In recent months this website has been critical of Commissioner Rob Manfred for his farce of a program for minority hiring. While Manfred boasts of a desire and a plan to enhance minority hiring, he pushes the Milwaukee Brewers to hire a 30-year-old white guy, David Stearns, as their general manager, he oversees the naming of 15 white guys among a pool of 16 high-ranking executives and managers and he does nothing to secure even a solitary interview for De Jon Watson, the executive viewed as the most worthy minority candidate for the position of general manager.

I have previously made known my disdain for the commissioner’s empty efforts on behalf of …

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Don Mattingly said it once, twice, 10 times. I didn’t believe it the first time, the second time or the 10th time. I just don’t believe Mattingly and the Los Angeles Dodgers split up because, in Mattingly’s words. “It became something that was best for me and best for the club.”

Listening to Mattingly on a conference call Thursday, I said, “There are 30 major league managing jobs. Why would someone walk away from that job?”

“I believe this is the right time and right move for both parties,” Mattingly said, adding, “I think it became clear for all of us.”

Declining to provide details of what both sides said were multiple days of talks, Mattingly made no sense on the conference call. But on Friday, a baseball executive, who was not involved in those talks, suggested something that if so, suddenly clarified everything.

“Maybe Donny wanted a contract extension and they didn’t want to give it to him,” the executive said. “Maybe there’s been contact with the Marlins and if not, it’s been through the media.”

Let me provide some background. Mattingly had …

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Omar Minaya will not receive a World Series share from the New York Mets, not only because executives don’t get World Series shares but also because the Mets don’t acknowledge Minaya’s critical contribution to their advance to the World Series.

The fact is the Mets wouldn’t be in the World Series if not for Minaya, their general manager from 2005 through 2010. The Mets used to have class, at least their owner, Fred Wilpon, did. But then Wilpon unwittingly or wittingly became immersed in Bernie Madoff’s unprecedented Ponzi scheme and hasn’t seemed to be the same since.

I tried to talk to Wilpon and/or his son, Jeff, the team’s chief operating officer, Wednesday before the Mets completed their four-game sweep of the Chicago Cubs in the National League Championship Series. I was unable to reach father or son.

“Fred is not going to be able to talk today,” Jay Horwitz, the Mets’ spokesman, said.

Earlier, he told me, “Jeff is in meetings all day.”

If a translation is necessary, Horwitz meant …

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