DURHAM, N.C. - When the rosters for Major League Baseball's July 14 All-Star Game were recently announced, only 10 black players were among the 64 picked for the American and National League rosters. Among the 16 players chosen as starters by fan vote, only Derek Jeter of the Yankees is African-American.

This is a far cry from the 1979 All-Star game, which featured 16 African-American players, including seven starters and seven future hall-of-famers.

In 2009, a little more that 10 percent of all Major League baseball players are black - a percentage that represents the first increase in more than a decade, but is still a far cry from the close to 30 percent of black players in the mid-1970s. The diminishing presence of African-American players on virtually all levels of the game has reached such a point that many historically black colleges and universities explicitly recruit white and Latino players to field full-fledged teams.

There are many theories as to why the number of black ball players has declined. Some cite the inability of Major League Baseball to successfully market their game to black youth as the NBA and NFL do.

Others cite the high cost of attending games, a charge that golfer Tiger Woods recently reiterated when talking about ticket prices at the new Yankee Stadium.

Then there's the increase of international players, particularly from Asia and Latin America. The latter dynamic led Gary Sheffield, a black 20-year veteran, to suggest to GQ Magazine in 2007 that the increased presence of Latino players was because they were "easier to control."

Of course, many poor youth are simply challenged by the lack of available space and equipment to play baseball.

Longtime music executive and baseball fan Bill Stephney suggests another reason for the diminishing presence of black baseball players. According to Stephney, baseball lost legitimacy in black communities when black fathers became marginalized in those same communities.

There is merit in Stephney's observation. Unlike basketball, which youngsters can learn by watching older youth play the game, the game of baseball requires a certain level of organization and instruction that, very often, only adults can provide.

Indeed, it was my own father who sparked my interest in baseball as a youth; I can't imagine I would have become interested in the sport without his intervention.

My father belonged to a post-World War II generation of American men who were youth themselves when Jackie Robinson broke the sport's color barrier, an act loudly cheered by those struggling against legal segregation.

It bears noting that among the current black ball players in the Major Leagues, a significant number are sons of former Major Leaguers, including John Mayberry Jr. of the Phillies, Gary Matthews Jr. of the Angels and Prince Fielder of the Brewers. All three fathers - John Mayberry Sr., Gary Matthews Sr. and Cecil Fielder - were all-stars at one point in their careers.

More telling is the example of brothers Dmitri and Delmon Young and B.J. and Justin Upton. The Young brothers were the first siblings to be drafted among the first five picks of baseball's amateur draft in 1991 and 2003, respectively, and the Uptons were among the two picks in the 2002 and 2005 drafts. Both sets of brothers talk about how their fathers were instrumental in their careers, with baseball serving as the common language that bridged the generation gap.

The late Buck O'Neil, a veteran of the Negro Leagues and in his later years one of baseball's great ambassadors, once suggested that kids never recall going to their first basketball game with their fathers, but that is often the case with baseball.

Last month, President Barack Obama promoted the importance of being a good dad, saying he wanted to start a "national conversation" on the subject. Maybe that conversation could take place on a baseball diamond, with fathers and sons and a duffel bag filled with balls, bats and gloves.