Once upon a time, the commissioner of Major League Baseball emphasized the importance of diversity hiring. If this sounds like the start of a fairy tale, it is. Rob Manfred’s pledge of diversity hiring has turned out to be a fairy tale.

Heading toward the 2020 season, clubs have hired seven managers, one chief of baseball operations, two general managers and one club president.

Only one of the 11 men (no women, of course) is a member of a minority, Carlos Beltran, the New York Mets’ new manager. Blacks need not apply.

One managerial position, in Pittsburgh, remains open. Of the other seven managerial vacancies, six have been filled by white men, and white men also have assumed the four front-office positions. Is this any way to run a diversity program?

When Manfred became commissioner January 15, 2015, he had an executive who was an unparalleled expert at diversity hiring, Frank Marcos, but he fired him. Manfred never explained why.

Nor has he ever explained the David Stearns episode. Stearns had worked for Manfred in the labor department of the commissioner’s office, and when the Milwaukee Brewers were looking for a general manager, Manfred strongly encouraged them to hire Stearns, which they did.

Manfred is not known to have ever interceded on behalf of a black or Latino.

It is obvious that Manfred has never used the power of his office to induce a team to hire a black or Latino general manager or manager. A commissioner can’t order a team whom to hire, but just as he did with Stearns and the Brewers, Manfred could act on behalf of a black or Latino.

Take Hensley Meulens, for example. I don’t know if Manfred knows who Hensley Meulens is – maybe he’s heard his nickname “Bam Bam” – but he was a coach with the San Francisco Giants for 10 years before recently moving to the Miami Marlins.

Meulens, the first major leaguer from Curacao, got rave reviews for his managing the Netherlands team in the World Baseball Classic but never had an in-person interview for a major league managing job until the New York Yankees interviewed him two years ago for the job Aaron Boone got.

When the Detroit Tigers interviewed Meulens by telephone after the 2017 season, a timely, purposeful call from Manfred to the Tigers just might have converted the interview into a face-to-face meeting with General Manager Al Avila, and that meeting, in turn might have made Meulems a major league manager.

No call, however, was forthcoming.

Of the newcomers this off-season, Carlos Beltran stands alone as a minority. The New York Mets’ new manager was intent on getting the job, and he succeeded. That success, though, could turn out to be his biggest win of the year.

The former outfielder replaces Mickey Callaway, who had been and is again, a pitching coach, whom one major leaguer official called the worst manager he had ever seen.

With that characterization in mind, you have to wonder why general managers pick the managers they hire. You also have to wonder why, if the manager is bad enough to be fired, why isn’t the general manager who hired him also fired?

Another question: What do some general managers see in managers that other general managers don’t see?

The Philadelphia Phillies fired Gabe Kapler after only two years, and the Giants hired him to succeed the retiring Bruce Bochy. The Giants have also named Scott Harris as general manager to work with Farhan Zaidi, their president of baseball operations.

The Phillies, meanwhile, hired Joe Girardi after he sat out two years following what I considered his unreasonable dismissal by the Yankees.

Brian Cashman, the Yankees’ general manager, said at the time the team needed a manager who could better communicate with the younger players. I don’t think the Yankees talked their way to the World Series the past two years.

Managers seldom retire, but Ned Yost joined Bochy in that decision, and Kansas City replaced him with Mike Matheny, whom St. Louis had fired less than half a season earlier.

The quickest turnaround seemed like a game of musical chairs played on the infield grass. The Chicago Cubs bid adieu to Joe Maddon, who instantly signed with the Angels, who had fired Brad Ausmus. David Ross has replaced Maddon in Chicago.

Andy Green is no longer the San Diego manager. He has been replaced by Jayce Tingler, who at 38 is the youngest manager in the majors. He had been a coach with Texas.

The lone remaining vacancy at this level is in Pittsburgh, where the Pirates need a manager to replace Clint Hurdle. The Pirates named two other replacements. Travis Williams is the new club president in place of Frank Coonelly, and Ben Cherington has replaced Neal Huntington as general manager.

When Coonelly became president seven years ago, he had no front office experience but had been a lawyer in the commissioner’s office. Williams, his replacement, has had front office experience with the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League but has no baseball experience.

