker’s words come just months after the MLB released a report saying the number of Black players on Opening Day has increased in recent years, but they’re still low. At the beginning of 2024 it was 6%, in 2025 it was 6.2% and for this year, 2026, it’s up to 6.8%. 

Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport shows that numbers have definitely dropped in the nearly 40 years it’s been tracking them, since it was 18% in 1991.

This is a stark comparison with the NFL, with 56.2% of its players being Black.

This was recently a point of contention on ESPN when SportCenter’s Michael Eaves took issue with the lack of Black coaches, and all 10 recent vacancies being filled by no Black people.

“In a league where Black players make up nearly 70 percent of rosters, not one Black coach landed any of those 10 spots,” he continued. 

According to the NIH, 78.3% of NBA players are Black. As far as coaching, the tide has begun to change, as a 2022 report found that around half of teams’ coaches were Black, and even this year, head coach Mike Brown won a championship with the Knicks.

See how social media is feeling about Walker wanting more Black kids to consider baseball below.