Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Torre Renders Minority Candidates Moot

From "Selig Allows Dodgers to Bypass Hiring Rules" by Murray Chass at the New York Times:

The legacy of Jackie Robinson lives on.

The Dodgers, who when they played in Brooklyn broke baseball’s color barrier a half-century ago, have such a good minority employment record that Commissioner Bud Selig exempted them from following his directive on interviewing minority candidates for decision-making positions.

Once Joe Girardi became the Yankees’ manager, the Dodgers wanted to hire Joe Torre for what they expected would be their managerial vacancy and they didn’t want to delay doing it. They called Selig and asked to be allowed to skip the mandatory interviews of minority candidates....

Before he acted on the request from the owner, Frank McCourt, Selig studied the Dodgers’ hiring history. What he found surprised even him. The Dodgers had perhaps the best diversity record in the major leagues. Thirty-eight percent of their staff consisted of blacks, women, Latinos or Asians....

The highest-ranking minority, Kim Ng, is an Asian woman. She is a vice president and assistant general manager, the same titles she previously held with the Yankees. Ng was the first woman who was interviewed for a major league general manager’s job when the Dodgers interviewed her two years ago.

A month ago, the Dodgers promoted De Jon Watson to assistant general manager, about a year after he joined the club as director for player development. Watson, 40, is highly regarded in baseball and is seen as a certain general manager of the future....

Two other blacks — Toney Howell and Vance Lovelace — are special assistants to Colletti, who estimated that half of the organization’s player development staff, managers and coaches are minorities.

5 comments:

Steve Sax said...

So the Dodgers are so proficient at minority hiring that they don't need to even take the time to consider a minority for one of their most visible and prominent roles. I'm proud that the Dodgers sought exemption from having to spend an hour's worth of time and effort. I'm sure Jackie is proud, too.

Steve Sax said...

Having said that, however, I want Torre.

Eric Karros said...

Although I hear what you're saying, I do think it's better than bringing in a minority candidate for a token interview without any intention of really considering him (her?).

Steve Sax said...

I'm actually a little surprised the Dodgers didn't try and interview Jackie Robinson for second base, given their penchant for veterans.

Mr. LA Sports Fan said...
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