Put me in, Coach, I’m ready to play

Abstract

This paper explores the connection between discrimination and entrepreneurship. To pursue this inquiry we focus on the integration of black players in Major League Baseball (MLB). MLB team owners, acting as entrepreneurs, had to weigh the benefits of integrating versus the costs of alienating consumers who had a taste for discrimination against hiring blacks. We find that the owners whose teams could profit by contending for the league pennant with the addition of black players were the ones who were willing to take the risk of integrating, although integration often stood in contrast to revealed consumer preferences. In addition to illuminating the mechanism through which integration took place, we offer a general understanding of how the costs and benefits associated with consumers' taste for discrimination can change via entrepreneurial activities.

Comment on Hanssen and Meehan, ‘‘Who Integrated Major League Baseball Faster Winning Teams or Losing Teams?’’

“…In two recent articles (Coyne, Isaacs, Schwartz, & Carilli, 2007;Coyne, Isaacs, & Schwartz, 2009), we also analyze the process of integration in MLB. Our analysis emphasizes the entrepreneur as the central mechanism through which consumer discrimination, as a barrier to integration, was eroded.…”

Integration of North and South American Players in Japan's Professional Baseball Leagues

“…Coyne et al. (, ) found that winning teams within striking distance of a pennant the previous season were more likely to add minority players.…”

“…Finally, Coyne et al. () argued that team integration is likely to depend not just on the absolute performance of an individual team but also on its performance relative to the league's best team. A team that is just a few wins behind the league's best team could be more likely to add minority players than a team with a good win–loss record that is nonetheless far behind the league's best team.…”

“…Coyne et al. () found that teams in the National League were more likely to add an African American player to their roster because of the relative competitive balance in the National League vis‐à‐vis the American League during the 1946–60 seasons. This finding is relevant in our context because the Pacific League was more competitively balanced than the Central League over the 1951–75 seasons, the time span when teams added their first Caucasian, African American, and Latino players (La Croix and Kawaura, )…”

Who Integrated Major League Baseball Faster Winning Teams or Losing Teams? A Comment

“…Our reading of the Coyne et al comment and the other works by the authors cited therein (Coyne et al, 2007(Coyne et al, , 2009) is that while seeking to carve out a niche distinct from GMT, these articles represent more of a ''concurring opinion'' than a dissent. They emphasize and describe the entrepreneurial role in more detail than GMT, which focuses on the quantitative data regarding the addition of black players.…”