Thus far the Mets have interviewed former KC Royals GM and Boston Red Sox Assistant GM Allard Baird, former Arizona Diamondbacks GM Josh Byrnes, Los Angeles Dodgers Assistant GM Logan White, and Chicago White Sox Assistant GM Rick Hahn.
Today is the "token interview." The Mets had reached out to Detroit to interview Al Avila, but were denied. In keeping with baseball's Affirmative Action, they must interview a minority. This I have a problem with.
Hiring someone because of their skin color is just as prejudicial as not hiring someone due to the color of their skin. The Mets have a history of hiring minorities for big positions. In the last five years, they have had the first Latin American GM (Omar Minaya), a Latin American in charge of Player Development (Tony Bernazard), two black managers (Willie Randolph and Jerry Manuel), and a multitude of coaches in Sandy Alomar, Razor Shines, Mookie Wilson. In the 1980's Bill Robinson was hitting coach.
Now the Mets are required by MLB to interview someone who has no shot of being hired because of the pigment of his skin. How does this help? Dana Brown might be a quality individual and executive, but he has no shot of being hired by the Mets. My belief is the job will first be offered to Alderson, whom, by the way, is endorsed by MLB's owner, er Commissioner, Bud Selig. I think the remaining would go in this order:
Other organizations have a much worse hiring record of minorities than the Mets, and are required to interview, not hire, minorities. I do believe that any man should be permitted to be hired based on their experience and expertise and not be denied due to their skin color. However, forcing teams to interview people based on skin color alone is as ignorant as not hiring someone for the same reasons - especially for a team, the Mets, who have had a respectable record in hiring a multitude of baseball people of different origins.
What's more disgraceful: not hiring someone based on color or having a dog-and-pony show with a minority who has no chance of being hired? Does that really solve the race issues in professional sports?
Picture Source: NY Daily News
1 comment:
The reason affirmative action exists is because every possible statistic shows that the playing field is not yet level. Teams are asked to interview and seriously consider those from underrepresented ethnic groups, no one is required to hire such a candidate. Therefore, there is no prejudicial reverse racism going on at the hiring level, which is really all that matters. Perhaps, it could be argued, the reality is quite to the contrary - the vast majority of managers, coaches, GM's and owners are still white. And let's not forget the flack the Mets have taken from their own fans in a city as ethnically diverse as exists anywhere about Minaya bringing in "too many Latino players."
The Mets next GM could be from Greenland for all I care, and he can sign a bunch of players from New Zealand and Togo and Nunavut...just win.
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