Dr. Manhattan has an interesting post at Blissful Knowledge:

Similarly, while the integration of major league baseball was most importantly a cessation of an immense moral wrong, it also expanded the talent pool from which baseball teams drew. As such, it introduced a competitive pressure upon teams. Those that adapted to the post-Jackie Robinson era succeeded at the expense of those that did not.
All this was, or should have been, understood at the time by those whose primary priority was to win. While Branch Rickey certainly deserves tremendous moral credit for providing the means for Jackie Robinson?s entrance into the major leagues, he was just as undoubtedly interested in the competitive advantage his team would derive. When the Dodgers combined black players such as Robinson, Roy Campanella, Don Newcome and Junior Gilliam with white players like Duke Snider, Gil Hodges and Carl Furillo, the result was a team that won six pennants in Robinson?s ten seasons. As Adam Smith might have predicted, the Dodgers? self-interest was a moral force.
The National League generally followed the Dodgers? example to a greater extent than the American League did, with the expected result: according to Bill James? Win Shares method, there were 11 National League players in 1963 that were better than any American League player that year. (The contrast is especially stark because Mickey Mantle was injured for most of that season, but the general point remains true.). Probably not coincidentally, the National League dominated the All-Star Game in that era.
Even the mighty Yankees were forced to adapt the competitive pressure exerted by the integration of baseball. As Bryant describes, the Yankees? record on race was almost as bad as the Red Sox?s for a long time. The Yankees? first noteworthy black player, Vic Power, was judged too ?flashy? and quickly traded away despite his talent. The star catcher Elston Howard met the Yankees? criteria, but not many others did. In his book October 1964, David Halberstam describes how the Yankees? neglect of the talent afforded by the integration of African-American (and by then, Latino) players into baseball contributed heavily to the downfall of the Yankee dynasty in the 1960s. (There were, of course, other contributing factors: the Yankee player-development system was starved for resources in the early 1960s and didn?t develop many good white players, either.) When the Yankees resumed winning championships in the late 1970s, the team included outstanding minority players such as Mickey Rivers, Chris Chambliss and, of course, Reggie Jackson (who satisfied no era?s definition of decorum). And, as Bryant describes, the current dynastic Yankees are a model of diversity in terms of players? backgrounds. Lingering prejudice against groups of players is, practically speaking, incompatible with George Steinbrenner?s monomaniacal desire for championships, and such prejudice has accordingly been overcome. The Yankees? most recent moves – the signing of Japanese outfielder Hideki ?Godzilla? Matsui and Cuban defector pitcher Jose Contreras – perfectly illustrate how the demand for the best players has overcome any prejudice against groups of such players. While it would be nice to assume high-minded motives on the Yankees? behalf, it seems like Steinbrenner?s insatiable appetite for championships deserves the credit for the overcoming of such prejudice.

The one problem with the piece is that the lag time is not made clear. Jackie Robinson came into baseball in 1947. For the next 17 years, the game was dominated not by the Dodgers, but by the Yankees. What killed the Yankees in the 1960’s was:

1. Ownership by CBS, which didn’t have the killer instinct for winning.
2. The implementation of the baseball draft, which prevented the Yankees from signing the best young players to bonuses. The baseball draft, like today’s luxury tax, was an item specificially designed to end Yankee hegemony at the expense of player wealth.

But once you account for the lag time, Dr. Manhattan is correct. The NL embraced blacks sooner, and was able to dominate the all-star game for a long time. Today, the All Star tide has turned because the AL was quicker to embrace latin players, and the dominance may continue in the future as the AL seems to be a little more in tune with bringing in Asian hitters. We should look forward to the day when the minority group dominating baseball is from the Middle East. Then we’ll know we won the war.