Recent census data shows that nearly 50 percent of Blacks earn an annual household income below $15,000 compared to 22 percent of whites. And only 39 percent of Black children under 18--compared to three quarters of all American children--live in two parent families.

Baseball's link with the family and particularly the father-son relationship forged by playing catch could provide the positive male role models frequently missing from the lives of inner city youths who grow up without father at home.

The connection between baseball and the family is more than a fairy tale Field of Dreams vision. In his thesis research, Richman found that among the participants in his study, 45 percent of Black students from two-parents homes attended at least one Red Sox game during the 1989 season.

In contrast, only 20 percent of Black students from one-parent or no-parent house-holds went to a game.

While some could argue that the reason is simple economics--one fewer percent means less money to spend on Sox tickets--many of the children interviewed expressed the felling that they did not go since no one was around to take them.

Going to a game reminds adults of playing Little League baseball as kids; of hustling to first, of sliding into home, of striking out that final batter to end the game.

It conjures up memories of collecting baseball cards; of playing catch with Dad; of going to the ballpark with your family on warm summer nights.

As one character from Field of Dreams explains: "It'll be just like when they were little kids a long time ago. They'll watch the game and remember what it was like."

TARGETING young Black inner-city males with a baseball-oriented social program is not a far-out idea from left field.

University of Chicago professor William Julius Wilson and Kennedy School of Government Professor of public Policy David T. Ellwood are among those advocating social programs to address the lack of positive male role models for inner-city youth. Public policy proposals that attempt to provide this particular group with the lessons that fathers usually supply are gaining acceptance.

For example, in Chicago and New York, new schools exclusively for young Black males have opened to address the particular needs of this group. Baseball could also play a role in this effort. Establishing Big Brother programs that bring older volunteers together with younger boys is one way to provide inner-city Blacks with companions for playing baseball or for going to the ballpark.

The unspoken language between two people in a game of catch should not be underestimated: A simple game can go a long way in establishing a bond of respect and communication that links a boy with an older role models.

IF GREATER numbers of Blacks attended the games, perhaps inner-city youth who don't typically interact with adult males could record positive experiences at the ballpark.

There's a lot Harvard students can do. We can, for example, bring our H.A.N.D. little brothers to Fenway next week to see the Crimson baseball squad play in the Beanpot tournament.

We can take them to a Sox games. Or we can just go up to the Quad for a game of catch.

Of course, baseball isn't going to solve all of the problems of the inner city. But it is one way to give disadvantaged youths a chance to have some fun, and perhaps to make a new friend.