It’s 2016, which means it’s hardly a news flash to report that the Red Sox have three African Americans in their outfield.

Then again it is 2016.

And in 2016, you have to be living under a monumental boulder to not acknowledge that the color of one’s skin unfortunately still plays a large role in this country’s economic, political, educational, criminal justice and cultural realms, including sports.

It’s 2016, and while Major League Baseball tries to make itself cooler to young fans, it is also sinking significant resources into increasing the dwindling numbers of African American baseball players on its rosters.

It’s 2016, and this team plays in Boston, a city with its own checkered past when it comes to race relations.

It’s 2016, and this is the Red Sox, the last major league franchise to integrate.

Yes, it’s 2016.

It must be time to meet the “Soul Patrol.”

The Soul Patrol is the self appointed nickname of a Red Sox outfield that presents a Major League Baseball rarity a consistently all African American outfield. Yes, the majority of Red Sox starts at the position have gone to African Americans Jackie Bradley Jr., Mookie Betts and Chris Young.

The Soul Patrol http://www.bosoxstore.com/junichi-tazawa-jersey-c-11.html , which is open to admission for outfielders of any hue, shape or size, was not looking for publicity.

Now that it’s here, the Soul Patrol is ready for it.

Early this season, Bradley designed, ordered and then distributed to all the outfielders navy blue T shirts with the red and˝ white “Soul Patrol” scripted logo emblazoned across a baseball diamond. The T shirts have been worn, often, by all six of this year’s starting outfielders — Bradley, Betts, Young, Brock Holt, Blake Swihart and Rusney Castillo — under their uniform jerseys and just as a T shirt around the clubhouse.

You can interpret “Soul Patrol” any way you’d like.

After all, said Bradley, he’s been told he is an “old soul.”

And these outfielders certainly do “patrol” with authority their neighborhood, defensively speaking.

But if “Soul Patrol” resonates with you in the same way, you might have noticed that the Red Sox have a sizable representation of African Americans playing in the outfield this season, that is indeed a main message behind the logo.

As statements about race and society go, the Soul Patrol registers at barely a whisper.

But if you listen closely, you can hear the pride behind the Soul Patrol and how the players want to see more African Americans playing baseball again.

The conversation about race has changed its tone and focus through the years. But it has never stopped.

Leveling the playing field

“When we play the game, I know where I’m from and the other guys come from, and there’s not a lot of opportunity for young black kids,” Betts said recently of the Soul Patrol. “Whether it’s being raised in bad areas or, they may have been raised in good areas, there are stereotypes and all that type of thing. Sometimes we don’t get the same chances. We obviously want to bring more into the game because we feel like we can make an impact, too.”

The odds of African American ballplayers making an impact stand little chance of shortening when the numbers of African American ballplayers remain as low as they are presently.

According to statistics provided by Major League Baseball, with input from Mark Armour of SABR, Opening Day rosters over the last two seasons stood at 8.27 percent black, African American or African Canadian players. This percentage does not include black Hispanic players.

This slice of the major league pie, however, is shrinking. Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby did not come along to integrate baseball until 1947, and the process was not completed until the Red Sox called up Pumpsie Green a dozen years later in 1959. The numbers of African Americans grew at a more or less steady rate since then, topping out at 19 percent in 1986.

Thirty years later, it’s impossible to not notice the decline and create a context for commentary about that decline.

It’s also why there’s a celebratory note to the Red Sox’ Soul Patrol.

“It’s just us embracing who we are and having fun with it,” Bradley said. “Our numbers are declining. We’re just trying to excite the game a little bit.”

When Bradley spoke, he and Betts were not that far removed from a visit to Kansas City and its Negro League Hall of Fame Museum, the fascinating home to the history of the segregated league that nurtured legends such as Robinson, Cool Papa Bell, Josh Gibson http://www.bosoxstore.com/koji-uehara-jersey-c-12.html , Buck O’Neill, Satchel Paige, Henry Aaron, Ernie Banks and Willie Mays.

