According to a study, the percentage of black players in the major leagues decreased again last year. In contract, Major League Baseball equaled its best grades for racial and gender diversity hiring. MLB received an A for race and a B for gender hiring in the annual study released Thursday by the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports. The number of black players dropped from 10.2 percent to 9 percent last season. Baseball hit a low point in 2007 when just 8.2 percent of players were black. "I think it's a reflection now of the long-standing fact that African-American youths are playing basketball and football more than baseball," Institute director Richard Lapchick said. "It's ironic only because the role of people of color running baseball is dramatically increasing."