Some day, maybe, the Pirates will get it right.

I need to mention one other new face in baseball’s upper echelon. Chaim (pronounced Hy-em) Bloom has replaced Dave Dombrowski as Boston’s chief of baseball operations and is a rarity in baseball. He is an observant Jew, and I don’t know if there are others in that category. But if it would make Manfred happy, I would be willing to call Bloom a member of a minority.

By losing the American League most valuable player award to Mike Trout, Alex Bregman avoided entanglement in a sensitive and possibly embarrassing quandary.

Just a couple of days before last week’s announcement that Trout gained his third M.V.P. award a story broke involving Bregman’s Houston Astros. According to the website The Athletic, the 2017 World Series champion Astros cheated. Violating Major League Baseball rules, they used a sign-stealing scheme that involved the use of electronics.

Where would Bregman and the M.V.P. award fit into the outcome of baseball’s investigation?

After each of the eight major post-season awards, the winner participates in a conference call with members of the Baseball Writers Association. Had Bregman won instead of losing to Trout, 355 points to 335, he would have had to respond to gushy and ridiculous questions, such as “Who was with you when you learned you won?” That’s always a popular question that some writers can’t wait to ask.

In Bregman’s case, I guarantee if no one else asked, I would have asked about illegal sign stealing, just as I asked Trout about being the M.V.P. when his team finished the season a distant fourth with a losing record.

Bregman, though, was not on the phone so he did not have to answer questions about stealing signs, particularly in the league championship series against the Yankees. The Astros won the first two and last two games at home in that series, losing the middle three games in New York. Home was where the sign stealing allegedly occurred.

Jose Altuve, who hits anywhere and everywhere, and Carlos Correa were especially good with timely hits in that series. Both had hits against Masahiro Tanaka as the Astros took a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning of Game 1, and the pair combined for the winning run against Aroldis Chapman in the ninth inning of Game 2.

This is not to suggest that the Astros won those games by stealing signs, but there seems to be strong evidence that they engaged in the act of illegally stealing signs.

Under baseball rules baserunners, baseline coaches and anyone in the dugout are allowed to steal signs. What is not allowed is use of electronic means – a television camera, for example – to get the catcher’s signs.

As described by The Athletic, the Astros got the catcher’s signs from the center field television camera and instantly relayed them to a location in the tunnel between the dugout and the clubhouse. There someone wielding a bat would whack a trash can or do nothing.

That reportedly was the way batters were alerted to what kind of pitch was coming: bang the can, changeup or breaking ball; no bang, fastball.

If there are any doubts about this system, Baseball Prospectus has cleverly provided pretty convincing proof. It picked a September game in which the Astros played the White Sox and ran an audio test.

“The slamming sound of the trash can is so clear and distinct that it’s easily visible in the audio data,” the report of the test said, adding, “Note the background noise level from immediately before and the two peaks, corresponding to two whacks on the lid, which was the signal for a breaking ball.

The slamming sound was so loud that it made a significant difference in the noise levels preceding almost all of the breaking balls the White Sox threw in that September game.”

The Astros released a statement when the report appeared online but have said nothing further:

“Regarding the story posted by The Athletic earlier today, the Houston Astros organization has begun an investigation in cooperation with Major League Baseball. It would not be appropriate to comment further on this matter at this time.”

Major League Baseball said:

“Beginning in the 2017 season, numerous Clubs expressed general concerns that other Clubs were stealing their signs. As a result of those concerns, and after receiving extensive input from the General Managers, we issued a revised policy on sign stealing prior to the 2019 season. We also put in place detailed protocols and procedures to provide comfort to Clubs that other Clubs were not using video during the game to decode and steal signs. After we review this new information we will determine any necessary next steps.”

The Athletic reported that “(f)our people who were with the Astros in 2017, including pitcher Mike Fiers, said that during that season, the Astros stole signs during home games in real time with the aid of a camera positioned in the outfield.”

Fiers started 28 games for the Astros in 2017, compiling an 8-10 record and 5.22 earned run average. He pitched for Detroit and Oakland in 2018 and told The Athletic he warned his new teammates about the Astros’ sign-stealing scheme.

