When the Tampa Bay Rays announced last month that Kevin Cash, Raul Ibanez and Don Wakamatsu were finalists in their quest for a new manager, there was a 67 percent chance that Major League Baseball would get its third minority manager for the 2015 season.

When Ibanez subsequently withdrew, that percentage dropped to 50. However, another percentage rose from 67 to 100. Ibanez’s withdrawal left Cash and Wakamatsu as the candidates, meaning the Rays’ new manager would be a former catcher.

What’s with these catchers? They keep getting jobs as managers, much moreso than pitchers, infielders and outfielders. Designated hitters, too.

Former catchers dominate the roster of major league managers for the 2015 season. Fifteen of the 30 managers, up three from last season, were catchers once upon a time. Four of the six new managers were …

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The blessed event in the Cashman family came July 3, 1967. Thus, Brian Cashman missed two significant events in New York Yankees history:
* He missed by a day sharing a birth date with the man he would grow up to work for – George Steinbrenner.
* He missed the Yankees’ rare last-place finish nine months earlier, their first since 1912.

The 2015 season doesn’t begin for three months, but as they are presently constituted, the Yankees resemble a last-place team more than a division champion or even a playoff contender. What has Cashman wrought?

Seventeen years into his position as the Yankees’ general manager, Cashman has the Yankees in danger of potentially rivaling the 1966 team, which shocked New York by finishing with …

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Major League Baseball announced Friday that incoming commissioner Rob Manfred was retaining the services of outgoing Commissioner Bud Selig as Commissioner Emeritus. Later that day ESPN.com reported that “sources told ESPN’s Buster Olney” Selig would have a salary of “about $6 million” a year.

In its report, ESPN said Pat Courtney, MLB’s chief spokesman, said no compensation details would be revealed but that “$6 million a year is inaccurate.”

Based on what I have been told, Courtney was being truthful. A high-ranking official said Selig will receive $10 million a year for five or six years and that his emeritus title would be dropped after three years. Final details will be voted on by the owners at their quarterly meeting next month, the official said.

If the erroneous $6 million-a-year salary raised eyebrows in and out of baseball, what will $10 million a year do?

Frankly, as far as I’m concerned, the owners can …

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