“That was pretty special to see the history there, not only of African Americans but all different ethnicities — Venezuelans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans — it was so special to see,” Bradley said. “Emotionally, it gets to you just because they paved the way to get us to play the game today.”

No outfielder is left out

Betts, 23, sees it through the same prism as the 26 year old Bradley, taking care to note that the Soul Patrol is not exclusionary.

All are welcome.

“I think Jackie hit on it pretty good about going to the Negro League Museum — there’s not a whole lot of us left in the game if you look around,” Betts said. “It’s something we take pride in, but it’s not taking out Blake and Brock and those guys, too. They’re just as important as we are. We use it as an outfield thing instead of just about us three. It’s more than that.”

The Red Sox have not had too many all African American outfields. Troy O’Leary, Carl Everett and Darren Lewis played together for awhile, and there have been overlaps through the years with Reggie Smith, Tommy Harper, Jim Rice and Ellis Burks.

They also have had a few lean years from the African American positional player standpoint. In 2005, there was only the 55 games played by Jay Payton. And in 2009, Joey Gathright’s 19 games in September and October marked the only such appearances.

There appears to be a distinct generational gap when it comes to thinking behind “Soul Patrol” T shirts.

“I’m not against it, but I don’t look at stuff like that,” Rice, 63, said of the part race plays in baseball. “The young generation, yes, but I never looked at that. The only thing I looked at was, ‘Are we winning?’ But if that’s what’s going to get those guys up, more power to them.”

Harper, 75, said “It’s complicated to me. The words ‘Soul Patrol’ doesn’t say anything to me, or mean anything to me. But it means something to them.”

The 32 year old Young notes that “you don’t see it too often, three African American outfielders in the same outfield on a given night — it’s cool that somebody’s bringing attention to it, but at the same time, we’re still all one team, that’s what it really boils down to.”

Especially since those Soul Patrol T shirts aren’t worn in public, Young spoke of the need to promote African American participation in baseball, if only to preserve the history and ensure the future.

“In general, we do have a responsibility to represent the game in a certain way, to go about our business in a certain way and hope that the way that we play the game makes it inviting for inner city kids to want to play the game,” Young said. “It’s been a constant struggle and battle over the last, probably, 20 years of our numbers declining to try and find ways to make it more available for young, inner city kids.”

Lifting ‘heart and soul’

When it comes down to how to win the battle of increasing African American representation in the big leagues, Young is as curious as anyone.

“I wouldn’t say everybody else is more talented than African American kids, but why is it that the opportunities are not there?” Young asked. “I don’t know the answer to that. I guess that’s what everybody’s working on.”

One of those working on the issue is Boston native Robert Lewis Jr., president of The BASE, which is a program based in Roxbury. The BASE works annually with more than 800 inner city kids, with an indoor training facility at their headquarters and a traveling team, one of the few if singular all color teams, that has been successful on the national amateur youth tournament circuit.

Lewis had not heard about the Soul Patrol T shirts, but their mention only increased his palpable joy at what he’s seen on the Red Sox roster this season.

“Have I noticed it?” Lewis asked rhetorically of the multi racial 2016 Red Sox roster. “It’s lifted my heart and soul. You look at certain major league rosters, and you look at the managerial ranks and you look at front offices and you see how well the Red Sox are doing now. They’re investing in Jackie and Mookie and Chris Young and Rusney, as well as Brock Holt.”

The BASE is in talks with the Red Sox on future endeavors, all of which are in line with MLB’s program called RBI for Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities and an industry wide effort to generate more interest in younger fans.

“What a great opportunity to get youths http://www.bosoxstore.com/robbie-ross-jr-jersey-c-10.html , and Major League Baseball keeps saying How are we going to activate more blacks in baseball?” Lewis said. “We won’t activate it without telling this story. For MLB, it’s a great story, and it’s not just African Americans and Latinos. They need to figure out how to inspire more young people to love the game. I can sit here with a sense of pride — and I’m ecstatic — but young people — white kids and other kids — are looking at Mookie and Jackie and how young they are.”

They’re the Soul Patrol.

They’re young, gifted and representatives of the past, present and future of the Red Sox.