The big gain for the decrease of African-Americans in baseball

It's the year 2024 and 42% of the NCAA baseball players are African-Americans.

That is one of the headlines that I'm working towards becoming a reality through L.E.A.D. If that headline becomes true, my wife Kelli and I would have successfully worked ourselves out of a job.

L.E.A.D.'s mission is to empower an at risk generation to lead and transform their city of Atlanta. Our vision is for our L.E.A.D. Ambassadors to lead Atlanta to lead the world.

L.E.A.D. was established in Atlanta in 2007 by my wife and I because of declining high school graduation rates as well as the low number of African-Americans competing in baseball at the collegiate level.  The decline of blacks in the major leagues gets most of the media attention but it isn't the major problem.

Back to 2014. In Atlanta, 60% of African-American males will not graduate from high school on time. In the NCAA, less than 6% of the baseball players are African-American.

Just a thought. It seems that the problem with the problem is that you can no longer make money off the problem if there is a solution. There is a lot of money being made discussing the decline of African-Americans in baseball.

In Atlanta, L.E.A.D. partners with Atlanta Public Schools (APS) to offer 12 months of baseball and core value training to 500+ African-American males at the middle and high school level. The APS educators are some of the best in the country. They depend on organizations like L.E.A.D. to keep the students engaged so that they may reach their full potential in life. That's what partnership is all about.

Click here to check out how many L.E.A.D. Ambassadors are competing at the NCAA level, graduating from college and gainfully employed by our partners such as Mizuno.

Nick Marigny was the starting shortstop for the Jackson State University SWAC Champions and will graduate 2015

In the birth city of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coca-Cola, there is no decline of African-Americans participating in baseball. Continue to Rise Up Atlanta!