It’s been decades since I was in school, but when I was in college, I wish I had had Dr. Richard Lapchick as a professor.

Lapchick is the director of The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida. Every year he publishes a report card for each professional sports league on racial and gender hiring. It’s an admirable pursuit because someone has to scrutinize racial and gender hiring, but Lapchick is far too lenient on Major League Baseball.

Ignoring MLB’s atrocious minority hiring practices, in his report issued two weeks ago Lapchick gives MLB an A for its racial hiring practices. We all should have had such professors in school. I had a college teacher give me a B in a journalism reporting course, costing me “cum laude” graduating status by .01.

Lapchick, however, found MLB doing superior work in its racial hiring, lowering its over-all grade to a B only because its gender hiring earned only a C/C+. I don’t track gender hiring, but I have paid close attention to racial hiring and I give Lapchick an F – for failing – for giving MLB an A. I also give MLB an F for racial hiring.

If there were a grade lower than F, it would go to Commissioner Rob Manfred for two reasons:

• His failure to straighten out the racial mess that Bud Selig left after 22 years in the commissioner’s office. Selig talked a better game than he played, a practice Manfred has quickly followed.
• His false start as commissioner, creating a smoke screen of racial hiring, an effort that is as empty as the phony façade of the Wizard of Oz.

Manfred has talked about making an effort to improve minority hiring and has even created a system that is designed to fill a pipeline with minority candidates. Where, though, will those candidates find top-of-the-ladder jobs?  MLB teams have made it clear that they don’t want to hire them. I don’t know if the reason is racist or the belief that blacks and Latinos aren’t as smart or as capable of white guys.

Consider this statement from the Lapchick report:

“As Rob Manfred took over as the new MLB Commissioner, the League Office maintained the good grades achieved under Bud Selig with an A+ for hiring people of color and B- for gender hiring practices.”

I don’t know what evidence Lapchick uses for his conclusions. Perhaps he counts hiring at any level. Lower-level hiring is immaterial to me if such an employee has no chance to advance to the top.

In the past two years, since May 2014, MLB teams have named 28 club presidents, presidents of baseball operations and general managers. Only three of the 28 – 10.7 percent — are minorities: Dave Stewart, the African-American general manager in Arizona; Al Avila, the Cuban-born general manager in Detroit and Farhan Zaidi, the Los Angeles general manager, who is of Pakistani descent, was born in Canada, raised in the Philippines and educated in the United States.

Stewart, Avila and Zaidi are first-time general managers. Also rookie general managers, or first-timers, these are all white Americans: Billy Eppler (Angels), Mike Hazen (Red Sox), David Forst (Athletics), Ross Atkins (Blue Jays), John Coppolella (Braves), Jeff Bridich (Rockies), Dick Williams (Reds), David Stearns (Brewers), Matt Klentak (Phillies), Bobby Evans (Giants), A.J. Preller (Padres) and Mike Chernoff (Indians).

Among that group, Stearns stands out because he is the only one known to have had Manfred campaign for him. Manfred, I was told, and he has never denied it, “pushed” the Brewers to name Stearns their general manager. That’s because Stearns had worked for Manfred when he headed the labor relations department in the commissioner’s office.

As far as I know, Manfred has never “pushed” or merely lobbied for any black or Latino candidate for a general manager’s job. That’s too bad because there’s one black baseball executive I believe Manfred should lobby for if he’s serious about enhancing minority hiring. However, I don’t know if Manfred even knows De Jon Watson or has ever spoken with him.

Watson is the Diamondbacks’ senior vice president of baseball operations, working under Stewart and Tony La Russa, the chief baseball officer. When they hired Watson before the 2015 season, La Russa and Stewart were so impressed with him they considered speaking to other clubs about him as a possible general manager.

But they decided that step would be inappropriate and hoped other clubs would see what they saw. It didn’t happen. In fact, this past off-season, a dozen teams hired general managers and none interviewed Watson, whose resume and reputation among baseball people probably make him the best candidate to be a general manager among executives who are not general managers.

In his 50 years, Watson has been a minor league first baseman, a scout, a scouting director, a professional scouting director, an assistant general manager, a vice president of player development and a senior vice president of baseball operations.

“He’s the most qualified by resume,” a former general manager said.

Despite that kind of view, Watson said he has been interviewed for general managers’ jobs only three times, two of those by the Diamondbacks. Where does that failure fit into Lapchick’s grading of MLB?

Watson also told me he didn’t want to be viewed as a minority candidate and didn’t want to be hired as such. Rather he wanted to be hired on merit. I understand his feeling and his desire, but desire and merit haven’t attracted offers, not even interviews. What does that say about Manfred’s minority hiring policy?

Then there was the blatantly transparent scheme four teams concocted last year, presumably to evade the rule that requires teams seeking to fill decision-making positions to interview minorities.

No one has acknowledged that it was a scheme, but any other conclusion escapes me. Lapchick may want to study this development. Four black executives were interviewed by four different teams: Quinton McCracken by the Red Sox, Dana Brown by the Mariners, Tyrone Brooks by the Brewers, Chris Gwynn by the Angels.

All four men held mid-level positions and couldn’t seriously be considered legitimate candidates for the jobs. Yet their interviews enabled the four clubs to say, “Mr. Commissioner, we have met our responsibility under the Selig Rule, and now we can proceed with hiring the white guy we want.” And Manfred patted them on the head and put gold stars on their foreheads.

Manfred, though, hired Brooks to run his pipeline program. I’m sure that move was instrumental in Lapchick’s ‘A’ for the commissioner’s office and MLB.

Besides weighing the four-team ploy, Lapchick may want to study the collection of assistant general managers among the 30 teams. I cite assistant g.m.’s because being an AGM can be important; 11 general managers named in the last two years were previously assistant general managers.

Team media guides list a total of 46 assistant general managers. Of the 46, five are minorities – two blacks and one Latino, one Asian and one woman.

The percentages aren’t very promising for minorities to advance to the top jobs. Perhaps Lapchick should track those assistants and see how many wind up with general managers’ jobs and how many of those fortunate individuals are the five minority assistants.

My guess is the minority assistants will go 0 for 5.

A RACIAL LINEUP THAT WINS NO AWARD FOR MLB

These are the highest-ranking executives who have been hired or promoted in the past two years. The list shows how one-sided — or white-sided – the hiring has been (names in bold indicate minority):

Club Presidents

• Sam Kennedy (Red Sox)
• Mark Shapiro (Blue Jays)
• Andy MacPhail (Phillies)

President of Baseball Operations

• Andrew Friedman (Dodgers)
• Matt Silverman (Rays)
• John Hart (Braves)
• Dave Dombrowski (Red Sox)
• Brian Sabean (Giants)
• Walt Jocketty (Reds)
• Chris Antonetti (Indians)

Chief Baseball Officer

• Tony La Russa (Diamondbacks)

V.P. Baseball Operations

• Billy Beane (Athletics)

General Managers

• Dave Stewart (Diamondbacks)
• A.J. Preller (Padres)
• Jeff Bridich (Rockies)
• Farhan Zaidi (Dodgers)*
• Al Avila (Tigers)
• David Stearns (Brewers)
• Mike Hazen (Red Sox)
• Jerry Dipoto (Mariners)
• Billy Eppler (Angels)
• Mike Chernoff (Indians)
• Ross Atkins (Blue Jays)
• David Forst (Athletics)
• John Coppolella (Braves)
• Bobby Evans (Giants)
• Dick Williams (Reds)
• Matt Klentak (Phillies)