Rob Parker has accomplished a lot in a journalism career that has nearly covered four decades. He’s been on television, currently hosts a national radio show and has been a columnist read nationwide. He also was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Hall of Fame in August.
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But that’s not why Parker beams with pride these days. He’s all smiles about his website, MLBbro.com, and what it’s doing for young journalists, Black and Brown baseball players and fans. Parker started the site in 2021, and it partnered with Major League Baseball this season to have its content shared by the league.
MLBbro follows MLB’s minority players from the past and present while also identifying up-and-coming prospects. In turn, MLBbro staffers have appeared on MLB television and have received help and career development from the league — which has no editorial control over the content on the website.
“It’s about the staff and giving these younger people opportunities,” Parker said. “I mentor a lot of people in the business, but this is by far the greatest thing I’ve ever done. And I’ve had some great jobs, great opportunities, high-profile gigs. This is the best.”
MLBbro staffers are credentialed across the league, including the postseason. The mission is simple: “We’re just trying to give players a voice and a platform,” said Parker, who has been seen, read and/or heard on ESPN, Fox Sports and several other media outlets. “And the response from them has been tremendous.”
MLBbro’s success isn’t just about views on the site. It also is about building the generation of young minority baseball journalists and serving a community of players who often do not see journalists of color consistently.
What started as a staff of 14 has grown to more than 60, and Parker couldn’t be more pleased. The growth has given opportunities to young journalists who are interested in baseball but might have been unfamiliar with getting involved in covering the sport.
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Parker owes a lot of his career to baseball. In 1983, he was a 19-year-old when he interviewed his first pro athlete, Darryl Strawberry, who then was 21. Parker covered his first World Series in 1986 and became the first Black beat writer to regularly cover the Cincinnati Reds in 1991.
Parker has been a Baseball Writers’ Association of America member since 1990 and is one of about 20 Black voters for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This spring, he’ll teach a baseball writing class at USC. It’s the first of its kind at the school, and Parker developed the curriculum.
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While he remains busy with his own career, Parker has used mentoring to provide opportunities. He had talked about putting something like MLBbro into play for years.By 2020, he was ready to put resources into making the site happen, and it was ready for the 2021 season.
Managing editor J.R. Gamble calls Parker the “driving force” behind MLBbro. From the start, it was always about creating a vehicle for development and opportunities for aspiring journalists while contributing to baseball.
“The youth is what really drives everything, all the younger people that we brought on, some that have never really covered baseball but have a love for it,” Gamble said. “Within that, most of those people are people Rob met along the way that might have walked up to him one day, sent him an email or came up to him at a game.”
The staff’s tracking players — keeping a list and verifying that player actually is of color — means getting in the clubhouse and actually asking players what some would think are obvious questions. Such was the case for Detroit Tigers outfielder Riley Greene. At a glance, one might think he is Black. But rather than assume, he was asked and said he was Hispanic. Greene was approached to play for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic because his maternal grandmother is Puerto Rican.
“It’s trial and error,” Parker said. “We don’t want to assume anything.”
Parker’s efforts are being recognized by a variety of individuals. Even Public Enemy emcee and Hall of Famer Chuck D shouted out Parker for his efforts to cultivate Black fans.
Current and former MLB players and coaches have taken notice, as well.
“Sometimes you have to have a leader, and you have to believe in what the leader is doing. But the leader also has to have the action behind it, and Rob has all of that,” said former big leaguer Bip Roberts, who works for NBC Sports Bay Area as an analyst for the Oakland Athletics.
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Roberts played for the Reds when Parker covered the team. He said Parker was always someone he related to and trusted in the clubhouse to be sympathetic.
It’s one of many reasons Roberts believes in and supports what Parker is doing with the site.
“He can lead you, but he has the actions behind it,” Roberts said. “When you look at his track record, you will see. Rob has always stood up for what was right and what was correct, but he’s also been a pioneer for us as Black players.”
Former pitcher LaTroy Hawkins works with MLB on some of its diversity initiatives. He said MLBbro is “genius.”Hawkins said MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has worked to increase diversity throughout baseball, and he believes Parker’s efforts are just as vital.
“It’s important to be able to look at TV and see people that look like us,” Hawkins said. “There are some, but there’s never enough.”
Hawkins added it makes a difference not just for those watching games, but also for the children and families of players to see a diverse news force.
“Maybe you don’t want to be an athlete,” Hawkins said. “You know, maybe that’s not for you. Well, you know what? You can say, ‘I saw Rob Parker in the clubhouse. That’s what I want to be like.’”
MLB will continue to play a key role in expanding Parker’s vision. Steve Arocho works with MLB communications and has worked with Parker, in addition to having involvement with other diversity initiatives from Manfred and the league.The league’s RBI program aims to revive youth baseball in inner cities. There’s also the DREAM Series, which brings a group of predominantly Black high school standouts to Arizona over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend for on-field instruction.
“It’s all part of the same ecosystem of us trying to build the game back to where it once was,” Arocho said. “It’s going to take a long time. I may not be here; I probably won’t be here by the time we get to the place where we need to be. But just having some kind of role in it in some capacity is very fulfilling.”
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Parker has been pleased with the relationship with MLB. Beyond providing credentials and access to games, the staff has seen career development. Parker has young reporters who work with Jesse Sanchez, director of talent development and diversity 0utreach – content for MLB. Sanchez has worked with reporters to formulate ideas, craft stories and become better journalists.
“The goal is to get their stories on MLB.com, and I’m very happy to say we were able to accomplish that goal this year,” Sanchez said. “I’m very hands-on in my role and all aspects of my role, and I work directly with (Parker’s) writers to get their stories published.”
Few things capture the importance of Parker’s cache in baseball with former and current players like Jaelen Gilkey’s story. Gilkey arrived at the NABJ Conference in Miami in 2019, like a lot of young attendees, trying to find his way in the business. He was looking for guidance on how to make inroads as he began his career.
He asked his father, former major leaguer Bernard Gilkey, what he should do.His father instructed him to find Parker, which he did.
When Parker was preparing to launch the site, he contacted Jaelen Gilkey. He wanted him to produce short videos for the site, offering insight on the game he played growing up.
You can now find the “MLBbro Show” on the site, featuring Gilkey.
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Though Gilkey is the son of a major leaguer, that hadn’t guaranteed him anything in journalism. Gilkey and Gary Sheffield Jr. are sons of former major leaguers now working for the site.
“This opportunity gives me 100 percent satisfaction knowing not only are we doing a great work, (but also we are) pursuing a message and creating a platform that I care deeply about as a young aspiring journalist,” Gilkey said. “A lot of times as journalists, we have to do a lot of things that we don’t want to do, but I never feel that way when it comes to my assignments at MLBbro.com.”
The more stories Parker hears like Gilkey’s, it’s validation that this mission is indeed the greatest endeavor of his career.
(Photos of Darryl Strawberry and Marcus Semien courtesy of Rob Parker and MLBbro)
Jason Jones is a staff writer for The Athletic, covering Culture. Previously, he spent 16 years at the Sacramento Bee, covering the Sacramento Kings and Oakland Raiders. He's a proud Southern California native and a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley Follow Jason on Twitter @mr_jasonjones