No other members of the 2017 Astros have spoken publicly about the alleged practice. Carlos Beltran, who was a Houston outfielder and designated hitter that season and is now the New York Mets manager, has said the Astros did nothing illegal that season. Alex Cora, who was the Astros bench coach and now manages the Boston Red Sox, has declined comment.

Members of the Astros, including General Manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch, have remained silent. It seems highly unlikely, though, that Luhnow and Hinch could escape serious discipline. Hinch was in the dugout, and if someone was whacking a trash can with a bat he had to hear it and know what it was for. Luhnow wasn’t in the dugout, but he’s the team’s top baseball man and is responsible for everything that goes on.

The organization will pay, too, though not necessarily money. With teams awash in money these days, fines are meaningless. That’s why the Astros will very likely be stripped of top draft choices in the June draft, maybe the next two drafts, and a sizable portion of their allowance for signing international free agents.

Besides being suitable discipline for the Astros, such a harsh penalty would send a message to other teams to play by the rules.

TROUT STILL BEST, STILL NOT MOST VALUABLE

I mentioned Mike Trout at the start of this column and just want to register my annual criticism of baseball writers who need remedial lessons in understanding the difference in meaning between “most valuable” and “best.” Contrary to what some writers think, the terms are not synonymous.

I don’t think there’s any doubt that Trout is the best player in the American League, probably in the major leagues. But was his value to the fourth-place 72-90 Angels greater than Alex Bregman’s value to the Astros or DJ LeMahieu’s to the Yankees? Would it have mattered if the Angels had finished behind the Mariners than four games ahead of them?

Without Trout, the worst the Angels would have done is finish fifth. Without Bregman and LeMahieu, it’s likely that the Astros and the Yankees would not have been division champions and post-season participants.

I asked Trout on the conference call about that seeming contradiction.

“I try to be the best, and I’m doing everything to win and help my team,” Trout said, not answering the question directly. “I just want to help my team and play my game.”

What, I asked, would you like to see the Angels do to help them win?

“There’s a lot of new staff to help build up the team,” he said. “I signed to help build a winning team.”

I have to imagine Trout has considered this, but in opting to remain with the Angels for 12 years and $426.5 million, he has made it more difficult for them economically to acquire enough other good players to construct a winning team.

Peter Miller grew tired of seeing his father rejected, in life and in death, by the baseball Hall of Fame and set out to find an honor for him that he felt would be even more suitable. The result is scheduled to be unveiled Nov. 15 at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C..

Just weeks after the World Series and weeks before we learn the outcome of Marvin Miller’s eighth appearance on a Hall of Fame ballot, the late labor leader will become the newest member of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian. Miller’s portrait will not be the first of a sports figure to hang at the venerable gallery, but sports in general, and baseball in particular, don’t command viewers’ attention. Nevertheless Peter Miller is determined to elevate his father to an appropriate level of recognition even though after several rejections Miller asked the Baseball Writers Association to include him on the ballot no longer.

In an email last week, Peter Miller wrote:

“My father, were he alive, would wish all the player-candidates the best. As he requested repeatedly during his lifetime, and confirmed to me within days of his death, I would ask on his behalf that his name not be placed in nomination on this or any future HOF ballot. As promised to my father, I will not participate in any Hall of Fame activities that might involve him.

“Marvin Miller’s place in Baseball history and labor-management relations is well-known to everyone. The advent of free agency ended the era of indentured servitude in Baseball, and has benefited Major League players and owners alike. And by example this has enhanced human freedom throughout America and internationally.

“In recognition of this contribution, Marvin Miller’s portrait is now in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. The portrait will be on view there from this November 15.”

Miller declined to say why he thought his father was placed on a Hall of Fame ballot for an eighth time. However, his name and HOF credentials clearly stand out in relation to the other nine candidates on the Modern Baseball Era ballot:

Dwight Evans, Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Thurman Munson, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Ted Simmons, Lou Whitaker.

They were all fine players, but none of them did anything that was anywhere comparable to what Miller did for players and all of baseball. Yes, all of baseball, individually and collectively, have benefitted from Miller’s efforts.

Why isn’t he already in the Hall of Fame? Good question with no good answer.

The most ridiculous reason I have heard is that before he died in 2012 Miller was quoted as saying had he still been the union’s executive director he would not have agreed to allowing players to be tested for performance-enhancing drugs.

