{"id":753183,"date":"2026-07-16T09:12:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T09:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/753183\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T09:12:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T09:12:53","slug":"st-louis-cardinals-jordan-walker-hopes-home-run-derby-win-helps-get-more-black-players-in-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/753183\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Louis Cardinals\u2019 Jordan Walker hopes Home Run Derby win helps get more black players in baseball"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Home Run Derby victory for Cardinals RF Jordan Walker<\/a> \u201cfilled him with hope that his performance would inspire many a Black youngster to pick up a bat and swing for the fences,\u201d according to Steve Greenberg of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. Walker said, \u201cI would love to see more Black players in MLB, for sure, and just overall playing baseball.\u201d According to Opening Day active rosters, the league is 6.8% Black this season — which is \u201ca tiny uptick from 2025 but still much lower than it used to be.\u201d Walker added, \u201cI just want them to know baseball is also a sport for them to play, that it\u2019s fun, too. And I want to see more representation\u201d (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 7\/14<\/a>).<\/p>\n

ROLE MODEL IN THE MAKING: In St. Louis, Benjamin Hochman wrote with his Derby win Monday night, Walker\u2019s \u201cstatus and celebrity catapulted into the cognizance of our nation.\u201d His \u201chome run-launching has made the All-Star Walker a bona fide star.\u201d He is \u201cnow not only a name but also a commodity\u201d and a \u201ccelebrity.\u201d Just think about how \u201cmany fans now know of Walker and admire\u201d him. Hochman: \u201cAnd how about this: How many kids now know about Walker and admire him? Especially, Black kids.\u201d Come Tuesday morning, Walker\u2019s photo was on the front of ESPN.com and MLB.com, and he was trending on X. The derby champ is now \u201clarger than life\u201d (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 7\/14<\/a>). Also in St. Louis, Derrick Goold writes within 24 hours, MLB \u201cposted 17 different Walker-related items to its Instagram page.\u201d Walker\u2019s family, some of whom joined him on set after his Derby win, also \u201cbecame celebrities.\u201d Walker was \u201cinundated with autograph requests and photos\u201d on the red carpet ahead of Tuesday\u2019s MLB All-Star Game, \u201cfar more than previous Cardinals in that recently added event\u201d (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 7\/15<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Home Run Derby victory for Cardinals RF Jordan Walker \u201cfilled him with hope that his performance would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2403],"tags":[5,160,4129,4,673,67,4311,4310],"class_list":["post-753183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-louis-cardinals","tag-baseball","tag-cardinals","tag-culture","tag-mlb","tag-st-louis","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-stlouis","tag-stlouiscardinals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116928892312387904","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}