The timing was stunning. It was impossible to ignore. Less than two and a half days after the previous column on the very subject was posted on this website, a news article popped up on MLB.com. It carried the byline of the MLB.com reporter who for years has written house pieces about Major League Baseball and its commissioners. Mark Newman probably wrote enough puff pieces about Bud Selig when he was commissioner to fill a book.
It was as if Rob Manfred or an aide to the commissioner summoned Newman and said, “OK, Mark, we got another one for you.” I don’t want to be fanciful about this, but Newman might also have been told, “Chass has another one, and this will answer his latest criticism of our diversity hiring program.”
“MLB announces Diversity Fellowship Program,” this article’s headline said.
Major League Baseball seems to announce new diversity programs regularly. They keep coming up with these new programs because the previous programs haven’t worked. If at first you fail, fail, fail again.
When Manfred became commissioner three years ago this coming January, MLB had a real sharp guy who knew how to find and hire minorities. But for some reason, Manfred didn’t like Frank Marcos, the senior director of the Major League Scouting Bureau, and excused him from further duty despite his sterling track record of filling the bureau with minorities.
Manfred has tried a series of programs to enhance baseball’s minority landscape, but the picture just keeps getting whiter and whiter. At times, it has seemed as though had a large sign on its front door saying, “Blacks and Latinos need not apply.”
Not long ago, Manfred hired an executive search firm, Korn Ferry, not only to find prospective minority employees but also to prepare young blacks and Latinos – and women of any ethnicity or color – for the interview process. The program was a miserable failure, and MLB discovered it had squandered millions of dollars on a firm that had serious conflicts of interest.
Manfred replaced that failure with an in-house pipeline program, which to anyone’s knowledge has not disgorged any general managers or assistant general managers. I think you would call that strike two.
Now comes MLB’s Diversity Fellowship Program. Call it any name you want. Under Manfred, I would call it a likely failure.
In his article announcing the launch of the fellowship program (launch is a big word in baseball today, with the launch angle of big hits becoming an important new metric), Newman invokes the name and memory of Jackie Robinson. If Robinson were still around, I don’t think he would want to have any connection to MLB’s putrid record on minority hiring or black player population, for that matter.
MLB, the article says, “is seeking applicants from now through Nov. 17 as a new approach to widen the talent pool of future industry leaders and build on the legacy of trailblazers like Jackie Robinson.
“This new initiative is one of our most significant efforts to recruit the most talented array of diverse individuals who are interested in pursuing a long-term career in baseball,” Manfred is quoted. “The opportunity will be beneficial to young men and women throughout the United States and beyond considering paths within our game.
“As an organization, we believe that the diversity of our workforce, which includes different perspectives and creative thought, leads to a stronger and more effective operation. Additionally, the national pastime’s history of trailblazing leadership inspires us to ensure that every opportunity for employment is afforded to those who wish to work within our game.”
Manfred cited the handful of minorities who work in front offices, and the article dutifully quotes a couple of them about the importance of the fellowship program.
What they omit is the difficulty minorities have getting meaningful front-office positions. The fellowships may lure some young men and women who want to work in baseball, but if they look closely they won‘t see many role models to whose positions they may aspire.
If they look more closely, they won’t see many people who look like them holding jobs as general managers or presidents of baseball operations. Fellowship winners are promised entry-level jobs initially, but they have no guarantee much beyond that.
Fellowship aspirants may want to study the career of Kim Ng, an MLB senior vice president. Ng has served as an assistant general manager for a couple of teams and has been interviewed for general managers’ jobs. She has fallen short each time, however.
As good and as determined as she might be, she has faced an impenetrable wall. No major league club owner is going to hire a female general manager.
The MLB.com article paints the fellowship program as a competitive opportunity, apparently wanting the program to sound exciting, even sexy.
Maybe Manfred is missing something. Baseball already has employees who eagerly want to climbs its ranks. What is stopping them isn’t a lack of desire or talent but club owners and executives.
Not to mention Manfred’s inability or unwillingness to push owners and general managers to hire minorities for significant positions. He pushed the Milwaukee Brewers to hire David Stearns, a young white man, as their general manager, but he hasn’t pushed any club to hire De Jon Watson or Kevin Graves, who are both black, or anyone other minority candidate.
On that note, I say good luck to the members of the first class of Manfred fellows in the commissioner’s latest significant minority effort.