I have no direct knowledge of Miller’s having made that remark, but what if he did? He was never in position to do anything about steroids testing. Are you going to use his words against him? Bud Selig, on the other hand, was in position to do something about it and chose to sit it out until Congress badgered him and the union sufficiently to take action. Yet Selig is in the Hall of Fame

No, the real reason, as far as I am concerned, is the owners simply don’t want Miller in the Hall even though only a few of them were in baseball when Miller was. With his general counsel, Richard Moss, Miller snatched the dominance of Major League Baseball from the owners, giving misguided post-Miller owners reason to resent him.

If members of the 16-man electorate want to use steroids as an excuse to keep Miller out of the Hall, shame on them and their ignorance. Maybe in that case Miller was right in asking the Baseball Writers Association not to put him on its ballot.

One reason I don’t buy the steroids excuse for not voting for Miller is the Hall always loads the voting committees with owners and other management representatives. The last time Miller was on the ballot his electorate included John Schuerholz, Sandy Alderson, Paul Beeston, Bob Castellini, Bill DeWitt and David Glass. If those six owners and management executives voted against Miller, he would be unable to get the requisite 12 votes.

No union official has ever served on a voting pane, not Don Fehr, not Gene Orza, not Richard Moss, not Lauren Rich. When I once mentioned this to a management official, he replied, “They’re union,” as if they’re a different breed and can’t be trusted.

And Jane Forbes Clark, the Hall’s chairman, knows to keep those owners and executives coming because the clubs are the ones that keep the Hall afloat.

Miller wasn’t even a HOF candidate until 2003, 21 years after he retired as the union’s executive director. Before that time, his absence from consideration for the Hall was explained by the foolish argument that the Hall had no category in which to consider him. Even Leonard Koppett of The New York Times, a staunch supporter of Miller, bought that vacuous argument and cited it when asked about Miller.

Eventually, though, Hall officials expanded their pool of categories and candidates, and Miller had his niche. Not that it resulted in anything positive for him.

Miller’s best chance for election should have come in his first two times on the ballot, 2003 and 2007, when Hall of Fame players primarily made up the electorate. However, in 2003 he received 35 of 79 votes when 60 votes were needed for election and in 2007 he received 51 of 82 votes when 62 were needed for election.

No satisfactory explanation has ever been offered for why players didn’t elect Miller, but perhaps one story offers a clue. After Terry Miller, Marvin’s wife, learned that Reggie Jackson had not voted for Marvin that first year and subsequently encountered him, she reprimanded him.

Jackson explained that he didn’t vote for Miller because he felt the Hall of Fame was for players. Jackson did not make that mistake a second time.

Before Miller’s third appearance on a HOF ballot, in 2008, the Hall, as it often has, changed the voting format. On one of those instances Miller accused Hall officials of changing the format after he got close to election. It certainly looked like that was what they were doing.

In 2008 candidates needed nine votes for election; Miller got three. In 2010 the magic number was 9 out of 12; Miller received 7.

It almost happened in 2011. With 12 of 16 votes needed for election, Miller received 11 votes.

Miller died in 2012, and I thought the Hall might relent because Miller would not be there to make a severely critical speech, not that he would have if he were alive. But Miller would be placed on two more ballots and two more times be rejected. In 2014, with 12 votes required from 16 voters, he received fewer than 6 votes – the Hall disclosed no other details, presumably not wanting to embarrass any candidates.

Then came last year when Miller gained 7 votes when he needed 12.

It’s possible but unlikely that some voters took Miller at his word that he didn’t want to be voted into the Hall of Fame. I’m not sure what I would do if I had a vote –honor Miller’s wish not to be voted on or honor him for the significant role he has played in baseball history. I think the latter option would win even though Miller was an honorable person and deserves to be treated in kind.

He also belongs at the Washington gallery with Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, Casey Stengel, Robin Roberts, Pedro Martinez, Jackie Robinson and Yogi Berra. Overall, the National Portrait Gallery has 157 baseball-related pieces of artwork in its collection.

Miller’s portrait would certainly look more distinguished hanging at the National Portrait Gallery than a bronze plaque at Cooperstown.