If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. We have all heard that aphorism, maybe even said it. With Rob Manfred, though, it’s try, try and try again.

Manfred, who last Wednesday marked his second anniversary as commissioner of Major League Baseball, took another step in what has been his futile effort to mount a successful program for hiring members of minorities.

Up to now, Manfred’s diversity efforts have been embarrassingly abysmal. He has tried different approaches, most notably the hiring of a search firm, Korn Ferry, to which he paid millions of dollars, then dismissed because of conflicts of interest.

Last week the commissioner named a three-headed team to “oversee the important areas of diversity, inclusion and social responsibility.”

Until Manfred became commissioner two years ago, M.L.B. had a man who could have done that job singlehandedly. But in spite of the outstanding job Frank Marcos did for 17 years as senior director of the Major League Scouting Bureau, Manfred didn’t like him and invited him to leave.

I remember a conversation I had with Manfred around that time, in which I said something complimentary about Marcos, and Manfred only made a dismissive sound. If the Marcos matter was an example of Manfred’s judgment, no wonder his diversity hiring program has been an utter failure.

Marcos’ name has appeared in this space before and very likely will again. I don’t know the man personally, have never talked to him. We have communicated only via e-mail. But I can’t help but be impressed with his results. Manfred might have wanted to judge him on those results rather than on some personality clash.

When Marcos left the scouting bureau two years ago, it was loaded with minorities. In fact, there were so many, not knowing Marcos, I thought he might be one himself. But he’s not. He’s a white guy, just like most of the suit-clad guys in M.L.B. None of the others, though, could match his record, not that they would want to because most M.L.B. executives and owners apparently prefer to hire white guys.

At the time of Marcos’ departure, 19 of the bureau’s 20 employees were minorities:

• 10 Hispanics (50%)
• 8 Blacks (40%)
• 1 White
• 1 Woman

I readily acknowledge that hiring a scout is different from hiring a general manager, but there are enough capable blacks and Latinos, even a woman, to handle top or upper-level front-office positions that if clubs got serious and flung off the shackles of racism they could find worthy people.

As I have noted previously, Manfred practices a double standard. In 2015, he “pushed,” to use the word a baseball executive used, the Milwaukee Brewers to hire David Stearns as general manager. However, the commissioner did nothing similar for any minority, leaving all minorities to fend for themselves.

No minority candidate has been treated worse than De Jon Watson, who among some baseball people is considered the best candidate for a general manager’s job who doesn’t have a g.m. job. I have often cited Watson as an example of how clubs ignore good minority executives. But I can no longer refer to him as an executive.

Senior vice president of baseball operations for the Arizona Diamondbacks the past two seasons, Watson learned last September that the club was not exercising his option for 2017.

Tony La Russa, the Diamondbacks’ chief baseball officer, hired him; Ken Kendrick, the managing general partner, fired him. Kendrick also fired the black general manager, Dave Stewart, whom La Russa had hired, while retaining, the white La Russa.

Despite his excellent reputation, Watson remained unemployed until this month, with the start of spring training only six weeks away.

In addition, Watson had to accept a title of special assistant to the general manager. No more senior vice president, just special assistant. One more thing that reflects the change in the 50-year-old Watson’s status. There is nothing special about being a special assistant to Mike Rizzo, who has nine other special assistants.

Meanwhile, white-guy Stearns is the Brewers’ general manager, thanks to Manfred.

Given how incompetent or uncaring Manfred has been about his bogus minority-hiring program, I asked Marcos to explain how he hired so many capable minorities. These were impressive people he hired, not just one from scrap heap A, one from scrap heap B and so on.

Referring to Manfred’s new hydra-headed diversity squad, Marcos wrote in an e-mail,

“Not sure who these people are or what they will be able to do, but it’s really very simple. They don’t need to create these fancy titles and spend all that money. Their HR department staff is obviously not qualified to educate and train department heads to simply do the right thing when hiring.

“As the director of the MLB Scouting Bureau for over 17 years, I put my reputation on the line every time I was in a position to hire. In fact, my final 20 scout hires represented the following:

10 Hispanics, 8 Blacks, 1 White, 1 Woman scout

“And this was all my doing. I was never told to hire a minority or for that matter, even interview minorities. I did so because that’s my character to include a diverse pool of candidates. And by doing so, I brought into MLB some very qualified baseball scouts who happened to be minorities. By including as many candidates as possible into the interview process I was able to identify some very qualified people who would not normally be given the chance. And that’s the key, giving people a chance.”

In that last comment Marcos hit on something that Manfred and MLB are missing. Note that he referred to “a diverse pool of candidates.”

When baseball teams seek a general manager or a manager, they don’t gather “a diverse pool of candidates.” They interview a single minority candidate and then only because the commissioner’s office tells them they have to.

In 1999 Commissioner Bud Selig issued a directive telling clubs they had to interview minority candidates “for all general manager, assistant general manager, field manager, director of player development and director of scouting positions.”

Initially, Selig enforced his rule, but he soon allowed clubs to get away with questionable excuses for not interviewing a minority candidate. Manfred seems to be duplicating Selig’s lax enforcement.

Even if enforced, though, the rule doesn’t meet the standards Marcos followed. He didn’t restrict himself to interviewing a single candidate. He didn’t find 19 minority bureau employees that way. If Manfred required clubs, for example, to interview as many blacks, Latinos and women as white American men, M.L.B. might actually fill up the pipeline Manfred always talks about. You can be sure the Marcos pipeline was always full.

Marcos wrote:

“It’s really simple. They have a business that anyone would love to work for. But when they have people, good people, leaving the Commissioner’s Office, or potential new hires going to other industries, there’s obviously a reason. It’s just not an enjoyable place to work any longer. That’s not my assessment, that’s what I hear every time I speak with someone who is still there.”

Marcos, 56, is currently vice president of scouting operations for Baseball Recruiting (baseballrecruiters.org).

“As for my relationship with Mr. Manfred, it was always fair and reasonable prior to my former boss joining the Commissioner’s Office. All I know is I was unfairly treated and evaluated during my last 3 years there. But I always maintained a respectful relationship with Mr. Manfred. Perhaps that’s why I was selected to participate on Commissioner Selig’s Diversity Committee (chairman was Dave Dombrowski, Derrick Hall, Jerry Manual, Darrell Miller, Jonathan Mariner and many other high profile executives were part of this group). I believe the plan all along was to strip down the Scouting Bureau to just a handful of scouts and Mr. Manfred knew that I would object and fight that plan tooth and nail. It was easy to do without my presence. I have too many good connections with the clubs that would have come to our rescue. What’s left of the Scouting Bureau is virtually useless, and that’s according to many, many club reps I talk to often.

“I wish them well in this endeavor, but remember, these are the same people who hired agency Korn Ferry and Tyrone Brooks (Tyrone is a good guy, I respect him greatly), to do exactly what these three new hires are supposed to do.”

Marcos referred to the three employees of the commissioner’s office who were promoted into executive positions. In the news release announcing their promotions, Manfred said:

“As the sport of Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente, we have a responsibility to uphold and honor their legacies, especially in ensuring that our sport and business practices are as inclusive, diverse and socially-conscious as possible.”

Fortunately for Manfred, Robinson and Clemente aren’t around to say what they think of his invoking their names in his fraudulent effort to sound like he actually cares about teams hiring blacks and Latinos. They might tell him to stuff his empty words into his unproductive pipeline.