Since I often disagreed with Bud Selig when he was commissioner – his linking the outcome of the All-Star game to homefield advantage for the World Series is one example I found particularly disagreeable – it’s only fair that I should establish a similar position with the new commissioner. No matter how good Rob Manfred may be, there is no way he can get through his tenure without doing something with which I would disagree.
It hasn’t taken long. Reading a brief account of an interview Manfred had with reporters in Chicago last week, I found problems with a couple of Manfred’s views. I will get into those but not until I raise an issue Manfred has not talked about but would do well to undertake: minority hiring.
I bring it up now because of a telephone call from a former player, who had just read that the Milwaukee Brewers hired Craig Counsell to replace Ron Roenicke as their manager.
Prompted by the call, I did some research and I found that all seven managers hired since the end of last season are the same color and the same ethnicity – white and American. Not a black or a Latin or an Asian among them.
Years ago, at the urging of Len Coleman, then the National League president, Selig instituted a policy under which teams seeking to fill decision-making positions had to interview minority candidates. Selig, however, didn’t always enforce the policy and allowed some clubs to evade the requirement. In recent years, he seemed basically to lose interest in the issue.
“We’re always interested in diversity,” Manfred said by telephone from Houston Wednesday. “We sent a memo to clubs about diversity. We have a diversity committee that will meet at the owners meetings later this month.”
Major League Baseball began this season with only two minority managers: Lloyd McClendon of Seattle and Fredi Gonzalez of Atlanta. Three are gone from last season: Ron Washington in Texas, Bo Porter of Houston and Rick Renteria of the Chicago Cubs. Jeff Banister (Texas), A.J. Hinch (Houston) and Joe Maddon (Cubs) replaced them.
The other new managers, besides Counsell, are Chip Hale (Arizona), Paul Molitor (Minnesota) and Kevin Cash (Tampa Bay).
Two of the new managers, Molitor and Cash, gained their jobs even though they had no managerial experience, even in the minor leagues. Minority coaches have long complained about the criticism they often faced when seeking jobs if they had not managed in the minors.
Besides treating minority players as fairly as whites, baseball could benefit by spreading around the jobs. For example, MLB wants to reverse the decline in the number of young blacks who grow up to play baseball professionally if they’re good enough or if they’re not at least retain their interest in the game and become fans.
Comedian Chris Rock recently addressed the issue, and Manfred was asked in Houston about his comments.
“First of all, he’s a funny person,” Manfred said to reporters. “But the humor when you have my job is kind of lost on me. We have been working hard and need to continue to work hard to make sure that our audiences and our players complement and reflect the kind of diversity that’s present in our society generally.”
Even though the number of black players and fans declined during Selig’s tenure, he did not generate a reversal of the trend, a failure that coincided with his seeming loss of interest in enforcing his minority interview policy. I think Manfred, with a fresh approach and a fresh attitude, will do a more productive job.
One positive and possibly productive change Manfred could make in resuscitating the interview policy is to instruct clubs not just to interview a minority candidate but to interview as many minority candidates as they interview white candidates.
The increase in the number of minority candidates might not result in more minorities being hired, but it could bring more to the attention of other clubs. Baseball calls it putting candidates in the pipeline.
As for the issues on which I disagree with Manfred, one is the addition of the designated hitter in the National League and the other clubs’ manipulation of players’ major league service time.
The N.L. d.h., always a controversial topic, has come up again because Adam Wainwright of St. Louis, one of baseball’s best pitchers, suffered a torn Achilles leaving the batter’s box and is out for the season. Had Wainwright not batted, the argument goes, he’d be pitching.
Asked about the issue in Chicago, the commissioner said that “over the long haul, I’m a status quo person on the D.H.”
I chose a different approach in asking Manfred about the d.h. Last season MLB, with the union’s assent, initiated a rule designed to eliminate home plate collisions and injuries that result from them. It is popularly believed that the rule came about because of the broken leg catcher
Buster Posey of San Francisco suffered in a 2011 plate collision.
If you protect catchers by outlawing collisions at home plate, I asked Manfred, why not protect pitchers by banning their turns at bat?
The collision rule, he said, “is more complicated than Posey. There are much larger concerns with concussions. We don’t have that larger issue with use of the d.h. We don’t have anything like it.”
I personally prefer the d.h. because I have spent too many years watching pitchers strike out. The infrequent pitcher who can hit isn’t enough to make up for all of the pitchers who can’t.
I also suspect Manfred isn’t going to tread where Selig wouldn’t in his 22 years as commissioner. National League clubs would go to war rather than agree to use the d.h.
When Fay Vincent was commissioner in 1992, he took a step that 6 of the 12 N.L. clubs asked him to – realign the N.L.’s two divisions into geographically correct divisions. The plan was to move Atlanta and Cincinnati from the West Division to the East and the Cubs and the Cardinals to the West.
The Cubs sued but later withdrew the lawsuit after Vincent resigned under pressure.
In his session with reporters’ questions in Chicago, Manfred was asked about the Cubs’ delay in bringing third baseman Kris Bryant to the majors to affect his major league service time.
“This has been an issue that has been discussed and vetted at the bargaining table for multiple rounds,” Manfred responded.
When I asked Manfred if he expected the union to push for a change in the service time practice, he said, “I’m not going to talk about what I think might happen in response to a proposal they make. We’ve always had a seniority based system.”
One of the clubs’ chief arguments in favor of the status quo is that by bringing up a player earlier than a club wants to, a more senior player is sent to the minors and loses service time.
I asked Tony Clark, the union’s executive director, for his view on the Bryant issue.
“I don’t think this is a Kris Bryant issue,” he said in a telephone interview. “This has been around for a long time and clubs have been manipulating it for a long time. A player’s ability to perform and be able to compete at the major league level shouldn’t be tied to a rule or regulation that can be used as a crutch to do whatever they want. I’m sure the topic will come up again.”
Clark, a former first baseman, applauded the collision rule, saying, “The collisions at home plate have been all but eliminated. As we move forward we hope everyone will have an understanding of it.”
He was not as clear-cut on the N.L. d.h. issue, saying it has been long discussed and debated.
“We will engage the players to see how they feel,” he said. “There are some who think the d.h. in both leagues is the way to go and some who think the d.h. should be eliminated. I don’t think it’s the same as plate collisions.”