re: Could Jim Thorpe have played professional sports if he was 25 today?

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Baseball and basketball are two different cases with regard to race. Blacks make up more than 70% of the NBA, but they have never made up a majority of MLB and their peak was 27% in 1975. Also, since 1947 when Jackie Robinson played his first MLB game, Whites have continued to win the lion's share of the MVP and Cy Young awards.

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Black players don't make up a large percentage in baseball not because they aren't any good... but because they play other sports instead. Baseball was a more popular game in the 40's, so blacks played at higher numbers than now.

Let's just look at the MVP's since 1990, and let's see how many white players were MVP during those 24 years:

American League: 8 out of 24
National League: 8 out of 24


And there are many more white players than players of other races in the MLB.


If all of those other races were playing baseball long ago, it would have been much different.